What do you think of Geoffrey Hill's readings? I am struck by the way he
insists on reading over line endings without a break unless the punctuation
tells him to pause. Until I heard him read I always thought the whole point
about his most typical line endings was to be "vertiginous", leading the
reader over some terrible intellectual and rhythmical brink. But he reads
his poems as if the ends of the lines weren't there.
 
Pound on the other hand does an excellent job of emphasising that which
seems to me to be most characteristic of his versification: the "spondaic"
(for want of a better word) line-ending, almost always marked by a
syntactical pause.
 
By the way, when are you going to add something to the Bunting website at
Durham?
 
And another thing (assuming ignorant questions are ok on a specialist list
provided they're off-topic): what is "lang-po"? Is it something to do with
the Prynne / Crozier crowd or am I hopelessly out of date?
 
 
Richard Edwards
 
>From: Richard Caddel <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Ezra Pound discussion list of the University of Maine
>  <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Reading Poetry Aloud
>Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 22:10:43 GMT
>
>On Mon, 29 Nov 1999 12:56:10 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >Just a rhetorical question: Is this subject really off-topic?
>
>- well, I'd hope not, obviously, for the key thing which drew / draws
>me to Pound - warts an' all - is the way he sounds, the opportunity he
>gives me to explore language on the air. And yes, the Bunting / Alps
>poem is right still, or sems so to me: "Fatal glaciers, crags cranks
>climb /... et l'on entend, maybe, le refrain joyeux et leger." For
>myself, retired musician (ok, fired musician) I've been stumbling
>around on it for over thirty years, and it still excites me, I still
>get new stuff from it. There are very few writers of whom I can say
>that.
>
>That's why I'm seeking to look at that lineage I mentioned, Yeats >
>Pound > Bunting > various poets of today (mainly UK; no offence
>intended: it's where I live), and why I'm grateful to members of this
>list for some of the contributions to this thread.
>
>Because this list seems to consist mainly of duets, I'd better find
>something to object to, perhaps it's this: I wouldn't be so quick to
>slam all of LangPo as performers: I've heard those who are superb
>controllers of line, pitch and measure on their own account. That
>there are turkeys in this wide and diverse "group" (as all others)
>ain't the point: that somehow, despite the widespread neglect of the
>study of poetry-read-aloud, individuals still hit into the old stream,
>well that's noteworthy.
>
>My two pet hates on the poetry reading circuit are the Mutterer, and
>the Preacherman: they operate right across the spectrum, but neither
>of these two have learned a thing from the lineage I associate with
>Pound. When, by mistake, I find myself listening to either of these
>ear-dead slackers, I leave. Life's short.
>
>RC
 
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