Introduction to "Cottage Street, 1953"

Video URL

You must be registered to use this feature. Sign in or register.

Poetry reading: Cottage Street, 1953

RELATED STORIES

Introduction to Cottage Street, 1953

Richard Wilbur Poet

	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	413	01:37
68. Poetry readings: A Christmas Hymn	828	02:29
69. Buying property in Cummington inspires 'Fern-Beds in Hampshire...	121	06:09
70. Poetry readings: Seed Leaves	321	03:00

Comments (0) Please sign in or register to add comments

This poem is called Cottage Street, 1953, and it has to do with a visit my wife and I made to her mother in Wellesley, Massachusetts for the sake of some afternoon tea, and for the sake of meeting Sylvia Plath and her mother, who did live in Wellesley and were friends of my mother-in-law, Mrs Ward. My assignment, when I went to tea that day, was to be encouraging to the very young Sylvia Plath about the life of the poet, and to hearten her to set aside her suicidal urges and go on with her writing. That of course was a very difficult assignment, which I clearly failed.

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 "Cottage Street, 1953"

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: Wellesley, Massachusetts, Cottage Street, 1953, Sylvia Plath

Duration: 1 minute, 6 seconds

Date story recorded: April 2005

Date story went live: 29 September 2010