18 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Dramatic Readings, Pasatiempos
We return to more familiar territory with a particularly nice reading of Coleridge’s “The Raven”. – Yes, Coleridge’s “Raven”, not Poe’s, a rather lighthearted, if somewhat dark-humoured fable, not related to anything “nevermore”.
Interestingly enough, “The Raven” echoes the basic motif from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, as, again, to woe a bird spells doom for a sailing ship…
06 Saturday Apr 2013
Tags
19th century contexts, AMbrose Bierce, David Bedford, Edgar Allan Poe, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, H. P. Lovecraft, M. R. James, The Mezzotint, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
I have to confess, I am not entirely sure about the copyright status of this one.
It looks like a fan film – BUT it features a rather well-known actor, Robert Powell, who might sound to Coleridgians for his work on David Bedford’s musical treatment of “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”.
M. R. James, as you surely might know if you follow this blog, is one of my favorite authors of all time. His emphasis is on supernatural stories, of course, and one might easily mistake him for an inferior competitor to Poe, Bierce, and Lovecraft.
His most famous story collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, from which this tale is taken, is one of my favorite books in the English language, believe it or not.
So, in short, no spoilers here: Enchanted picture, big woe! — Enjoy!
27 Wednesday Mar 2013
Posted in Dramatic Readings, In the Classroom, News, Reception
Sort of a very short follow-up on the post on Jay O’Calahan. – The quality of the tape is pretty bad, but the lesson itself is fairly good. If you are new to narrative theory, and all related, this makes for an excellent start.
26 Tuesday Mar 2013
Posted in Dramatic Readings, In the Classroom, Pasatiempos, Popular Culture
Outside of my lyrical research, I am a sucker for so-called “spoken word performances”, being of the strong conviction that literature is meant to be read aloud, not just by oneself, and that poetry like that of Coleridge is something to be listened to, before it is read.
One of the few men nowatdays that do classic spoken-word performances without being cheesy is Jay O’Calahan. I warmly recommend you give all of the following videos a look. They range among the highest displays of free narration that I have ever seen.
– How did Coleridge and his contemporaries give their speeches, and recite their poems?
I like to think it felt very much like when O’Calahan tells his stories.
31 Thursday Jan 2013
Posted in Coleridge Calendar, Dramatic Readings, Ludwig Uhland, Pasatiempos, Poetolatry
Tags
Lines on Observing A Blossom, Poland, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Public Domain, The Great Sejm
A beautiful, yet a bit too intense reading, something that I note with many people that recite Coleridge. Why the forcefulness? It’s about a blossom. Last time I checked, blossoms are SOFT. – Then again, is this poem really about flowers?! 😉
Among other things, you might want to read up here: The Great Sejm.
Below, the original text, via Poemhunter:
Sweet flower! that peeping from thy russet stem
Unfoldest timidly, (for in strange sort
This dark, frieze-coated, hoarse, teeth-chattering month
Hath borrowed Zephyr’s voice, and gazed upon thee
With blue voluptuous eye) alas poor flower!
These are but flatteries of the faithless year.
Perchance, escaped its unknown polar cave,
E’en now the keen north-east is on its way.
Flower that must perish! shall I liken thee
To some sweet girl of too, too rapid growth,
Nipped by consumption mid untimely charms?
Or to Bristowa’s bard, the wond’rous boy!
As amaranth, which earth scarce seemed to own,
Till disappointment come, and pelting wrong
Beat it to earth? or with indignant grief
Shall I compare thee to poor Poland’s hope,
Bright flower of hope killed in the opening bud?
Farewell, sweet blossom! better fate be thine
And mock my boding! Dim similitudes
Weaving in moral strains, I’ve stolen one hour
From anxious self, life’s cruel taskmaster!
And the warm wooings of this sunny day
Tremble along my frame, and harmonize
The attempered organ, that even saddest thoughts
Mix with some sweet sensations, like harsh tunes
Played deftly on a soft-toned instrument.
12 Saturday Jan 2013
Posted in Dramatic Readings
Tags
This time, Kubla Khan. Olney, intense as ever, but I think he sort of misses the mark on this one. Is the vista of the khan’s court a sublime experience? – Never quite thought so when reading it. An Arabesque, but not a dramatic experience, per se…
10 Thursday Jan 2013
Posted in Dramatic Readings, William Blake
In the next few articles, we will take a better look at William Blake.
I won’t really have any time to post anything bigger before next week, but here’s a little glimpse, a very good dramatic reading of Auguries of Innocence, courtesy of Spider’s House Audio.
Enjoy!
03 Thursday Jan 2013
Posted in Dramatic Readings
Not necessarily the best approach, but I wanted to pay Mr Olney my respect.
The video and the filming are not good, and yet he manages to absolutely captivate me with his presence. – What he makes of it, quite simply, brilliant. 🙂
(The whole playlist – nine parts in total – is available through Youtube. No idea why, but their Playlist feature seems broken today.)
07 Friday Dec 2012
Posted in Dramatic Readings, Poetolatry
Richard Armitage should be on the covers of all movie magazines these days; after all, he portrays the grumpy, yet valiant Thorin Oakenshield in Peter Jackson’s new Hobbit movie.
Armitage has shared the fate of many British actors in the Hollywood-centric English-speaking cinema, and remained relatively under the radar, despite of immense talent. Then again, the good thing about this is, he really had time to do some classic – and classy – stuff, like this reading of one of my favorite poems.
“A Silent City”, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The silence of the city, how awful at midnight!
Mute as the battlements and crags and towers
That Fancy makes in the clouds, yea, as mute
As the moonlight that sleeps on the steady vanes.The cell of a departed anchoret,
His skeleton and flitting ghost are there,
Sole tenants —
And all the city silent as the moon
That steeps in quiet light the steady vanes
Of her huge temples.
30 Friday Nov 2012
Posted in Dramatic Readings, Reviews
Tags
A Game of Thrones, Christina Hardyment, Frost at Midnight, John Keats, Poetry for the Winter Season, Son of a Submariner, The Eve of St Agnes
Oh, by Hextor, not this Game of Thrones crap.
If by now you haven’t got that Jon is really Aegon, to hell with you!
– See, I can spoil something without actually spoiling it. (Kefka-like laughter.)
Anyway, the season’s up again where we all look for presents for the ones we love. I’d like to take the chance to point to a sublimely beautiful poetry audiobook collection, Poetry for the Winter Season.
The most interesting aspect of the collection is that the texts were all selected and read by amateurs, but this doesn’t diminish the appeal of the audiobook. Instead it creates a feeling uniqueness that many other poetry audiobooks lack.
Coleridge’s Frost at Midnight is among the selected texts, as is Keats’ (another favorite’s of mine) The Eve of St Agnes, which in my opinion was the best reading on the entire audiobook.
In short, this is a moody, and, by all means, well-done poetry collection. In fact, one of the very best I own, and typing this makes me want to go back and listen to it again, even though I will be more than busy at work today.
One of my rare favorites for the proverbial lonely island. – Actually, don’t buy this as a gift. If you are like me, you want to buy this for yourself.
