Fred: I have loved this poem since a child, some 70 odd years ago. But you bring it absolutely to life, the quiet tense drama and creepiness and the frustration of not being able to keep one's word TO those promised. I've NEVER heard it read better. Thank you.
"will you be awake when he comes again" "will you open your hearts to the Lord when he Returns" ? I read this poem about Jesus fulfilling his promise to return. Sadly humanity (the world of men) did not watch and wait for his return. When he does come back, the world has turned to silence, humanity has gone. All that is left is the Lost Souls of the "listeners", who are now too late to save. the saddest part is when he says tell them I kept my promise, and then we hear the sounds of the hooves riding off into the distance forever.......
Your interpretation is intriguing. I had a similar impression when I heard this. It reminded me of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painting by William Holman Hunt, "The Light of the World."
Just noticed my description that goes with the poem here has, over time, fragmented in some way. The first line does not make any sense. Another aspect of the mysterious Walter de la Mare world?? Be that as it may I'd like to report that I've just uploaded T.S.Eliot's tribute poem to this very poet. Here’s a little of what I said which refers to this poem of Eliot’s entitled To Walter de la Mare’. “‘The Listeners, which is alluded to in Eliot's poem, must be one of the most popular poems in English ever. It is supremely accessible and has everything: a mysterious and spell-binding narrative with a peerless and consumate evocation of atmosphere, tension and perplexity. On top of that it is extremely accessible and must have been a successful introduction to the magic of poetry to countless thousands, nay millions, of young starters. Amazing to think only a few decades ago the young would actually ask for poetry to be read to them before bedtime! “
Fred Proud Please read , and post: The Blue Bird ,by Mary Coleridge for all we here- and any others who may like this poem. We would like to see what you can do with it! Thanks .
@AntPDC I've been hunting for the quote from one of the Fools in Shakespeare's plays where he says that my friends only tell me what I want to hear whereas my enemies (critics) are more useful friends as they often speak the truth. It ain't Lear, nor Touchstone or Feste...but no matter, that's more or less the gist. Anyway thanks for your thoughts and challenge! I guess I always have in mind those for whom English is not their first language. All the best.
Unless this helps (from himself) “Once a man strays out of the common herd, he's more likely to meet wolves in the thickets than angels.” ― Walter de la Mare, The Return
A beautiful reading - and one that ties in very well with the edition of 'A Point of View' that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this morning. Entitled 'The Limits of Materialism', it underlined the relevance of Walter de la Mare's work to the philosphical issues surrounding science and the inexplicable. It was presented by philosopher John Gray.
Never the least stir made the listeners, Though every word he spake Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house From the one man left awake: Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup, And the sound of iron on stone, And how the silence surged softly backward, When the plunging hoofs were gone.
I thought I was familiar with this poem until I heard your reading, great work. You really brought out the atmosphere here. Those last two lines and really terrific.
Doesnt surprise me at all. I first came across it at school and then again when I had to sit my Eng Lit O level for the second time! It has a kind of universal appeal to anyone who likes a story and a bit of a mystery. The old idea was to learn poems by heart very early on. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. I guess if they are great poems it cant be that bad.
@Caspar33 On the basis of a single, critical comment I wouldn't fret a lot. Your critic (and mine) clearly loves this poem, and has a pretty trenchant opinion as to how it should "sound". Personally, I enjoyed your reading hugely - and of course the magic and genius of this work is its susceptibility to interpretation, whether in performance or literary analysis. I'm tempted to invite supersesqui to post his or her own performance - but that might be a bit too naughty ;). It's great to debate!
The traveller came to someone he knew. He should be saying " is there anybody there" in a more friendly tone. At least the very first one, when he is unsuspecting. Like, when you knock on someone's door, you don't say angrily " is there anybody there?!?!"
Annie I thnk that anyone would be on edge in the middle of that kind of night in such a deserted, perhaps haunted wood . Obioiusly some sort of unusual tryst has been made and seems The Traveller is very much ill at ease faced with that grim, unwelcoming old door.and the silence. Why would he be relaxed about such a set of ircumstances? The silence underlines the poets sense of eeriness. And what follows? Nobody shows. You are mistaken Annie. “Once a man strays out of the common herd, he's more likely to meet wolves in the thickets than angels.” ― Walter de la Mare, The Return
This poem has haunted me all my life...since I first heard it at school....I'm still looking for the meaning....I know it hides a profound truth....but what does it mean and why is it so important?
I think you are right in one respect; de la Mare´s classic appears full of meaning but equally it seems to bar all access to it. Maybe that´s why it affects so many people, some as deeply as yourself. Then there´s the structure and the music and the vivid story telling. But no easy answers at all I´m afraid. Just appreciate the artistry and if you can the sharp pang of not knowing!! But then isnt life a little like that and the poem: equally unfathomable, utterly unrelenting and what they offer and sometimes appear to freely gives you, in terms of promises or actual benefits and wonders, are so often then unceremoniously, simply taken or snatched away. That´s maybe the point! Thanks for the comment. Best wishes.
I find that strangely relaxing. We had to do a drawing for this poem back when i was in primary school, i got first prize and they laminated the picture, still have it.
Pleased to hear that. Seems to me this poem has effected very many people since publication. - there is something very telling about it. It works its way through to a different kind of universal awareness and shared consciousness.
Yes deeply creeply! Thanks for comment. And written with considerable skill and a profound sense of sound which includes the human voice in the silence too of course.
@andrewnorris1 Very gracious of you to say so. Thanks. I think I see it most as a believer who is shortly to become a non-believer. But it really is a great piece - the sort of work that keeps on opening doors!
Thanks John. I caught that talk on the I-player. Makes the point well. De la Mare is the perfet antidote to that burgeoning menace. I dread to hear people say of the poem - 'I don't get it - what is it supposed to be about?'
I've been trying to figure that myself. I understand De la Mare wrote ghost stories that often had some form of twist in it and that colors my view of this poem wondering if the either the rider or the Listeners aren't the ghosts. The quote "from the world of man" hints the rider isn't a ghost, but the notion of someone coming to an empty house at night with no one responding to his knocks suggests he might be the one doing the haunting.
@@schizoidboy Mmmn. I think the key is in the lines 'Tell them I came and no-one answered...' Whoever he promised to come unto. 'They' much more so than 'he' seem to have let the Traveller down. Seems that is what is hardest to bear. The promises of something...Salvation, an after life; some sort of reassurance? I couldnt find the original comment but that is what strikes me now. It does hit at something in the human pysche doesnt it? Very artful and masterly the way he has delivered that thunderbolt very quietly in a wood in the dead of night. Smashing piece of work
This is read so well that I checked your profile to see if you were a professional actor, and what do you know....... Puts my whisper version to shame!
@muskndusk Thanks for that. But acting was never my forte, prefer to direct others or mess around with poems! This is such a terrific piece though - it has everything.
I see TH-cam are no longer recording visits for anything that happens to be more than two years old. A slap in the face for those who have uploaded passable videos of classics: a snub to the student or serious minded viewer. This is a discouragement to uploaders. Why? Obsession with the new, philistinism (to be expected?) or a means of simplifying/cutting the Analytic workload. The majority go for the topical and new, granted. But what about the others- why tkeep shifting the goalposts?
Thanks for the comment. I wonder why you were so convinced? No riders of horses I can remember from Homer's Odyssey though many boats and sailors. When I visited Ithica a few years back I would have thought that horses would have found it very difficult to get around there - it was so rocky. But De La Mare would have been a fan for sure.
@@Caspar33 sir what I think it is the journey of victorian overreacher...as we find it in Tennyson's Ulysses....who seeks to find knowledge "beyond the utmost bound of human thought"....so I think ....Ulysses is a portrayal of the Victorian man too has gone too far from the world of "faith"(as the we find in Mattheh Arnold's poem "Dover Beach"...."the sea of Faith...is calm") to the world of "reason" which was caused by INDUSTRIAL revolution, Materialism and due to the thoughts which emerged out of "The Origin of Species " .....so according to man Ulysses is the poem of everyman....who begins his journey in the Victorian age ..."To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield"....and return back in the modern age as the traveller in Walter de La Mare's poem "Listeners"....According to my believe Ithaca is the symbol of Faith which the Victorian man abandoned....and when he returned back to Ithaca .....it was no more the "barren crags"....as we find in the poem "listenres"...the modern man( which I think is represented by the traveller in the poem)....tries to communicate....with those whom he left before...but he fails....as the the fractured identity of the modern man is too much scattered that it cannot communicate with the "faith"....so the traveller fails.....and sir I think that the "plunging hoofs were gone".... psychologically signifies the quest for the self .....as of the modern man's....and hence comes T.S.Elliot's "The love song of J alfred prufrock"....where the man travels with his fractured identity as Eliot says" Let us go then You and I".....I believe that Tennyson's Ulysses...de la Mare's Traveller....and Elliot's J Alfred Prufrock are all same as they depict the psychological conditions of the Victorian and modern man....the names and places and situations and types of characters varies due to the variety of time. ...so I take Ulysses as the prelude to Listeners and Listeners as the prelude to The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock....and take these three as the prelude to The modern age......Elliott's" tradition and individual talent"....made me think in this way....as I think he has taken from de la mare and tennyson....and thats why told the traveller was Ulysses....😊😊
Aha then Tennyson was the missing link. I dont know his version. But your argument is sound enough. Look no further than the present state of humanity and our horrifying inability to see what we are doing to the environment in innumerable, manic self-destructive behaviours. And it seems we chose to ignore both our alienation from the natural world and life on earth and instead encourage even more harmful technologies and suicidal practices.
@@Caspar33 yesss sir....exactly soo....nd sir I request ur kind attention to Tennyson's Ulysses....i hope it will give u utmost joy.....Nd sir what you are saying about the modern man was echoed by Matthew Arnold....the last lines of his poem Dover Beach is " Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight......Where the ignorant armies clash by night".....though this apparently echos the Peloponnesian war which was fought in darkness and confusion...but actually it was a poetic prophecy for the 20th century warfare....Nd also the confusion which the modern man suffers.....and perish....I am too much honoured sir that u replied woth so much care and importance to my thoughts.....take my respect sir...thank u....
Valid question. 'Tell them I came, and no one answered, That I kept my word,' he said. But the whole effect of the poem on you 'The Listeners' is that you will never know. It is unknown and therefore for De La Mare the effect on your senses and your feelings is what matters. How do you feel about not knowing who they are? Aroused, perplexed, afraid and frustrated? Just like the traveller...
I think you are right. AND the reader or 'listener! T.S.Eliot wrote a poem for him in praise of his technique and magic. It confirms that DLM was the master of getting something very powerful and unsettling into the ear and thus into the very being of the listener. There's a version of Eliot's little piece on this channel. It is just called 'To Walter De La Mare'.
@keanghiero . Nice of you to say that K ! The BBC I think prefer poetry to be cultured and nicely read. They are nervous about readings which could unsettle and get under the skin of their listeners. That is what I am at least always TRYING to do. Poetry is a necessary weapon to oppose complancency and waking-sleep, to fight injustice with simple truths and oppose the status quo when and wherever it behaves like a tyrant , which is usually all the time!
Shucks! Well you can't please everyone. I did train as an actor so maybe those rhetorical pauses and the ingrained clarity of diction are more insidiously counter-productive than I thought. Thanks for comment - always useful. See if you have the same reaction to a more personal piece for example, The Insight Giver?
Sorry, but this sounds just like an old ham overperforming and losing the plot. Too many effect pauses and over pronounced words. Not being horrible, but this in one of my favourite poems being mauled.
Fred: I have loved this poem since a child, some 70 odd years ago. But you bring it absolutely to life, the quiet tense drama and creepiness and the frustration of not being able to keep one's word TO those promised. I've NEVER heard it read better. Thank you.
Hear, hear! ( born 1952 myself!)
Great....you captured the essence of the poem .. perfectly. So, thank you.
"will you be awake when he comes again" "will you open your hearts to the Lord when he Returns" ? I read this poem about Jesus fulfilling his promise to return. Sadly humanity (the world of men) did not watch and wait for his return. When he does come back, the world has turned to silence, humanity has gone. All that is left is the Lost Souls of the "listeners", who are now too late to save. the saddest part is when he says tell them I kept my promise, and then we hear the sounds of the hooves riding off into the distance forever.......
Your interpretation is intriguing. I had a similar impression when I heard this. It reminded me of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood painting by William Holman Hunt, "The Light of the World."
Why don't you check De La Mere's religious views (or rather his lack of religious views), before writing such nonsense?
@@foddyfoddy agreed
Just noticed my description that goes with the poem here
has, over time, fragmented in some way. The first line does not make any sense.
Another aspect of the mysterious Walter de la Mare world??
Be that as it may I'd like to report that I've just uploaded
T.S.Eliot's tribute poem to this very poet. Here’s a little of what I said
which refers to this poem of Eliot’s entitled To Walter de la Mare’.
“‘The Listeners, which is alluded to in Eliot's poem, must be one of the most popular poems in English ever. It is supremely accessible and has everything: a mysterious and spell-binding narrative with a peerless and consumate evocation of atmosphere, tension and perplexity. On top of that it is extremely accessible and must have been a successful introduction to the magic of poetry to countless thousands, nay millions, of young starters.
Amazing to think
only a few decades ago the young would actually ask for poetry to be read to
them before bedtime! “
Fred Proud Please read , and post: The Blue Bird ,by Mary Coleridge for all we here- and any others who may like this poem. We would like to see what you can do with it! Thanks .
Outstanding reading!
@AntPDC I've been hunting for the quote from one of the Fools in Shakespeare's plays where he says that my friends only tell me what I want to hear whereas my enemies (critics) are more useful friends as they often speak the truth.
It ain't Lear, nor Touchstone or Feste...but no matter, that's more or less the gist. Anyway thanks for your thoughts and challenge! I guess I always have in mind those for whom English is not their first language. All the best.
Unless this helps (from himself)
“Once a man strays out of the common herd, he's more likely to meet wolves in the thickets than angels.”
― Walter de la Mare, The Return
this poem gives me goose bumps
This poem given me goose bumps
wonderful reading.
Thanks for that John.
A beautiful reading - and one that ties in very well with the edition of 'A Point of View' that was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 this morning. Entitled 'The Limits of Materialism', it underlined the relevance of Walter de la Mare's work to the philosphical issues surrounding science and the inexplicable. It was presented by philosopher John Gray.
I like it! :)
I've subscribed to your channel so I'll be doing a lot of listening :) I actually like your style of reading :-)
Never the least stir made the listeners,
Though every word he spake
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
From the one man left awake:
Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
And the sound of iron on stone,
And how the silence surged softly backward,
When the plunging hoofs were gone.
LONG TIME!!!! :(
A marvelous reading! Are you both the voice of the narrator AND the voice of the Traveler?
Like this story😎😎😎
good job
@dragonheart130 Thanks, yes you will find a great deal of poetry, some classics and some of my own on the site. Hope you enjoy.
I thought I was familiar with this poem until I heard your reading, great work. You really brought out the atmosphere here. Those last two lines and really terrific.
Listening in 12th March 2022; 7:49 pm..
My mum learned this at school in the late 20’s or could have been the early 30’s in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Doesnt surprise me at all. I first came across it at school and then again when I had to sit my Eng Lit O level for the second time! It has a kind of universal appeal to anyone who likes a story and a bit of a mystery. The old idea was to learn poems by heart very early on. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. I guess if they are great poems it cant be that bad.
Very well read :-) I hope you do a lot more poetry readings as its hard to find my favourite poems read out as well as this :-)
@Caspar33 On the basis of a single, critical comment I wouldn't fret a lot. Your critic (and mine) clearly loves this poem, and has a pretty trenchant opinion as to how it should "sound". Personally, I enjoyed your reading hugely - and of course the magic and genius of this work is its susceptibility to interpretation, whether in performance or literary analysis. I'm tempted to invite supersesqui to post his or her own performance - but that might be a bit too naughty ;). It's great to debate!
The traveller came to someone he knew.
He should be saying " is there anybody there" in a more friendly tone.
At least the very first one, when he is unsuspecting.
Like, when you knock on someone's door, you don't say angrily " is there anybody there?!?!"
Annie I thnk that anyone would be on edge in the middle of that kind of night in such a deserted, perhaps haunted wood .
Obioiusly some sort of unusual tryst has been made and seems The Traveller is very much ill at ease faced with that grim, unwelcoming old door.and the silence.
Why would he be relaxed about such a set of ircumstances? The silence underlines the poets sense of eeriness. And what follows? Nobody shows. You are mistaken Annie.
“Once a man strays out of the common herd, he's more likely to meet wolves in the thickets than angels.”
― Walter de la Mare, The Return
Nicely performed, Fred, you are a talent. Your voice is perfect for a poetry program on the BBC radio.
5*
all the best
Kean
This poem has haunted me all my life...since I first heard it at school....I'm still looking for the meaning....I know it hides a profound truth....but what does it mean and why is it so important?
I think you are right in one respect; de la Mare´s classic appears full of meaning but equally it seems to bar all access to it. Maybe that´s why it affects so many people, some as deeply as yourself. Then there´s the structure and the music and the vivid story telling. But no easy answers at all I´m afraid. Just appreciate the artistry and if you can the sharp pang of not knowing!!
But then isnt life a little like that and the poem: equally unfathomable, utterly unrelenting and what they offer and sometimes appear to freely gives you, in terms of promises or actual benefits and wonders, are so often then unceremoniously, simply taken or snatched away. That´s maybe the point! Thanks for the comment. Best wishes.
One of my favorite poems, well performed. Thanks.
Thanks Wanda, that's nice.
I find that strangely relaxing. We had to do a drawing for this poem back when i was in primary school, i got first prize and they laminated the picture, still have it.
Pleased to hear that. Seems to me this poem has effected very many people since publication. - there is something very telling about it. It works its way through to a different kind of universal awareness and shared consciousness.
Thanks for your very generous comment. I'll check it out.
This is very creepy but nice
Yes deeply creeply! Thanks for comment.
And written with considerable skill and a profound sense of sound which includes the human voice in the silence too of course.
There should be a short film based upon this poem
@andrewnorris1 Very gracious of you to say so. Thanks. I think I see it most as a believer who is shortly to become a non-believer. But it really is a great piece - the sort of work that keeps on opening doors!
Thanks John. I caught that talk on the I-player. Makes the point well. De la Mare is the perfet antidote to that burgeoning menace. I dread to hear people say of the poem - 'I don't get it - what is it supposed to be about?'
I've been trying to figure that myself. I understand De la Mare wrote ghost stories that often had some form of twist in it and that colors my view of this poem wondering if the either the rider or the Listeners aren't the ghosts. The quote "from the world of man" hints the rider isn't a ghost, but the notion of someone coming to an empty house at night with no one responding to his knocks suggests he might be the one doing the haunting.
@@schizoidboy Mmmn. I think the key is in the lines 'Tell them I came and no-one answered...' Whoever he promised to come unto. 'They' much more so than 'he' seem to have let the Traveller down. Seems that is what is hardest to bear. The promises of something...Salvation, an after life; some sort of reassurance? I couldnt find the original comment but that is what strikes me now. It does hit at something in the human pysche doesnt it? Very artful and masterly the way he has delivered that thunderbolt very quietly in a wood in the dead of night. Smashing piece of work
@@Caspar33 Thanks.
Very good, indeed.
hi
Well done!
@astat1 Thanks for saying that. Loved your Lawrence Krauss post. Cheers!
i really like this poem fred
Who
This is read so well that I checked your profile to see if you were a professional actor, and what do you know.......
Puts my whisper version to shame!
Awesome it's Amazing Story I Like this !😊😉😊
Thanks Moiz!
For whom he will come to meet
Seek some advice on your english. Your question does not make any sense.
@muskndusk Thanks for that. But acting was never my forte, prefer to direct others or mess around with poems!
This is such a terrific piece though - it has everything.
Wat is its theme
You would have to ask the poet that one. No longer possible of course. What would he say? Perhaps -'That is the mystery!'
I see TH-cam are no longer recording visits for anything that happens to be more than two years old. A slap in the face for those who have uploaded passable videos of classics: a snub to the student or serious minded viewer. This is a discouragement to uploaders. Why? Obsession with the new, philistinism (to be expected?) or a means of simplifying/cutting the Analytic workload. The majority go for the topical and new, granted. But what about the others- why tkeep shifting the goalposts?
The traveller was "Ulysses"....🌹🌹🌹
Thanks for the comment. I wonder why you were so convinced? No riders of horses I can remember from Homer's Odyssey though many boats and sailors. When I visited Ithica a few years back I would have thought that horses would have found it very difficult to get around there - it was so rocky. But De La Mare would have been a fan for sure.
@@Caspar33 sir what I think it is the journey of victorian overreacher...as we find it in Tennyson's Ulysses....who seeks to find knowledge "beyond the utmost bound of human thought"....so I think ....Ulysses is a portrayal of the Victorian man too has gone too far from the world of "faith"(as the we find in Mattheh Arnold's poem "Dover Beach"...."the sea of Faith...is calm") to the world of "reason" which was caused by INDUSTRIAL revolution, Materialism and due to the thoughts which emerged out of "The Origin of Species " .....so according to man Ulysses is the poem of everyman....who begins his journey in the Victorian age ..."To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield"....and return back in the modern age as the traveller in Walter de La Mare's poem "Listeners"....According to my believe Ithaca is the symbol of Faith which the Victorian man abandoned....and when he returned back to Ithaca .....it was no more the "barren crags"....as we find in the poem "listenres"...the modern man( which I think is represented by the traveller in the poem)....tries to communicate....with those whom he left before...but he fails....as the the fractured identity of the modern man is too much scattered that it cannot communicate with the "faith"....so the traveller fails.....and sir I think that the "plunging hoofs were gone".... psychologically signifies the quest for the self .....as of the modern man's....and hence comes T.S.Elliot's "The love song of J alfred prufrock"....where the man travels with his fractured identity as Eliot says" Let us go then You and I".....I believe that Tennyson's Ulysses...de la Mare's Traveller....and Elliot's J Alfred Prufrock are all same as they depict the psychological conditions of the Victorian and modern man....the names and places and situations and types of characters varies due to the variety of time. ...so I take Ulysses as the prelude to Listeners and Listeners as the prelude to The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock....and take these three as the prelude to The modern age......Elliott's" tradition and individual talent"....made me think in this way....as I think he has taken from de la mare and tennyson....and thats why told the traveller was Ulysses....😊😊
Aha then Tennyson was the missing link. I dont know his version. But your argument is sound enough. Look no further than the present state of humanity and our horrifying inability to see what we are doing to the environment in innumerable, manic self-destructive behaviours. And it seems we chose to ignore both our alienation from the natural world and life on earth and instead encourage even more harmful technologies and suicidal practices.
@@Caspar33 yesss sir....exactly soo....nd sir I request ur kind attention to Tennyson's Ulysses....i hope it will give u utmost joy.....Nd sir what you are saying about the modern man was echoed by Matthew Arnold....the last lines of his poem Dover Beach is " Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight......Where the ignorant armies clash by night".....though this apparently echos the Peloponnesian war which was fought in darkness and confusion...but actually it was a poetic prophecy for the 20th century warfare....Nd also the confusion which the modern man suffers.....and perish....I am too much honoured sir that u replied woth so much care and importance to my thoughts.....take my respect sir...thank u....
Would you read and post : The Blue Bird..( Mary Coleridge) please ? Like to hear what you can do with it .
Hi sir ♡´･ᴗ･`♡♡´･ᴗ･`♡♡´･ᴗ･`♡
@SeaSongs999 Thanks for that. Best wishes.
Excellent work
Thank you Sir. I appreciate it.
Who is “them”?
Valid question. 'Tell them I came, and no one answered,
That I kept my word,' he said.
But the whole effect of the poem on you 'The Listeners' is that you will never know. It is unknown and therefore for De La Mare the effect on your senses and your feelings is what matters. How do you feel about not knowing who they are? Aroused, perplexed, afraid and frustrated? Just like the traveller...
Fred Proud is it possible the traveler is also a reflection of the poet himself?
I think you are right. AND the reader or 'listener! T.S.Eliot wrote a poem for him in praise of his technique and magic. It confirms that DLM was the master of getting something very powerful and unsettling into the ear and thus into the very being of the listener. There's a version of Eliot's little piece on this channel. It is just called 'To Walter De La Mare'.
Sussy bro
@keanghiero . Nice of you to say that K ! The BBC I think prefer poetry to be cultured and nicely read. They are nervous about readings which could unsettle and get under the skin of their listeners. That is what I am at least always TRYING to do. Poetry is a necessary weapon to oppose complancency and waking-sleep, to fight injustice with simple truths and oppose the status quo when and wherever it behaves like a tyrant , which is usually all the time!
Shucks! Well you can't please everyone. I did train as an actor so maybe those rhetorical pauses and the ingrained clarity of diction are more insidiously counter-productive than I thought. Thanks for comment - always useful. See if you have the same reaction to a more personal piece for example, The Insight Giver?
Very nicely done. You sound British.
I keept my word.
When a liberal makes a ridiculous comment online and you think about replying -- but you can't be arsed.
Me 2
Y2 TX
P.s. TH-camr
:/
Sorry, but this sounds just like an old ham overperforming and losing the plot.
Too many effect pauses and over pronounced words.
Not being horrible, but this in one of my favourite poems being mauled.
supersesqui Not so,but we all react a little differently to voice rythms and patterns? I found that just wonderful.
Woke