Author Archives: bp

The Charge of the Light Brigade – Alfred, Lord Tennyson

excerpt read by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. audio from Poetry Speaks: Expanded.

1.
Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!
“Charge for the guns!” he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

2.
“Forward, the Light Brigade!”
Was there a man dismay’d?
Not tho’ the soldier knew
Someone had blunder’d.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

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Cuba – Paul Muldoon

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read by Paul Muldoon. audio from paulmuldoon.net

My eldest sister arrived home that morning
In her white muslin evening dress.
‘Who the hell do you think you are
Running out to dances in next to nothing?
As though we hadn’t enough bother
With the world at war, if not at an end.’
My father was pounding the breakfast-table.

‘Those Yankees were touch and go as it was—
If you’d heard Patton in Armagh—
But this Kennedy’s nearly an Irishman
So he’s not much better than ourselves.
And him with only to say the word.
If you’ve got anything on your mind
Maybe you should make your peace with God.’

I could hear May from beyond the curtain.
‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.
I told a lie once, I was disobedient once.
And, Father, a boy touched me once.’
‘Tell me, child. Was this touch immodest?
Did he touch your breasts, for example?’
‘He brushed against me, Father. Very gently.’

She Walks in Beauty – George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron

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read by Bill Berkson. audio from Poets on Poets

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that ‘s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellow’d to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair’d the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

Link Wednesday – Elizabeth Alexander, Edgar Allan Poe

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Various poets and poems were all over the news thanks to the Inauguration on the 20th and Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday on the 19th. So here are a smattering of links about the two:

MSNBC’s video of the reading by Elizabeth Alexander. I would be interested in hearing thoughts on it (I’ll post the transcript in the comments).
Time has an interview with Elizabeth Alexander about her process and thoughts on inaugural poems.
And on to Poe. NPR has had a few pieces on him. The first is a remembrance with “Gomez” from The Addams Family (I like that the slug on the website doesn’t even refer to the actor by his real name). The second story I’m linking to covers the efforts of yet another city (Boston) to lay some claim to Poe. (He was born there in 1809 and was taken away shortly thereafter upon being orphaned. Apparently he later claimed he was ashamed to be born in Boston.)

The Bells – Edgar Allan Poe

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read by Basil Rathbone. audio from The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection

Hear the sledges with the bells –
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells!
How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,
In the icy air of night!
While the stars that oversprinkle
All the heavens seem to twinkle
With a crystalline delight;
Keeping time, time, time,
In a sort of Runic rhyme,
To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells
From the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells –
From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.

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