recommendation for a programme both informative and entertaining

[mint]

Here goes, especially for Norman and others who like the poetry of WB Yeats:

[ur]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b076qphj[/url]

Norman, I seem to recall discussing "Down by the Sally Gardens" with you on the "listening thread" and I think we briefly touched on WB Yeats.

I thoroughly enjoyed this programme and, besides revealing aspects of WB Yeats that I didn't know about, it also discloses some aspects of Geldof himself.

Edit:  [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b076qphj[/url]  Have had another going at making the link live and I hope it works!

[Loiseau]

Thank you for that recommendation, mint!

I have just spent a most enjoyable time watching the film, full of admiration for Geldof's presentation, and for all the wonderful assortment of readers.

Angela

[NormanH]

Was this one in there?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLt_OuzW9n0

[cajal]

The Muppet Show?

regards

cajal

[Loiseau]

QUOTE Norman

Was this one in there?

Yes, Norman. The most amazing line-up of readers, from Edna O'Brien to Bono. Beautiful words, of course.

Angela

[NormanH]

Except that as often the best things were cut into bleeding chunks (the clip I linked to above was mangled horribly) and other readers wre quite incompetent, such as Bono and some  Van somebody.

Why can't we have whole poems (or pieces when it is a programme abou Music) read or played by  good interpretors?

The exception was the Liam Neeson above which I feel is read most intelligently...if you watch my clip which has the whole poem, not the snippet quoted.

And don't get me started on the idiotic Geldorf and his needless effing and blinding and cod analysis.

 

[mint]

Oh, Norman, you are such a purist, toi![:D]

And yes, I do understand what you mean about the chopping up of poems and music into "bleeding chunks"[6]  I, too, have often been exasperated to the point of screaming at the TV.  Now that we are supposed to only have the attention span of gnats, I suppose it is their way of keeping us watching the programme.

There again, TV is an expensive medium and is prodigal of talents.  Hours of filming might only result in a couple of minutes of actual showing.  It's the entertainment value that keeps the money rolling in in order that the BBC might be able to pay millions to the likes of Jimmy Savile.  Old Lord Reith would be positively spinning in his grave, if he could only know what is going on!

In defence of chopping things up, I am not entirely condemnatory of that PROVIDED THAT IT IS DONE THOUGHTFULLY AND TASTEFULLY.  Precisely because I didn't get to hear all of the poems, I have dug up old poetry anthologies (yes, I STILL have those[:$]) and re-read many of Yeats' best known pieces.  I think that perhaps, just perhaps, they cut the poems short to encourage viewers to do a bit of work themselves and look up those that they are particularly interested in?  That gives them the benefit of the doubt and avoids blood pressures rocketing[:D]

I also have to defend Geldof on this occasion.  I thought he did know his subject well and that, his being an Irishman himself, has enabled him to provide tantalising bits of insight into Yeats the man and the poetry.

As to what the BBC so coyly and euphemistically calls "strong language", I didn't think it was overdone as I'd expected a lot more "effing and blinding", seeing that it was Geldof's programme.  It wasn't all gratuitous either as Yeats himself would probably not have been shy of using some of that language.

Like Angela, I liked the different readings by different people.  It's one way of showing that you don't have to be "posh" to enjoy poetry.............nothing wrong with sneaking in a bit of culture by the back door?[:D]

[Loiseau]

Exactly, mint. I thought the range of readers was brilliant. And it did make me want to read the whole poems (there were plenty of shots of the cover of the collection most of the readers were using!).

I normally have a bit of a switch-off about Irish history, but this made me stick with it and learn a good deal.

Angela

[NormanH]

We did get all the Second Coming (I used to have "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity" as my tag)

I missed the Wild Swans at Coole which would have gone so well with both the Coole park shots and the autumnal ones:

The trees are in their autumn beauty,   

The woodland paths are dry,

Under the October twilight the water   

Mirrors a still sky;

Upon the brimming water among the stones   

Are nine-and-fifty swans.

The nineteenth autumn has come upon me   

Since I first made my count;

I saw, before I had well finished,

All suddenly mount

And scatter wheeling in great broken rings   

Upon their clamorous wings.

I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,   

And now my heart is sore.

All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,   

The first time on this shore,

The bell-beat of their wings above my head,   

Trod with a lighter tread.

Unwearied still, lover by lover,

They paddle in the cold

Companionable streams or climb the air;   

Their hearts have not grown old;

Passion or conquest, wander where they will,   

Attend upon them still.

But now they drift on the still water,   

Mysterious, beautiful;   

Among what rushes will they build,

By what lake's edge or pool

Delight men's eyes when I awake some day   

To find they have flown away?

and Never give all the heart which would have helped illuminate his attitude to women, and I reckon Maud Gomme

Never give all the heart, for love

Will hardly seem worth thinking of

To passionate women if it seem

Certain, and they never dream

That it fades out from kiss to kiss;

For everything that’s lovely is

But a brief, dreamy, kind delight.

O never give the heart outright,

For they, for all smooth lips can say,

Have given their hearts up to the play.

And who could play it well enough

If deaf and dumb and blind with love?

He that made this knows all the cost,

For he gave all his heart and lost.

and of course that great admission of impotence before a demanding lover

Michael Robartes bids his Beloved be at Peace

I HEAR the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,
Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;
The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,
The East her hidden joy before the morning break,
The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,	5
The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:
O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,
The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:
Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat
Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast,	10
Drowning love’s lonely hour in deep twilight of rest,
And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet.

[mint]

Yes, Norman, I remember that tag line of yours and it was one of the clues for me that you are an admirer of Yeats' work.

I love the extracts you have picked and you hear all the nostalgia and longing and regret and remembered joy.  And don't we all have just such things we have experienced to talk about, lacking only Yeats' ability to put them into such elegant verse?

I have often thought of that line of his about education not being a pail to be filled but it lighting a fire (I forget the exact words so excuse the paraphrase).

And the hopelessness and futility of "Life is a long preparation for something that never happens".

[NormanH]

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

―

W.B. Yeats

That and many others can be found here:

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/29963.W_B_Yeats

One he wrote specially for WB is:

Imitated from the Japanese

A most astonishing thing

Seventy years have I lived;

(Hurrah for the flowers of Spring

For Spring is here again.)

Seventy years have I lived

No ragged beggar man,

Seventy years have I lived,

Seventy years man and boy,

And never have I danced for joy.

-- William Butler Yeats