Allen Ginsberg on Andrew Marvell – continues
AG: Well then there’s more here. I would like to do “The Definition of Love” but I want to move on to “The Mower To the Glow-Worms ,(it’s a little tiny lyric), because it’s so pretty. And the ear’s so pretty in this too – Page three seven three – It’s a good as ear as – remember? – “Come live with me and be my love..” “Melodious birds sing madrigals” – remember that? – remember that line – “Melodious birds sing madrigals”.. from what was it?…Marlowe.. yes.. “by whose falls..” “winding rivers by whose falls/ Melodious birds sing madrigals”
Remember that? I don’t know if you remember that line here. It was just that rhyme and cadence.
So here’s something that’s almost as pretty.
Someone read? Someone got a reading voice? – [to Student] Are you any good at reading, Brad (sic)? – You want to try one? – real short – Can someone loan him (a book) (Page) three seven three, bottom right..
[Student (Brad) reads Andrew Marvell’s “The Mower To The Glow-Worms”]
“Ye living lamps, by whose dear light/The nightingale does sit so late,/And studying all the summer night,/Her matchless songs does meditate;/You.. (Ye) country comets, that portend/No war nor prince’s funeral,/Shining unto no higher end/Than to presage the grass’s fall…”
AG: “Than to presage the grass’s fall..”
Student: “Ye glow-worms, whose officious flame/To wand’ring mowers shows the way,/That in the night have lost their aim,/And after foolish fires do stray;/Your courteous lights in vain you waste,/Since Juliana here is come,/For she may mind hath so displac’d/That I shall never find my home…”
AG: I think there’s a misprint there – “For she my mind hath so displac’d/ That I shall never find my home” (“may mind” is wrong)
Well, the pretty part here I thought was – “Ye living lamps, by whose dear light/The nightingale does sit so late,/And studying all the summer night,/Her matchless songs does meditate” – That’s pretty that – “Her matchless songs does meditate” –It’s like “Melodious birds sing madrigals” – “Her matchless songs does meditate”. –
“Ye country comets, that portend” – da-da da-da da-da da-da – “Ye country comets, that portend/ No war nor prince’s funeral..”
[Audio for the above may be heard here, beginning at approximately sixty-four-and-a-quarter minutes in and concluding at approximately sixty-seven minutes in]