NEXT STORY
Poetry readings: Altitudes
RELATED STORIES
NEXT STORY
Poetry readings: Altitudes
RELATED STORIES
Views | Duration | ||
---|---|---|---|
61. About Lying and the way poems happen | 492 | 04:01 | |
62. Poetry readings: Beasts | 712 | 02:32 | |
63. Introduction to Cottage Street, 1953 | 585 | 01:06 | |
64. Poetry reading: Cottage Street, 1953 | 444 | 04:09 | |
65. Introduction to Altitudes | 214 | 00:59 | |
66. Poetry readings: Altitudes | 239 | 02:03 | |
67. Introduction to A Christmas Hymn | 412 | 01:37 | |
68. Poetry readings: A Christmas Hymn | 825 | 02:29 | |
69. Buying property in Cummington inspires 'Fern-Beds in Hampshire... | 121 | 06:09 | |
70. Poetry readings: Seed Leaves | 321 | 03:00 |
Here is a two-part poem called Altitudes, and it's about versions of spirituality. It's written more or less from the point of view of Europe or of myself in Europe. It begins inside a cathedral which undoubtedly is in Rome, but it looks back in its second part to Amherst, Massachusetts where I went to school, and it looks back also to I suppose such people as Emily Dickinson's neighbors who had to think up the spiritual life on their own and for themselves, transcendentalists, you know.
Acclaimed US poet Richard Wilbur (1921-2017) published many books and was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He was less well known for creating a musical version of Voltaire's “Candide” with Bernstein and Hellman which is still produced throughout the world today.
Title: Introduction to "Altitudes"
Listeners: David Sofield
David Sofield is the Samuel Williston Professor of English at Amherst College, where he has taught the reading and writing of poetry since 1965. He is the co-editor and a contributor to Under Criticism (1998) and the author of a book of poems, Light Disguise (2003).
Tags: Europe, Rome, Massachusetts, Altitudes
Duration: 59 seconds
Date story recorded: April 2005
Date story went live: 29 September 2010