The hosts talk about some verses from Essential Pleasures, Robert Pinsky’s anthology of poems meant to be read aloud. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Essential Pleasures Poetry”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
Lately I’ve been having a lot of fun with a collection of poetry. It was edited by the former poet laureate Robert Pinsky. And the book is called Essential Pleasures. And these, Grant, are poems chosen specifically because of the pure pleasure of reading them aloud.
Oh, okay.
It’s really cool, and it even includes a CD of Pinsky reading several of the poems. And I tell you, the one that caught my eye, or I should say caught my ear, is one that was a description of, of all things, a headache. And I want to read some of it to you, okay?
Okay, please.
When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache and repose is tabooed by anxiety, I conceive you may use any language you choose to indulge in without impropriety, for your brain is on fire. The bedclothes conspire of usual slumber to plunder you. First your counterpane goes and uncovers your toes, and your sheet slips demurely from under you. Then the blanketing tickles. You feel like mixed pickles, so terribly sharp is the pricking. And you’re hot in your cross, and you tumble and toss till there’s nothing twixt you in the ticking.
And then it goes on to describe this really crazy dream, and then get this when the person wakes up. You’re a regular wreck with a crick in your neck, and no wonder you snore for your head’s on the floor, and you’ve needles and pins from your soles to your shins, and your flesh is a creep for your left leg’s asleep, and you’ve cramp in your toes, and a fly on your nose, and some fluff in your lung, and a feverish tongue, and that thirst that’s intense, and a general sense that you haven’t been sleeping in clover.
But the darkness has passed, and it’s daylight at last, and the night has been long, ditto, ditto my song, and thank goodness they’re both of them over.
I love that description of a headache, Grant.
That’s beautiful.
Yes, it doesn’t sound anything like a headache, does it?
That sounds like a jaunt.
Well, to me, it sounds like a headache. All those harsh case sounds and the frantic rush of images and sounds at the end.
Do you know who that was from?
I don’t know.
W.S. Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame. But it was interesting to see his verse from a libretto in a book of poetry. You don’t really see that kind of thing, but I thought it was a terrific reminder of what the sound of poetry can do.
Yeah, that’s wonderful, Martha. And that book again is?
The book again is called Essential Pleasures. It’s edited by Robert Pinsky.
Well, is there one particular poem that you love purely for its sound or the way that it marries sound and sense? Let us know. Call us at 1-877-929-9673 or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
