you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

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you you you

[20:59]

you not though she pine delaying till it's advent heart and mind their life and then begins a long soliloquy by by palma it goes from what is from line 339 to 560 and it goes through a number of phases but the first one she discloses poses herself where we've seen her before when when sardella sayings sees Adelaide and at her feet palma and there and palma and her part sees sardella emerge from

[22:10]

the from the mass the people we've had over and over again something parting and someone emerging from the mass how dare I let expand the force within me till some out soul whose resource it grew for should direct it every law of life it's every fitness every flaw must one determine whose corporeal shape would be no other than the prime escape and revelation to me of a will or life or shrouded and inscrutable above save at the point which I should know shown that myself my powers might overflow so far so much as now it signified which earthly shape it henceforth chose my guide whose mortal lip selected to declare its oracles but fleshly garb would wear the first of intimations whom to love the next how love him seem that orb above the castle covert and the mountain close slow and appearing if beneath it rose cravings diversions did

[23:13]

our green precinct take pride in me at unawares distinct with this or that endowment how repressed at once such jetting jetting power shrank to the rest was I to have a chance touch spoil me leave my spirit fence unfit to receive the consume consummating spell that spell so near moreover waits and then almost as if it were that this I mark it's a song separate within it and and it it might be a Sardello song within it it might be her song again the confusion of Sardello and Palma is back and forth and this is this just as lovely little song as it occurs around numbers on pages around 364 wait see not the waking years let me give that spell line because the the fact that we're in dream and spell is very important what I don't have a chance touch spoil me leave my spirit fence unfitted to receive the consummating spell that spell

[24:16]

so near moreover wait see not the waking year his almond blossoms must be honey ripe by this to welcome him fresh runnels striped the thought ravines because of him the wind walks like a herald I shall maturely find him now before we go on I want one of the issues raised by Rachel Blau DePlessis regarding H.D.'s poetry it's an issue having to do with it with enthrallment with enthrallment in love seeking enthrallment in love and and seeking to enthrall which is very close to the poem seeking to enthrall and to be enthralling that the and and and she raises a tremendous guilt in in the terms of her modern woman's questioning about has woman been enthralled all the

[25:21]

time and then she realizes also woman's been enthralling that's something every woman has been aiming at of the category and actually I would assume that Rachel Blau DePlessis have trouble of her being enthralling her being enthralled and and and I was just that close to see that some of them are the direction of the modern form anticipating might have been there were very very troubled with the spell of poetry cast what the fact that you in order to get into Sardello I find I begin to read it obsessively it's about the only it's the only way you get there otherwise and and more than that you do read obsessively in order to get back a century and a half to an entirely different concept of the sound of the poem not entirely different from one when you're handed out of school because because we hear this form of the poem but that even makes it more remote to get into it the way the readers were and they were and they had a hard time and

[26:21]

they may have had a hard time to because the poem enthralls it baffles and then yields by enthralling so does Finnegan's Wake I mean there was a certain kind of involvement in a modern poem that seeks to get you tar baby effect I call it that seeks to get you so attached to the poem in your bafflement and rage that you are enthralled I mean think of the plots in a million movies we're talking about romance we're talking about what gets the one look every law of life it's very it's every fitness every flaw must one determine whose corporeal state should be no other than the prime escape and revelation to me of a will or of life or shrouded I can just see Br'er Rabbit hopping around and Br'er Fox fixing up the tar baby for Br'er Fox one that's good and so forth and then you're then you're stuck and at the other side of it then deep in that you've written well

[27:26]

and released the really lovely little song waits he not the waking year it is off almond blossom this must be honey ripe by this to welcome him fresh roam strike the thawed ravines because of him the wind walks like a herald I shall surely find him now and she's that earnest April morn of Richard's love court was it time so worn and quite my cheek so idly my blood beat sitting that morn beside the lady's feet and saying as she prompted till outburst one face from all the faces not then first I knew it where in maple chamber blooms crown with what sanguine heart pomegranate blooms advanced it ever men's acknowledgment sanction my own twas taken Palmas bent sordello recognized accepted then we go back to Adelaide you sitting by the lady's feet done she sat still scheming is Adelaide excellent would come gone scared

[28:29]

Chisano baffles me he'd say better I fought it out my father's way strangle Ferrara and it's drowning flats and you and your Torello yonder what Romano's business there an hour's concern to cure that froward chief and then she and and she's she at liberty began Adelaide to sit and cut I'm skipping here a bit to get to another thing I want to pick up and scheme against the next emergence I to covered her Torello spike sprite made fly or fold the wing to cut it's the first hint that sardella might be might be Torello's son that isn't even stated the sprite comes at least from sardella land well read let me read that she had liberty to sit and scheme against the next emergence I to covered her Torello sprite may fly or fold the wing on your horoscope for leave command those those

[29:34]

steely shafts to shoot oak at or straight to swage their blinding goodness in blank smooth snow what semblance of success to any of my plans for making you and my making you mine and Romano's break the first wall through tread or the ruins of the chief supplant his sons beside still vainest where the vault there selling where I would obstruct me sheer and the insuperable Tuscan here stay me but one wild eve that lady died in her lone chamber only I beside Torello far at Naples and my sire of Padua echelon away and I are with Albrecht she held me thus a clutch to make our spirits as our bodies touch and so began flinging the past up heaps of uncouth treasure from their sunless sleeps within her soul deeds rose along with dreams fragments of many miserable schemes secrets more secrets then no not the last amongst others like a casual

[30:37]

trick of the past how I should told me gathering up her face all left of it into one arch grimace to die with friend is gone but not the fear of that fell laughing heard as now I hear nor faltered what so we don't get what at this point what Adelaide disclosed it's where it began in an interrupted state about what there was some last thing she said and we've gone off leaving it dot dot dot land as a matter of fact again in that psychological sense as as if it were a real break a real inability to finish at that point with within Palmer not just that what happens in the actual scene is actually bursts in but still he is supplanted something that Adelaide that the disclosure Adelaide made which

[31:41]

in the form is that that so Delo is is selling Vera where is some air there is a kind of significance but having denied a significance to this song where it's given up his almost lost his sense of a destiny because his heir was killed he thought so he has no house and he just turned into a he's still loyal or may or may not be to echelon echelon echelon though has gone to a to a monastery to turn monk and and and that song where I said well do I still owe you do I still have to take my orders from you know so he's on his own but he doesn't have his ambition he doesn't have a sense of a destiny because it because retro and and the baby he thinks are killed and he doesn't have a heart to start began himself trying to start a new house the losing heart may be echoed that in Sardello I mean Sardello's destiny is he's called to in some sense

[32:46]

as it comes to father I'm not making I'm not in any sense here by the way nor even tempted to make up of this any psychoanalysis or something like that having to do with Robert Browning it doesn't I mean I can't even imagine it does what what the poem gives rise to our times for Robert Browning to for the as [...] Sardello as as not oh as a glamour and at Palma have their have their portions of the poem I feel portions of but deliberated or not of Robert Browning's own sense of where his poems coming from arise to speak for themselves and go back to where Troubadour Oh

[34:04]

yeah this one of the themes I found looking through it again over again picking for something forward is that many times in which in which the nature nature and then one's own nature discovered within nature so the two kinds of nature yield ground and that's the book third really opens with it what when Sardella returns from Matt and from now when we're here he said he's he's returning from Antoine no he's returning and from Verona right I'll open it in the opening of book three remember at the end of a book at

[35:40]

the book end of book two called upon to perform at the court Sardello in a kind of despond walks out and conflict and not all coverage for next day no poet he's both perform work or ask Torello when the dance of John Blair's masks his devil's ended don't a song come next the master of the pageant look perplexed donato's whisper came to his relief his highness knew what poets were in brief and not the techie race prescriptive right to peevishness caprice or call it pride one must receive their nature in its length and breadth expect the weakness with the strength so phrasing till his stock of phrases spent the easy natured soldier smiled assent and settled his portly person smooth his chin and nodded that the bull but it might begin I this is one thing I was

[36:44]

remember when I was supposed to perform is that if I observed Dylan Thomas a great education in this if you're drunk great the audience is really strong or and and and Charles Olsen falling down and not able to speak straight seem nearer to everybody how wonderful he's human he although he's six foot eight probably has a mind six foot eight here this one and now the greatest thing we ever heard he's just as mixed up as we are that this this relation of audience the pot but the other thing is that absolute Oh Recky and at the Poetry Center where is where where he was in an advanced state of depression and spent with my impression a good deal of that reading stocking up and down the stage hitting his head because you paid your money you got to see what a poet looks like they're exactly it's in for free and you're it's not a performance in that sense it's a simply a spectacle what the boss the boss like what we expect the pot for you like what will it be like today bring sandwiches

[37:46]

well spice drug the end couldn't I couldn't read that the interesting in our naive day we didn't dream it was maybe drinking too much to read but at but I think it was also a tremendous psychological pressure is it wasn't it was the last four or five years or so so that the tape is that he read at the that he read at the poetry conference in 63 or four is extraordinary because he hadn't read not even I mean hadn't even read in a group small group like let's say like this one would gather a very in group and he still wouldn't be able to read at the time that the head of the town was to be read Jack sat and in a baseball cap and [...] got out the text hit his head over and over again which I can't imagine how pretty and and and so on the text was actually read by

[38:54]

not written by while Jack sat as I was deeper and later would say it's horrible and all wrong and so forth but but it's it has the palm of become I think actually forbidden to it in the reading at the at the at the conference then that he read Grail home sir and and that that was in a weak voice but a very strange and and I after the reading I went up to him and he didn't write down DM and he was around I don't think he saw any saw anything far off well I mean the main thing is that with poets we with Browning of course is not one of those boxes who is a who is a of the tetchy race but but I'm just sharing a little news that it's very valuable to remember you have the tetchy race you

[39:55]

can always throw a wingtip if you were you and opera singers or whoever you are meanwhile of course the world wants to treat poets and businesses and and be very annoyed when they when they don't keep up and the font took them let our laurels lie braid moon for now with mystic trifling because once more go eat Oh gets once more sardella to itself a dream is or and the suspended life begins a new quiet those throbbing temples then subdued that cheats distortion nature's strict embrace putting aside the past just soon a face it's print as well fictitious humors grown over over the true loves hatreds not his own and turning pure as some forgotten vest woven a plate painted business silkiest tufting that Tyrene welts pearl sheeted

[40:58]

left welter where firing let it slip in the sea and vexed a sacra that passage is straight a glamour I mean and when a glamour is held up for what is liable to commit it's exactly that only here we have it straight in in our guide speaking I guess our storyteller speaking it's not them but brownies so the stain of the world forsake sardella with its pain its pleasure how the taint to loosening escapes cloud after cloud mantras familiar shapes die fair and foul die fading as they flip men women and the faith those and the wit wise speech and foolish deeds to smile or sigh for good bad seemingly or ignoble die the last face glances through the eglantine's the last voice murmurs twixt the blossomed vines of men of that machine supplied by thought to compass self-perception with he sought by

[41:58]

forcing half himself an insane pulse of a god's blood on clay it could convulse never transmute on human sights and sounds to watch the other half with hurts and bounds it ebbs from to its source a fountain sealed forever better sure be unrevealed and part revealed sardella well or ill is finished then what further use of will point in the prime idea not realized and oversight in ordinantly prize no less and pampered with enough of each delight to prove the whole above its reach to need become and then and then we have an interior monologue to need become all natures yet retain the law of my own nature that is must be resounding like this core of because it's the need the need from which that brownie comes always like to need become all natures yet retain the

[42:59]

law of my own nature to remain myself yet yearn as if that chestnut think should yearn for this first large bloom crisp and pink or those pale fragrant tears where zephyrs March wounds along the fretted pine tree branch will and the means to show will great and small material spiritual abjure them all say any so distinct that may be left to amuse not tempt become and thus be raft just as I first was passion would I be nor moon is it Apollo now but me thou visit us to comfort and befriend swim down to my heart and there and end since I possessed thee nay thus shut mine eyes and no quite no by this heart's fall and rise when thou does bury thee in clouds and when outstandest wherefore practice upon men to make that plainer to myself it is or Della speaking we've got within the same book straight out Robert Browning sign 603 oh yeah right

[44:25]

okay I'll have to read that's that's where it begins but I want to move you into it because it's marvelous as it begins to as it begins to change at the end of Palmas that unlike 5561 Palmas long long soliloquy or speech to it's a speech but I'm really unbroken to to Sardello and and and in the change what from from that first one where there's an or that that yes interestingly enough remember his picture of Sardello's picture of the of the one of the one is that she will move the seat move himself as the moon moves the sea she she will but palm is overweening her picture is that the at the one will somewhat keep well I could work both ways somewhat keeper keep for a focus for her in ordinate sense of the destiny the one is to have I mean she because her hope

[45:26]

her whole speech as it moves through here is a picture of moving ourself as a political power and very much listening to her father and excellent and and and what use she she want to take Adelaide's place as part of what what seems to be moving there so it's quite something that's coming forward on him and what she leaves him with is not while he's while the introduction with a poem she leaves him with with the destiny of he's to take its place in a feudal order in it and it's right and palma fled though no affirmative disturb many as for exile of mankind whose proper service ascertained intact as yet parentheses to be by him themselves made act not watch Sardello acting each of them that's the change between the two Sardellas to make others act not act that not have forced them to see you in act that that was to secure at the true diet and

[46:31]

seemed imminent while our Sardello drank the wisdom of that golden palma thank Verona's lady in her Citadel founded by Gaulish Brennus legends tell and truly when she left him the Sun reared ahead like the first clambers who feared atop the capital his face on playing with triumph triumphing till man is came nor slight too much my rhymes now who is mr. my in here I think we I think all of a sudden irrepressible for brownies come forward or it's like too much my rhymes that spring this spread this part this first I read this before because it's such a descript description of brownies own feel of what what's going on in the line that spring this spread this part this purse lingering overhead like an escape of angels rather say my transcendental platen mounted gay an archmage who courts a novice Queen with tremulous silver trunk whence branches she laugh out thick foliage next to shiver soon

[47:35]

with colored buds then glowing like the womb one mild flame last a pause a burst and all her ivory limbs are smothered by a ball bloom flinders and fruit sparkles and leaf dust run Johnson is slightly memorable bloom flinders and fruit sparkles and leaf dust ending the weird work prosecuted just for her amusement he decrepit stark doses her uncontrolled delight may mark a pipe yet not so surely never so only as good my soul were suffered go or the lagoon for therapy put aside and since I sign out as a God may glide out of the world he fills and leave it mute for myriad ages as we men compute returning into it without a break of consciousness they sleep and I awake or the lagoon being at Venice so yeah I mean it's all after so gets to come forward in this stuff

[48:37]

including the poet directly they sleep and I away that's this is like a you know I'm thinking about you know that one thousand faces of me for whatever this this beats those split personalities all over the place they've come bobbing up to the surface in no in just such songs as a glamour say wrote with heart and soul and strength for he believed himself achieving all to be achieved by singer in such songs you find alone completeness judge the song and singer one and neither purpose answered his in it or it's in him him him while from true works to wit Sardello's dream performances that will be never more than dream as gates there's still some proof the singer's proper life was neat the life his song exhibit this is she to that a passion and a knowledge far transcending the majestic as they are smoldered his leg

[49:40]

was but an episode in the bar life what evidence you owe to some slight weariness I'm looking off or start away the childish gift or scoff and Charlemagne his poem dream divine in every point except one silly line about the rest of the daughters I really didn't have to be marvelous to imagine poems a few bright remarks about what you did it do it won't let you silly mark but the rescue dog is there a footnote about that by the way what is the point if I haven't referenced in a poem now I'll never let's see now I've forgotten the song that was never sung or something and and enjoy how you said dr. what was the song that was ever so what was this did they say anything about what was this here rescue dog one silly line but they were the subject of much gossip it was said Charlemagne would not let them marry as he would not fear them as he would is he would not be able to leave them to leave him yes right and what

[50:42]

about the silly line well this poem is this there's I still find it hard to take a certain turn the first and that occurs right of the way we rise to a great ecstasy and then and in the very first book I think and then it has walks with God and then something walks with God it was just it just came wrong there again I can't find that line but it's a resounding all of a sudden thunderous the egg Lamar couplet okay let's get back in my friend a memorialism my life commenced before this work what may lurk in that this child skip or Scott and Charlemagne what may lurk in that I mean again I think and the consciousness in the form of what a buddy of what well it's something lurking in the form and this is one thing surely makes it opening up

[51:42]

to our to a good deal of our 20th century interest in in the significant poem you work in a murky stuff but you expect it to yield and your question all the time is what works in that that thing that came to you and in the courses you are writing what is there what is there the other way around is that it's a great is the great redundancy and bore and within in which the self-evidently significant is underlined in a minute text is stuffed in my life commenced before this work so I interpret the significance of the bard start aside and look at scant my life commenced before this work my life continues after on I fare with no more stopping possibly no care to note the undercurrent of why and how where when or the deeper life as that just now as that's just now but silent shall I cease to live alas for you who saw when shall come to pass we read that story how will he

[52:42]

compress the future gains his life's true business into the better lay which that one flout aware in opportunity that's out engrosses him already though profess to mediate meditate with us internal rest and partnership and all his life has found that I do have this curious little side no not Robert Browning at this point but but by making that mistake of mediate meditate and really Robert really first wife proofread or the young's a piece that appeared in the but review and there was an objection to at least one crucial word that had been corrected by and really he corrected mediate meditate so the virtue meditate through for a loop you know and and now I'm going further

[54:02]

ahead here where we're at the end of the speech ends about of not over the not over the extended feature well let's get on let's not let's get right and not a back talking now just but a sight sailors promise weather bound and then not it goes on strike sail slip cable here the bark be moored for once this pawning stretch the poles assured noon tide above except the waves crisp dash or buzz of calligraphy or tortoise flash the margin silent out with every spoil made in our tracking coil by mighty coil this serpent of a river to his head in the midst admire each treasure as we spread the bank to help us tell our history right give your endeavor to describe the groves of giant rushes how they grew like demons and long tresses we'd sail through what mountains yawn forest to give us vent opened each doleful side yet on we went till may that beetle shake your cap a test the springing of his land wind from the West where from for ah yes you frolic it today tomorrow and the pageant moved away down

[55:07]

to the poorest tentpole we and you part company no other may pursue eastward your voyage be informed what fate intends if triumph or decline await the tempter of the everlasting step I amuse this on a ruined palace step at Venice why should I break off or nor sit longer upon my step exhaust the fifth England gave birth to this is so much the hot one because the candles were the fifth England gave birth to and moved off back to when found went deadly and and and the for ghosts coming in layers of the impulse intended who is adorable enough reclaim a no Sardellas will elect the Queen to me or don't want his pommel but not anyone has appeared to Robert Browning that fascinates busy demand her smoking fruit load boats these perhaps from our delicious a solo who twinkle

[56:08]

pigeons or the portico not prettier buying jute lilies into sheaves to deck the bridge side Chapel dropping leaves soiled by their own loose gold meal off and eat the cool arcs do she brownish she her wreath endures a month a half month if I make a queen of her continue for her sake Sardello story name that Paduan girl splashes with barrel eggs where what live world in the dead black geodeck that proves seaweed drifting has sucked down three four all indeed say one pale red stripe pale blue turban post for gondolas you and a disheveled ghost well now we know when pound says there was not all those girls there was one that it's an answer to all those girls that come in a flock as [...] Robert Browning is as sitting on on the step in the first part of his magic not far from that passage then is an opening of Venice that's on line 743 begins

[57:13]

Venice seems a type of life to its blue and blue extends a stripe as like advances and even a city in his story remember this is these are astounding interjection Browning had gone to Italy to find locale for the poem he'd written it is still discontent done it twice over again and finally went away from the poem with the poem with him to to go and get locale but the effect of Venice here is the one that carries strongest of all for our poetry it goes forward absolutely and it's not one of the places the locale it's the what it is the locale though isn't it if we put each of the people so our dollars and not as it meant to a palm isn't it at Verona and somebody is in Venice maybe our cat other cat the one that's doing the whole ball so there is a fourth one

[58:14]

we've got not only got me not only I started out on auto and [...] a glamour I go Mars under the egg of ours it was also at the court with it is not when he is when he is a bar but we've got Robert Browning as another one of those persons Venice seems a type of life to its blue and blue extends a stripe as life the somewhat hangs betwixt not and not tis Venice and his life as good you thought to spare me the Piazza slippery stone or keep me to the unchoked canals alone as hinder life the evil with the good which make up living rightly understood only to finish do finish some peasants Queens take them made happy by what means parade them for the common credit vouch that a luckless residue we send the crouching corners out of sight was just as framed at for happiness its portion might have claimed as well and so obtaining joy had

[59:19]

stalked fact fast you as as any such my project bought already I hardly venture to adjust the first rags when you find me to mistrust me nor unreasonably you no doubt have the true knack of tiring suitors out with those thin lips on tremble lashless I emphatically tear shot there be wise mistress of mine there there if I as if I met you insult shall your friend not slave be shent for speaking home beside care bit erased broken-up beauties ever took my taste supremely broken-up beauties ever and I love you more far more than her I look should foot life's temple floor what is the same footnote to that is this in gossip somebody got a footnote that tells us who did he look to foot nice temple floor that we're at we're at 770 line 770 part 3 I wonder who is this

[60:30]

who sometimes got part 3 770 no there's no there is then we can all wonder years ago leagues at distance when and where I whisper game let others see I care is found I life's provision thy race should be thy mistress and into one face the many faces crowd that I judge or know your secret rough apparel grudge all ornaments save tag or tassel worn to hint we are not thoroughly forlorn slouch bonnet unloot mantle careless go alone that's saddest but it must be so through Venice sing now and now glance aside ought to sultry or undignified then ravishingest lady will you pass or not each formidable group the mass before the basilic basilic that feast gone by God's great day of the corpus domini and

[61:36]

wistfully forgoing proper man come timid up to me for arms and then the luxury to hesitate fame do some unexampled grace when whom but you dare I bestow your own upon and here further before you say it is to sneer I call you ravishing or I regret little that she whose early foot was set forth as she planted on a pedestal now in the silent city seems to fall toward me no wreath only a lips unrest to quiet a surcharge dilates to be pressed dry of her tears upon my bosom strange such sad chance should produce in thee such change my love warped souls and bodies yet God spoke of right hand left and I flex our yoke Tordello as your poor poetship may find so sleep upon my shoulders child nor mind their foolish talk well manage me and state your own work ask borrow but when they pray to me will mend past hope don't each contrive despite the evil you abused to live a glamour in this same book has a soliloquy of his own well we

[62:44]

were we in there for more let me see here the six six forty six wait a minute maybe maybe I'm wrong book book two uh-huh okay but three is a good mark let me 626 yeah that we did we just we just I covered it in words the two but following the passage we're in I'm going to pick up another theme here, which is the one of division and run even some repeats

[63:58]

on it. We noted that before, well, we've got, it appears right at the beginning of the poem. And I run through a series that I found of these, of these, of these curtains, partings. The first right off is in one line, 1820. Since, though I might be proud to see the dim abysmal past divide its hateful surge, letting all of men, letting of all men this one man emerge because it pleased me. Yet, that moment past, I should delight in watching first to last his progress as you watch it, not a wit more in the secret than yourselves, who sit fresh chapped with it to listen. And then 73 to 74, in that same book we've got the parting again reiterated.

[64:59]

Lo, the past is hurled in twain, upthrust, outstaggering on the world, subsiding into shape, a darkness rears its outline, kindles at the core, appears Verona. When there rather than darkness and so forth, there are expectations of birth, I think, and expectations of something coming forth from. And again, immediate images of something coming forth from the divisions in Brown and Jones thought syntax. They're not just completions, they're real divisions introduced. Okay, we're now at page 212. Line 212 of that first part. That's the one that we talked about when I was talking about the fault.

[66:01]

Cliffs and earthquakes suffered jut in the mid-sea, each dominarian crest, which not save such another throw, can rest from out, conceive. A certain choke would groan, since o'er the waters twine and tangle, thrown too thick, too fast, accumulating round, too sure to over-riot and confound their long, each brilliant islet with itself, unless a second shock save shoal and shelf, whirling the sea drift wide. Here I would say, in terms that are immediate and bodily, Browning's fantasies of birth, of content as being born from the body of the poem, over and over and over again, as you will see. What's interesting is there's not a, it's surely born out of that content, there's not a concept of insemination, unless somebody else got that drift. That I didn't. So this is back to another thing that's, it's important to notice if you've got images of

[67:06]

birth, whether there are also images of insemination, or whether that's in German. Man's a germ of a god, but that's a very different thing, isn't it? Browning can picture himself as a thing being born, and as being germinal himself. It does not mean, again, so that the body of the poem, it figures coming forth from earth, or sea, pardon me, continues. Does anybody notice any images or passages in the poem of, in which there's a sense of inseminating birth? There probably wouldn't be, because not only Sardella, but Browning is somebody who is being made, being formed. I don't understand the poem, because it's the very last word when she kisses him. She becomes sexual. They both become virgins. Almost in that line, they both become real.

[68:06]

It all seems imaginary to that poem. Do you want to pick up on that? Through the poem there's been a lot about not having transmutations, about not being able to transmute, and remember convulses and does not commute to God. Apollo, for one thing, doesn't. First place, very early, Sardella was said to have leprosy. He's been blighted in some way, and Apollo is not only the god of poetry, one of the gods of poetry, but he's also, since he's the god of medicine, he's the god of disease. So there's a story told about this plague being let loose, disease. When Palma becomes a Wannabe, she moves him away from being Apollo in some sense. Whatever happens to the leprosy?

[69:10]

No, the leprosy is figurative as far as I can judge. No, no, no, it's something. Right, I searched for it, I thought, leprosy is going to happen. Such a nice point. There's not even a sly little line about, and it was a very little thing, as leprosy. For a wicked cartoon, hard to play a liar with those hands. Well, I'll go with Curie, just a moment. Quick, quick, quick. It's when he dies. Oh, he does that in a fair few lines. Did you finally locate his dying? Yes, he's like a blue crab. Is it on the very last page? It might be on the last page, it might be, but it might not be the same. In one great kiss, her lips upon his breast, it beat.

[70:15]

With short, quick, passionate cries, Apollo pressed. In one great kiss, her lips upon his breast, it beat. I think I have written in a margin here. Not just the hermit being stopped his day's toil, of course. The hermit being stopped his day's toil, of course. I thought I had it written, written out of the margin. Here it is, yeah. What's the thematic truth? What has Sardello found, or can his... I haven't got the lines numbered here, so... What has Sardello found, or can his spirit go the mighty round end, where poor Aglamore begun? So says the old fable, so says old fable, the two eagles went two ways about the world.

[71:23]

Where in the midst they met, though on a shifting waste of sand, men set Jove's temple. Quick, but haste, for Sardello found. But they approached, approached, that foot's rebound palma. No sanguera, though in mail, they mount, have reached the threshold, dashed the veil aside, and you divine, who sat there dead, under his foot the badge. Still, palma said, a triumph lingering in wide eyes, wider than some spent swimmers, if he spies help from above in his extreme despair, and heads far back on shoulders rust, turns there with short, quick, passionate cry, as palma pressed, in one great kiss, her lips upon his breast, it beat. By this, the hermit bee has stopped, his days toil at Nuitot, the new crop, dead, fine leaf answers. Now, tis eve, he bit, twirled so, and filed all day, the mansion's fit, God counseled forth. As easy gets the word, the past betwixt them, and became, become the third to the soft,

[72:26]

small, unafrighted bee, as taxing with one fall. So, no remembrance, Rex, of the stone maidens, and the font of stone, he, creeping through the crevice, leaves alone. Alas, my friend, alas, Sordello, whom anon they laid within that old font tomb, and yet again, alas, the font had been revealed to be a tomb, because Rex was buried in the font. So, as you go by, but I love that, he's quite sly when he goes, guess who's sitting there dead, which is hard to get away from, as he's surrounded with people of that color. What? I think I thought you were saying whereupon. You started saying whereupon, guess who, but there he was, stone, stone. Well, now he can snarl when they tell us that we're obscure, and try Sordello. Okay, let me go to some of these other divides, because they really begin to be quite interesting,

[73:27]

speaking of this. All right, wait a minute, maybe, oh, it should be in, two, two, two, no, no, it should be one, 855, looking for 855, all right, if I could count it, it'd be great. All right. Yeah, here it is. The pageant thinned, the pageant thinned accordingly, from rank to rank like wind is spirit past to winnow and divide, back fell the simpler phantasms, every side the strong clave to the wise, that's the word cleave, clave, again, where are you, but, with either class the beauty is, so till two or three amassed mankind's beseemingnesses and reduced themselves eventually, grace loosed, strength lavished,

[74:28]

all to heighten up one shape, whose potency no creature should escape. And then all of a sudden, well, that suggests something about a poetry, and so now we're talking about Friedrich, and it goes back into the politics. But remember, this is no politics of Robert Browning, so I think he does, since these figures come and go as if they're in a dream, that for him, the destiny of politics and history of action, after all, it isn't politics, but action that is on Browning's mind. And action and destiny are as much a part of the dream as, I wondered in relation to this, because I don't get a relation to Robert Browning at all, it's hard to get any of the Victorians relating to what in the world was going on in their empire. And of all the most repressed possible contents of their daily life must have been outside of dashing into the fray, the empire, Kipling does much better

[75:29]

by it, wondering what it is and what have the British undertaken. Robert Browning's not the height of it in any way, though. When did they take India? And everybody gets really giddy. But in the 17th, they started taking India. Oh yeah, right. And so anyway, they are an empire no matter what you do with it. Well, this would be a striking difference because, and nor are we easy about what is our, we are neither easy nor, again, we have the same trouble as significance, when what is it that gets us upset about our wars, what is it that gets us upset about the, I'm talking about what deep thing that we're actually involved with, that we're in it and so forth, but when we're out of it, why is it so universal? And it seems not in that way to touch the Victorians. Well, because I think Kipling discovered it. Almost discovered it at the beginning. So he'd be modern, a point of modern at that point, I think. I think there's some novel like that.

[76:31]

Oh, Harold has a... But I haven't read it yet. But one character goes to India and has an experience in India and he goes to India. Well, now in book two, we've got the theme of the vision again occurring. Yeah. The word palma, steal aside and die, Sardello. This is real. And this abjure. This is when he's been in fantasy going toward Mantua. He imagines he's been walking in the woods and so forth. It's hard to tell. Is it real at that announcement? And then line 55. What next? The curtains see dividing. She is there, and presently he will be there. The proper you at length in your cherished dress of grace and strength, most like the very Boniface. Not so. It is a showy man advance, but though a glad cry welcomed him, then every sound sank and the crowd disposed themselves around.

[77:33]

This is not he, Sardello felt. While placed for the best troubadour, or a Boniface in his every word. So we're in a series of, but it happens again with the curtains see dividing. Not even a rule. I mean, it's again as if in a dream, a dream scene, and 169, 177, the same thing again. Meanwhile, sounds low and drear stole on him, and a noise of footsteps nearer and nearer. While the underwood was pushed aside, the larches grazed, the dead leaves crushed at the approach of men. The wind seemed laid, only the trees shrunk slightly, and a shade came o'er the sky, although it was midday yet. You saw each half-shut town cast flower at flutter. A Roman bride, when they'd disparted her unbound dresses with the sabine dart, holding that famous rape in memory still, felt creeping to her curls

[78:35]

the iron chill, and looked thus, Eglemore would say. Indeed, tis Eglemore. No other. These proceed home, hither in the woods. To her, surely sweet, far from the scene of one's forlorn defeat to sleep, judged not oak. And 656 again, as a pardon. This is the great age of soft-core pornography. Also, it's the great age of pornography, but the soft-core was quite before the imagist, symbolist, to be gorgeously present. Oh, yes. Then we have 655. Weeks, months, years went by, and lo, Sordello vanished utterly, sundered in twain. Each spectral part at strife with each, one jarred against another life, the poet thwarting hopelessly the man

[79:37]

who, fooled no longer, free in fancy ran here, there, let slip no opportunities as pitiful forsooth beside the prize to drop on him some no time, and acquit his constant faith, the poet's half, the poet half's to wit, that waving any compromise between no joy and all joy, kept the hunger keen beyond most methods, of incurring scoff from the man portion, not to be put off with self-reflecting by the poet's scheme, though ne'er so bright, who sauntered forth in dream, dressed anyhow, nor weighted mystic frames, immeasurable gifts, astounding claims, but just his sorry self, who yet might be sorrier for aught he in reality achieved, so pinioned man's the poet part, fondling in turn a fancy verse, the art developing his soul a thousand ways, potent in its assistance to amaze the mother do the majesties, convince each sort of nature that the nature's prince

[80:39]

accosted it. Language, the makeshift, grew into a bravest of expedients too. Apollo, seemed it now, perverse, had thrown quiver and bow away, the lyre alone sufficed. While out of dream his day's work wanted to tune a crazy denzen or servant, so hampered him the man part, thrust to judge between the bard and the bard's audience, grudge a minute's toil that missed its due reward. But the complete sordello, man and bard, John's cloud-girt angel, this foot on land, that on the sea, with open in his hand a bitter sweetling of a book, was gone. I'm going to read this passage again for a series of transitions and we've got enough, but this is in book two and it begins at line 656 to go through this man portion

[81:41]

of this business where he's sundered. I'll read it from the sundering because the sundering is also, if you remember the image, you might pass this to the back, that one came a little later. I'll get the page for that. Not that Browning was looking at this image, but we do have two, at this point, 114, since Durr also was struck by it. Durr did a great series on the images and John of Patmos. After reading this passage through, I think I'll talk a little about the book because that's what I see in that image. It's a very potent one for our, potent anyway, all the way through poetry, but as the poem merges more and more with the challenge of what is in relation to the book and remember, Browning is writing books, Sardello is a book. Weeks, months, years went by

[82:41]

and lo, Sardello vanished utterly, sundered in twain. Each spectral part in strife with each, one jarred against another life, the poet thwarting hopelessly the man who fooled no longer free and fancy rat here, there. Let no opportunities, I think what we're faced here is the destiny that the constant defining and making of soul lays on the poet. I remember in early, in college years, in my early 20s, often, and I didn't have, I didn't even have a handful to be disposed of, I think it lasted clear up until what, until late 20s, wanting really to destroy all the writing there was that I'd written, you know, and see if you could walk away from it free, I mean, could you possibly, already I felt, no, this is, somehow this stuff

[83:41]

that I'm writing is compelling me, who is me? I mean, I see that as man and one of the real splits between the man that might have been free, and I think in the very first session I talked about it, when you sit down and you start writing, now you are a reader and that writing is taken over and it is a directive strength. So there are two destinies and this destiny really seems to thwart the freedom of the man. And that goes along with the enthralling. That goes along with the other theme of it is the power of the poem enthralling because the man is enthralled by the poet and the poet in turn would enthrall the audience and the audience would be enthralled and would have a constant production of a kind of enslavement, a laying down of a destiny. But there's something about the squawk from the man portion, which is another part

[84:42]

of the, I hear in this, I think I hear it right, that we're dealing with the one, the kind of pathos that a William Carlos Williams says, I am a poet, I am a poet in the middle of Patterson and Pound and Williams write match-o letters back and forth to each other to disclaim that they have any poetry, poetic sensibilities and that they're not going to be caught by these themes and so forth. They try to break through and show Jesus man talk as fast as they can do it. The poet thwarting hopelessly the man in capital letters who fooled no longer free and fancy ran. Okay. The poet has his constant faith. The poet has to quit his constant faith. The poet has to wit that waiving any compromise between no joy and all joy kept the hunger keen beyond most methods of incurring scoff from the man portion not to be put off with self-reflecting by the poet scheme though ne'er so bright. Remember, Sardallo

[85:42]

is most sure of his women as an audience. That's quite clear in the beginning, his Delians. And after being in court and coming up to Medager and coming into his competition and defeating Aglamore, killing Aglamore in defeat, and then in the place of the Delians, the crowd appears. And when he's really heartbroken about the position he's in, he keeps wanting to go back to the Delians. I mean, the Delians. Finally, of course, back to the stone maidens who have sinned themselves but the primary picture of an audience of women for the poet, the minute it comes up, the next stop is the poet with the poets and that is a contest exactly like the war because Aglamore is killed. Sardallo will supplant Aglamore although this is within a person. And so the man portion is scoffed, incurring scoff

[86:42]

from the man portion. Audience is man portion but also some man portion of self is scoffed, not to be put off with self-reflecting by the poet's scheme, though ne'er so bright, who sauntered forth in dream dressed anyhow. So Browning, remember Browning had that thing perception followed by thought and I think the thought is also self-reflecting. Now Sardallo wants to shed it and Browning comes across very strongly that moving as if you're in a dream. Not philosophy, the one that in the Victorian sense they expected the poem to be thinking, I mean to be reflective in this sense. Who sauntered forth in dream dressed anyhow, nor waited mystic frames, measurable gifts, astounding claims, but justice are in self. At least I must be grabbing something out of you because I really see that it is your sorry self in the dream who yet might be sorrier

[87:43]

for aught he in reality achieved so opinion mans the poet part fondly in turn a fancy verse. The art developing his soul a thousand ways. I think I'm right with one of the few places the word art is used. Craft is used in other things where Sardallo substitutes craft in a number of things when he wins the prize in order just to make up poetry and he begins calculating through a long part of three and two tries calculating how do you relate to audience so that the poem so we have an account that he's disheartened because the poem begins to be just what the audience requires. The art developing his soul a thousand ways potent by its assistance to amaze the multitude with majesties convince each sort of nature that the nature's prince accosted it. Language the makeshift grew into a bravest of expedience too. Apollo it seemed now seemed it now perverse had thrown

[88:43]

quiver and bow away the lyre alone sufficed. While out of dream his day's work went to tune a crazy Tenzin or Sir Ben so hampered him the man part thrust to judge between the bard and the bard's audience grudge a minute's toil that missed its due reward. But the complete Sardallo man and bard John's cloud-girt angel this foot on the land that on the sea with open book in his hand a bitter sweetling of a book was gone. I think that that picture of a poet and the poet and the proper person seen here in that in that figure of angel and book and between sea and land is a good deal

[89:47]

I think I spoke at the beginning of the fact that we that praising Robert Browning's fantasy that that it seemed to me my the group of poets following Williams and Pound particularly but it would certainly be true also of H.D. it seemed to be in a post-Freudian rejection of fantasy as such and to demand that that there be actual in other words that the man himself the woman herself as a matter of fact the man himself and the woman herself begin to be very much the question that they be that they be standing there one part that there be two with the poetic along with the poetic power so the invisible hand doesn't write the book which is the fantasy fantasy is right I mean it's still another projection but the insistence that the actual life be present in the poem Robert Browning has to come in on this poem he isn't going to let it along at all here I sit

[90:47]

on the stairs in Venice and adds himself to the that's more than a two-legged angel by the time he's added himself to those other four presences and so there's a self-portrait in depth but alright but that would only be one part and it's also not a self-portrait because if you took man and bar the bar part then has been also divided away from the man and becomes remember the two together are the angel figure but the bar part becomes pure fantasy I mean Browning's insistence on fantasy and yet he makes fun of us all the time when fantasy actually appears in it

[91:30]

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