WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.600 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:05.340 align:middle line:84%
And the other is a cheerful
poem despite its title,

00:00:05.340 --> 00:00:08.460 align:middle line:84%
which is called "The
Death Of Aunt Alice."

00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:16.329 align:middle line:84%
It's really about one of those
ladies who announced disasters

00:00:16.329 --> 00:00:18.430 align:middle line:90%
in every possible occasion.

00:00:18.430 --> 00:00:22.690 align:middle line:84%
I must say in the Wales
and in the West of England

00:00:22.690 --> 00:00:26.190 align:middle line:84%
I think, perhaps in
the West too here,

00:00:26.190 --> 00:00:29.050 align:middle line:84%
there are plenty of
people who have a need

00:00:29.050 --> 00:00:31.270 align:middle line:90%
to talk about disasters.

00:00:31.270 --> 00:00:34.914 align:middle line:90%
My aunt was one.

00:00:34.914 --> 00:00:38.030 align:middle line:84%
"Aunt Alice's
funeral was orderly,

00:00:38.030 --> 00:00:43.680 align:middle line:84%
each mourner correct, dressed
in decent black, not one

00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:47.680 align:middle line:84%
balding relative
berserk with an axe.

00:00:47.680 --> 00:00:50.620 align:middle line:84%
Poor Alice, where's
your opera ending?

00:00:50.620 --> 00:00:53.710 align:middle line:84%
But alive you relished
high catastrophe.

00:00:53.710 --> 00:00:57.700 align:middle line:84%
Your Bible, page
one of a newspaper.

00:00:57.700 --> 00:01:02.560 align:middle line:84%
You talked of typhoid when we
sat to eat, Fords on the M4

00:01:02.560 --> 00:01:06.310 align:middle line:84%
mangled upside down just when
we were going for a spin.

00:01:06.310 --> 00:01:08.980 align:middle line:84%
And at London airport
as you waved us off,

00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:12.040 align:middle line:84%
how you fatigued us
with metal fatigue,

00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:16.180 align:middle line:84%
vague shapes of Boeings
bubbling under seas.

00:01:16.180 --> 00:01:18.880 align:middle line:84%
Such disguises and
such transformations.

00:01:18.880 --> 00:01:22.570 align:middle line:84%
Even trees were about
factories for coffins.

00:01:22.570 --> 00:01:27.220 align:middle line:84%
Rose bushes decoys to rip
boys' eyes with thorns.

00:01:27.220 --> 00:01:29.140 align:middle line:90%
Sparrows becames vampires.

00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:31.150 align:middle line:90%
Spiders had designs.

00:01:31.150 --> 00:01:33.760 align:middle line:84%
And your friends also
grew spectacular,

00:01:33.760 --> 00:01:37.690 align:middle line:84%
none to bore you
by dying naturally.

00:01:37.690 --> 00:01:42.700 align:middle line:84%
A. had both kidneys
removed in error at Guy's.

00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:45.220 align:middle line:84%
'And such a clever
surgeon, too.'

00:01:45.220 --> 00:01:48.580 align:middle line:84%
B., one night fell
screaming down a lift shaft.

00:01:48.580 --> 00:01:49.420 align:middle line:90%
Poor fellow.

00:01:49.420 --> 00:01:51.690 align:middle line:90%
He never had a head for heights.

00:01:51.690 --> 00:01:55.240 align:middle line:84%
C, so witty, so feminine,
pity she ended up

00:01:55.240 --> 00:01:57.220 align:middle line:90%
in a concrete mixer.

00:01:57.220 --> 00:01:59.890 align:middle line:84%
But now never again,
Alice, will you utter glory

00:01:59.890 --> 00:02:02.530 align:middle line:90%
admonitions as some do oaths.

00:02:02.530 --> 00:02:06.040 align:middle line:84%
Disasters that lit
your eyes will no more

00:02:06.040 --> 00:02:08.860 align:middle line:84%
unless, trembling up
there, pale saints

00:02:08.860 --> 00:02:12.880 align:middle line:84%
listen to details of
their bloody martyrdom,

00:02:12.880 --> 00:02:17.860 align:middle line:84%
all their tall
stories your eternity.

00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:21.210 align:middle line:90%
[AUDIENCE CLAPPING]

00:02:21.210 --> 00:02:23.000 align:middle line:90%