WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.080 --> 00:00:09.440 align:middle line:84% I'll read one more poem from this-- 00:00:09.440 --> 00:00:10.923 align:middle line:90% it's now this older period. 00:00:10.923 --> 00:00:13.520 align:middle line:90% 00:00:13.520 --> 00:00:18.170 align:middle line:84% People were so nice talking about this poem at the drinks 00:00:18.170 --> 00:00:23.060 align:middle line:84% and snacks that I decided I have to read it. 00:00:23.060 --> 00:00:25.225 align:middle line:90% It's longer than the first two. 00:00:25.225 --> 00:00:29.070 align:middle line:90% 00:00:29.070 --> 00:00:29.570 align:middle line:90% "Shirt." 00:00:29.570 --> 00:00:32.150 align:middle line:90% 00:00:32.150 --> 00:00:37.550 align:middle line:90% The back, the yoke, the yardage. 00:00:37.550 --> 00:00:40.190 align:middle line:90% Lapped seams, 00:00:40.190 --> 00:00:43.340 align:middle line:84% The nearly invisible stitches along the collar 00:00:43.340 --> 00:00:47.030 align:middle line:84% Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians 00:00:47.030 --> 00:00:51.090 align:middle line:84% Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break 00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:54.980 align:middle line:84% Or talking money or politics while one fitted 00:00:54.980 --> 00:00:58.580 align:middle line:84% This armpiece with its overseam to the band 00:00:58.580 --> 00:01:02.870 align:middle line:90% Of cuff I button at my wrist. 00:01:02.870 --> 00:01:05.930 align:middle line:90% The presser, the cutter, 00:01:05.930 --> 00:01:09.400 align:middle line:90% The wringer, the mangle. 00:01:09.400 --> 00:01:12.710 align:middle line:90% The needle, the union, 00:01:12.710 --> 00:01:15.710 align:middle line:90% The treadle, the bobbin. 00:01:15.710 --> 00:01:17.300 align:middle line:90% The code. 00:01:17.300 --> 00:01:19.180 align:middle line:90% The infamous blaze 00:01:19.180 --> 00:01:22.940 align:middle line:84% At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven. 00:01:22.940 --> 00:01:26.320 align:middle line:84% One hundred and forty-six died in the flames 00:01:26.320 --> 00:01:32.320 align:middle line:84% On the ninth floor, no hydrants, no fire escapes 00:01:32.320 --> 00:01:35.980 align:middle line:84% The witness in a building across the street 00:01:35.980 --> 00:01:39.850 align:middle line:84% Who watched how a young man helped a girl to step 00:01:39.850 --> 00:01:43.180 align:middle line:84% Up to the windowsill, then held her out 00:01:43.180 --> 00:01:48.190 align:middle line:84% Away from the masonry wall and let her drop. 00:01:48.190 --> 00:01:51.910 align:middle line:90% And then another. 00:01:51.910 --> 00:01:53.710 align:middle line:90% As if he were helping them up 00:01:53.710 --> 00:01:58.960 align:middle line:84% To enter a streetcar, and not eternity. 00:01:58.960 --> 00:02:02.860 align:middle line:84% A third before he dropped her put her arms 00:02:02.860 --> 00:02:06.490 align:middle line:90% Around his neck and kissed him. 00:02:06.490 --> 00:02:08.050 align:middle line:90% Then he held 00:02:08.050 --> 00:02:11.830 align:middle line:90% Her into space, and dropped her. 00:02:11.830 --> 00:02:13.460 align:middle line:90% Almost at once 00:02:13.460 --> 00:02:17.010 align:middle line:84% He stepped to the sill himself, his jacket flared 00:02:17.010 --> 00:02:21.010 align:middle line:84% And fluttered up from his shirt as he came down, 00:02:21.010 --> 00:02:24.510 align:middle line:84% Air filling up the legs of his gray trousers-- 00:02:24.510 --> 00:02:30.180 align:middle line:84% Like Hart Crane's Bedlamite, "shrill shirt ballooning." 00:02:30.180 --> 00:02:34.140 align:middle line:84% Wonderful how the pattern matches perfectly 00:02:34.140 --> 00:02:37.710 align:middle line:84% Across the placket and over the twin bar-tacked 00:02:37.710 --> 00:02:41.880 align:middle line:84% Corners of both pockets, like a strict rhyme 00:02:41.880 --> 00:02:44.160 align:middle line:90% Or a major chord. 00:02:44.160 --> 00:02:48.090 align:middle line:90% Prints, plaids, checks, 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:52.330 align:middle line:90% Houndstooth, Tattersall, Madras. 00:02:52.330 --> 00:02:53.790 align:middle line:90% The clan tartans 00:02:53.790 --> 00:02:58.170 align:middle line:84% Invented by mill-owners inspired by the hoax of Ossian, 00:02:58.170 --> 00:03:02.820 align:middle line:84% To control their savage Scottish workers, tamed 00:03:02.820 --> 00:03:05.460 align:middle line:90% By a fabricated heraldry-- 00:03:05.460 --> 00:03:07.030 align:middle line:90% MacGregor, 00:03:07.030 --> 00:03:09.460 align:middle line:90% Bailey, McMartin. 00:03:09.460 --> 00:03:12.150 align:middle line:90% The kilt, devised for workers 00:03:12.150 --> 00:03:16.530 align:middle line:84% To wear among the dusty clattering looms. 00:03:16.530 --> 00:03:20.610 align:middle line:90% Weavers, carders, spinners. 00:03:20.610 --> 00:03:22.090 align:middle line:90% The loader, 00:03:22.090 --> 00:03:25.080 align:middle line:90% The docker, the navy. 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:28.220 align:middle line:84% The planter, the picker, the sorter 00:03:28.220 --> 00:03:31.700 align:middle line:84% Sweating at her machine in a litter of cotton 00:03:31.700 --> 00:03:37.670 align:middle line:84% As slaves in calico headrags sweated in fields-- 00:03:37.670 --> 00:03:41.480 align:middle line:84% George Herbert, your descendant is a Black 00:03:41.480 --> 00:03:45.470 align:middle line:84% Lady in South Carolina, her name is Irma 00:03:45.470 --> 00:03:48.890 align:middle line:90% And she inspected my shirt. 00:03:48.890 --> 00:03:50.810 align:middle line:90% Its color and fit 00:03:50.810 --> 00:03:54.860 align:middle line:84% And feel and its clean smell have satisfied 00:03:54.860 --> 00:03:57.020 align:middle line:90% Both her and me. 00:03:57.020 --> 00:04:00.080 align:middle line:84% We have culled its cost and quality 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.270 align:middle line:84% Down to the buttons of simulated bone, 00:04:03.270 --> 00:04:08.240 align:middle line:84% The buttonholes, the sizing, the facing, the characters 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:12.320 align:middle line:84% Printed in black on neckband and tail. 00:04:12.320 --> 00:04:14.150 align:middle line:90% The shape, 00:04:14.150 --> 00:04:20.690 align:middle line:84% The label, the labor, the color, the shade. 00:04:20.690 --> 00:04:21.500 align:middle line:90% The shirt. 00:04:21.500 --> 00:04:27.800 align:middle line:90% 00:04:27.800 --> 00:04:30.850 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:30.850 --> 00:04:34.000 align:middle line:90%