Three Models (Wyatt, Raleigh & Shirley)

February 19, 2018Simon Pettet

[Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503-1542), Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618), and James Shirley (1596-1666)]

AG: Then. – one….  from (Sir Thomas) Wyatt. (on page one twenty-two?) – an imitation of Wyatt. You remember the lines in Wyatt about…  (let’s see) where Wyatt is here..? –“My Lute Awake/ perform the last labors…” –  “My lute awake! perform the last/ Labour that thou and I shall waste,/ And end that I have now.…” ..do..? …is that it? – Where’s Wyatt (in our books)?.. what page is it? – one-twenty?.. yes, here, at one-twenty…)

Well, there is that – “My lute … Read More

A Brief Anthology of English Lyric

November 2, 2017Simon Pettet

Allen at Naropa on “Basic Poetics” continuing from here
AG: So we’ll go back to Edmund Waller or do a bit more of (John) Milton. But I would like to get to Edmund Waller for a while, for a brief while. Is that alright? Is that… “Go, lovely rose”  (on page three-oh-five). And I’ll read that, and see how it works. I think of all the little lyrics we’ve gone over, this was the one like “Ask Me No More..” and “scepter and crown” (“Ask me no more..” was Carew)  – “Scepter and crown/Must crumble down/ And … Read More

Basil Bunting’s Lectures on Poetic Origins – 1

August 15, 2016admin

[Basil Bunting (1900-1985)]

AG: Some of the ideas that (Basil) Bunting was laying out, I would like to lay out here because they’re just very interesting. He was saying that, first of all, English poetry was sung up until the 17th century. All the poets wrote for singing including, of all people, John Donne! – Donne was sung. He was put to music by a fellow named Ferrabosco of that era (do you know anything about that?) – Well, apparently Donne was actually sung. Donne is usually taught nowadays as if he… you know.. he has one or two … Read More

Horace – 2

September 16, 2015admin

 

 

AG: Pardon me? Student:  (“Thracian”)  (What’s the origin of “Thracian”?) AG:  Thrace – part of Greece. (Where is that, where Thrace is, mind you) – Thrace? What part of Greece is Thrace? – Orpheus lived in Thrace wasn’t it? The worst part.. (Pelopponesian Islands?)  Who knows Thrace? Student (1): Thrace is in Macedonia. Student (2) :  Sparta? AG: No, Sparta’s down south. Student: Sparta’s down South… AG: Oh god, we should all know this! – Thracia! – Oh – [Allen consults, again, his classical dictionary] – “In earlier times the name of the vast space … Read More

Spontaneous Poetics – 70 (Gerard Manley Hopkins)

May 6, 2013admin

[Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)]
Allen Ginsberg’s June 30 1976 Spontaneous Poetics class continues
Student: Allen..
AG: Yes?
Student: Would you say (something about) … more older forms.. ?
[the tape breaks off here, but resumes, shortly thereafter, with Allen in mid-sentence]
AG …with measure to the normal spoken speech of Shakespearean England. I haven’t had that speech in my ear, actually, for real. I just heard it in the artifact of poetry. I assume it must have arisen originally out of some native tongue, but I don’t know (because they were messing around a lot with trying to adapt classical … Read More