Harold Bloom, “Art of Reading a Poem,” “The Poems of Our Climate” by Wallace Stevens
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- čas přidán 5. 02. 2018
- This audio of Harold Bloom’s class at Yale University was recorded on September 7, 2006.
“The Poems of Our Climate” by Wallace Stevens
I
Clear water in a brilliant bowl,
Pink and white carnations. The light
In the room more like a snowy air,
Reflecting snow. A newly-fallen snow
At the end of winter when afternoons return.
Pink and white carnations - one desires
So much more than that. The day itself
Is simplified: a bowl of white,
Cold, a cold porcelain, low and round,
With nothing more than the carnations there.
II
Say even that this complete simplicity
Stripped one of all one’s torments, concealed
The evilly compounded, vital I
And made it fresh in a world of white,
A world of clear water, brilliant-edged,
Still one would want more, one would need more,
More than a world of white and snowy scents.
III
There would still remain the never-resting mind,
So that one would want to escape, come back
To what had been so long composed.
The imperfect is our paradise.
Note that, in this bitterness, delight,
Since the imperfect is so hot in us,
Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.
@RobertMenefee
This is absolutely extraordinary. Harold Bloom is always such a lucid guide to the great works of literature.
Many thanks for this
the gershem scholem story is priceless!
I actually enjoy the dump truck beeping
Thanks a lot! Do we have more classes in audio?
Laila Tov!
1:41:50 i like to misinterpret this quote as merely an exhortation to make many friends in life as time is limited
Sholem had a problem with ego if he spoke of himself in the 3rd person.
Paul de Man
thats baudelaire
rip in piece
R.I.P. means Rest In Peace. A piece is a section. I wonder what you mean?
fren no bully... pls :(
He's a known lip smacker, but in this vid he's EXTRA smacky!
I didn't think this was too bad, 'digressiveness' aside (and some of the digressions are interesting if you like Bloom) and the real lack of any general statement or conclusion at the end (?!) Someone was talking of the class being a fraud, of students paying thousands for this kind of thing. Well, it depends on how you approach it. If you sign up for a class with an elderly scholar like Bloom and know his work then you get what you pay for.
I had a period when I read a lot of Bloom, then a long period when I was frustrated with him. There is much I differ with him on. The quiet rejection or silence regarding much of Pound and heirs of Yeats like Robert Duncan, the inability to access Crane's more wilder metaphysical side etc, and his not being much of a judge of poets of the post-war years. He should have ignored almost all the British poets, and been much harder on so-called 'greats' like Ashbery. But I find that, generally, I can balance his prejudices with more solicitude these days.
He is a little precious sometimes, but he has 'lived' a lot of these poems in detail, and that is much more than many readers have.
Difficult to weigh the whole motion of modernist Anglophone poetry without accounting for Eliot, Pound, and Williams. I'm aware that Bloom vociferously despised Eliot, and I suspect, by his absence, Pound, likely for reasons unpoetic.
F
I almost gave up on this audio after about 30 minutes--- Prof. Bloom digressed too long. Then his comment on Steven's "to negate by grammar, to affirm by syntax" intrigued me. I did listen to the end. There are certainly insights in his poem--- comparing Stevens' poem to Keat's URN poem, but some intertexual reading sounds a bit far-fetched. Still, salute to this erudite, if long-winded schoar, a staunch defender of human values in literature.
Lip smacking
During the 2000s, he had chronic dry mouth from medication for his ill health and surgery recovery, etc,
I think he was eating jellybeans.
Wish he wouldn't keep smacking his lips.
Get to the point Harold.
As engaging as Mr. Bloom is he is also very long-winded. Just read the poem and talk about it and what you see in it. A lot of students really don't know how to read a poem or how to discuss what a poem means. This talk about enjambment and the great comma. It is why I read William Carlos Williams. I like Stevens and have his poems always near, but you take so long to get to a point, Mr. Bloom. You finally ask the question: "What is this poem about?" It took you thirteen minutes to get there. Just discuss the meaning of the poem. Stop with all the chatter. You're tired of your voice? You should be on the receiving end.
the asides are the best part -- you can read the poem and figure it out like the fun little puzzle it is, for yourself
Bloom can be so arrogant.
sad sad sad sad sad -- what a fraud. pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for this???????
you could say the same thing about any humanities degree, or really any degree for that matter
most of the people who answered questions in this lecture, likely failed this course