I listened to the final lines with my eyes closed. You hit the final note.
at school, for A level, my teacher Mrs Cowan recited it in full, a few times, to insist we see the poem. I remember being lulled by her reading.
Once I was catching a late summer Sunday train to London and was stopping at these commuter towns and it felt like the rhythm and day of the poem
I caught some of the end era of those old train carriages when I was young - I remember they had them on the Paddington route west in the 1990s, right at the tail end, so can picture the train as a certain type
Well, sure, I could name so many others, but there is a calm brilliance here —the pace, the momentum of the train, the transition out of the provincial, that momentary vision of unity before those arrows are released…I guess it pulls a lot together for me—-
A simply stunning reading…. one of the greatest poems in the language. Pure intellectual affect….indelible imagery, movement and sense held together. Pure genius.
I clicked on your reading out of curiosity. Couldn't help but listen to the end. (You did an amazing job.) I looked up the text then. I'd never read anything by Philip Larkin before. It's like a story with a melody. Thank you.
The two deepest ways to understand a poem are to translate it or to memorize it. For poems in our own language, memorization has no peer. You not only have to understand every word and phrase or the poem; you begin to hear its secret harmonies.
Years ago for an evening in Larkin's memory shortly after his death, I memorized "I Remember, I Remember." The poem I recited was vastly different than the poem I started to learn.
Anthony Burgess once told me that literary education should consist mostly of memorizing poems.
A minor thing but perhaps useful for you to be aware of -- the YT link drops you into the vid at 1:21, rather than at the start. The '&t=81s' at the end of the URL is the cause.
this was first class Henry.
I listened to the final lines with my eyes closed. You hit the final note.
at school, for A level, my teacher Mrs Cowan recited it in full, a few times, to insist we see the poem. I remember being lulled by her reading.
Once I was catching a late summer Sunday train to London and was stopping at these commuter towns and it felt like the rhythm and day of the poem
I caught some of the end era of those old train carriages when I was young - I remember they had them on the Paddington route west in the 1990s, right at the tail end, so can picture the train as a certain type
Thanks for this mate. a pleasure.
oh thank you :)
Kudos to Mrs Cowan, to insist you see the poem.
No finer poem——
I can't go that far but it is marvellous
Well, sure, I could name so many others, but there is a calm brilliance here —the pace, the momentum of the train, the transition out of the provincial, that momentary vision of unity before those arrows are released…I guess it pulls a lot together for me—-
A simply stunning reading…. one of the greatest poems in the language. Pure intellectual affect….indelible imagery, movement and sense held together. Pure genius.
Lovely. Very visual with the perfect pacing in your recitation. Well done, sir. And yes to hearing a bit of Eliot’s influence.
My favourite poem. I can see the train crawling out of Hull, and going on to Goole and then south (possibly with a Deltic pulling the coaches).
Beautifully done, Henry. Thank you so much.
“Sun destroys the interest of what’s happening in the shade.”
Doesn’t it just.
great line!
I clicked on your reading out of curiosity. Couldn't help but listen to the end. (You did an amazing job.) I looked up the text then. I'd never read anything by Philip Larkin before. It's like a story with a melody. Thank you.
oh thank you, this is so nice--I hope you read more Larkin, he is splendid
where did all the hair go!?
got sheared
Bravo!
The two deepest ways to understand a poem are to translate it or to memorize it. For poems in our own language, memorization has no peer. You not only have to understand every word and phrase or the poem; you begin to hear its secret harmonies.
Years ago for an evening in Larkin's memory shortly after his death, I memorized "I Remember, I Remember." The poem I recited was vastly different than the poem I started to learn.
Anthony Burgess once told me that literary education should consist mostly of memorizing poems.
A minor thing but perhaps useful for you to be aware of -- the YT link drops you into the vid at 1:21, rather than at the start. The '&t=81s' at the end of the URL is the cause.
Oh thank you not sure how that happened