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Your Coleridge

~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834.

Your Coleridge

Category Archives: Dramatic Readings

Coleridge’s “The Raven”

18 Saturday May 2013

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings, Pasatiempos

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Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven, The Raven (Coleridge), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

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…

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“The Mezzotint”, by M. R. James, presented by Robert Powell.

06 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings, Historical Backgrounds, Later English Romanticism

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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!

 

How to tell a story… As in, how to do a spoken-word-performance.

27 Wednesday Mar 2013

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings, In the Classroom, News, Reception

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Jay O'Calahan, Kedrick James, Lecture, Spoken Word & Live Readings, Storytelling

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.

Spotlight on Jay O’Calahan, a contemporary storyteller.

26 Tuesday Mar 2013

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings, In the Classroom, Pasatiempos, Popular Culture

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Contemporary Poets, Jay O'Calahan, NASA, Spoken Word & Live Readings, The Power of Storytelling

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.

 

“Lines On Observing A Blossom…”, by the author to whom this Blog is dedicated.

31 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Person from Porlock in Coleridge Calendar, Dramatic Readings, Ludwig Uhland, Pasatiempos, Poetolatry

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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:

Lines On Observing A Blossom,

On The First Of February, 1796

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.

More Coleridge from David Olney.

12 Saturday Jan 2013

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings

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Arabesque, David Olney, Kubla Khan

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…

A dramatic reading of “Auguries of Innocence”, by William Blake.

10 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings, William Blake

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Auguries of Innocence, Spider's House Audio, 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!

David Olney recites the “Mariner”.

03 Thursday Jan 2013

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings

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David Olney, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

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.)

Richard Armitage reads “A Silent City”.

07 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings, Poetolatry

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A Silent City, J. R. R. Tolkien, Michael Sheen, Richard Armitage, The Hobbit Movies

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.

oakenshield-1

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.

Winter is coming.

30 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by Person from Porlock in Dramatic Readings, Reviews

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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.

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