Research Catalog

Title

The poet speaks : a series of twenty recorded interviews with contemporary poets.

Publication

London : The British Council, Recorded Sound Section, November 1963.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Watkins, Vernon Phillips, 1906-1967
• Fuller, Roy, 1912-1991
• Redgrove, Peter
• Davie, Donald
• Tomlinson, Charles, 1927-
• Read, Herbert, 1893-1968
• Lehmann, John, 1907-
• Reeves, James
• Murphy, Richard, 1927-2018
• Smith, Stevie, 1902-1971
• Warner, Rex, 1905-1986
• Stead, William Force, 1884-1967
• Prytz, Karl Frederik
• Thwaite, Anthony
• Spencer, Bernard, 1909-1963
• Hughes, Ted, 1930-1998
• Kinsella, Thomas
• Plath, Sylvia
• Bottrall, Ronald, 1906-
• Baldwin, Michael
• Orr, Peter
• Scott-Kilvert, Ian
• British Council. Recorded Sound Section, issuing body.
• Woodberry Poetry Room (Harvard College Library). Collections, repository. poe

Description

114 numbered leaves; 34 cm

Summary

• "These interviews are all unscripted and unrehearsed. What is caught by the recording is the poet’s instinctive response to a number of questions. Some of these he might reasonably be expected to anticipate, while others, it is hoped, go beyond the boundaries of the formal inquisition. The aim here is to avoid the “prepared statement,” which has its own value on the printed page, and to draw the poet into the kind of conversation which crops up between friends who have a common interest – in this instance, poetry. Inevitably, there many questions which are common to all these interviews: when the poet began writing, which writers have influenced him, and a number of obvious questions directed toward elucidation of the merely mechanical and factual details of the poet’s craft. Perhaps more fruitful are some of the questions which produce answers less facile and factual: an attempt to analyse the creative process as it occurs in the poet’s mind, a hazardous guess at the value and importance of poetry itself, or a tentative piece of self-criticism.
• The speakers range from a poet of an elder generation, William Force Stead, with his memories of Yeats and Masefield, from such members of the “middle” generation as Vernon Watkins, Ronald Bottrall and Bernard Spencer to “New Lines” poets like Ted Hughes, Thomas Kinsella, Anthony Thwaite and Donald Davie, who are all in conscious reaction against the romantic tradition of Dylan Thomas, which dominated English poetry immediately after the Second World War. These new poets claim to have returned, to some extent, to the 18th century tradition of worldliness and tough common sense. To the interview with the American poetess Sylvia Plath attaches a particular poignant interest, for she died soon after giving it. It may, therefore, be regarded as, in a sense, her poetical testament. Other talks with Rex Warner and the Norwegian poet and novelist Carl Frederik Prytz explore the problem of translation. When editing these recordings, obvious irrelevancies and repetitions have been removed and some of the understandably hesitant replies put into a more tidy shape to aid the listener’s comprehension. But the basic shape and content of the interview remain unchanged. The interviews are recorded in conjunction with a series of poetry readings made in the first instance for the Poetry Room of the Lamont Library, Harvard University, U.S.A., the intention being to supplement the poet’s reading of his own work with an attempt to present him as a person rather than simply as a disembodied voice."--Introduction (pages 2-3).

Uniform Title

Woodberry Poetry Room Blue Star collection of books and manuscripts.

Subject

• Watkins, Vernon Phillips, 1906-1967 > Interviews
• Fuller, Roy, 1912-1991 > Interviews
• Redgrove, Peter > Interviews
• Davie, Donald > Interviews
• Tomlinson, Charles, 1927- > Interviews
• Read, Herbert, 1893-1968 > Interviews
• Lehmann, John, 1907- > Interviews
• Reeves, James > Interviews
• Murphy, Richard, 1927-2018 > Interviews
• Smith, Stevie, 1902-1971 > Interviews
• Warner, Rex, 1905-1986 > Interviews
• Stead, William Force, 1884-1967 > Interviews
• Prytz, Karl Frederik > Interviews
• Thwaite, Anthony > Interviews
• Spencer, Bernard, 1909-1963 > Interviews
• Hughes, Ted, 1930-1998 > Interviews
• Kinsella, Thomas > Interviews
• Plath, Sylvia > Interviews
• Bottrall, Ronald, 1906- > Interviews
• Baldwin, Michael > Interviews
• Poets, Welsh > 20th century > Interviews
• Poets, English > 20th century > Interviews
• Poets, Norwegian > 20th century > Interviews
• Poets, Irish > 20th century > Interviews
• Poets, American > 20th century > Interviews

Genre/Form

Transcripts.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- The Poet Speaks (I): Vernon Watkins talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (II): Roy Fuller talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (III): Peter Redgrove talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (IV): Donald Davie talks to Ian Scott-Kilvert -- The Poet Speaks (V): Charles Tomlinson talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (VI): Sir Herbert Read talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (VII): John Lehmann talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (VIII): James Reeves talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (IX): Richard Murphy talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (X): Stevie Smith talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (XI): Rex Warner talks to Ian Scott-Kilvert -- The Poet Speaks (XII): William Force Stead talks to Ian Scott-Kilvert -- The Poet Speaks (XIII): Cark Frederik Prytz talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (XIV): Anthony Thwaite talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (XV): Bernard Spencer talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (XVI): Ted Hughes talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (XVII): Thomas Kinsella talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (XVIII): Sylvia Plath talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (XIX): Ronald Bottrall talks to Peter Orr -- The Poet Speaks (XX): Michael Baldwin talks to Peter Orr.

OCLC

• 612402277
• SCSB-12371766

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library