"Continuing to Live" by Philip Larkin (poetry reading)

[silharima]

A marvelous reading! Nothing compares to hearing a poem delivered by its author.

[SpokenVerse]

@silharima Thank you for your kind words, but I'm not Philip Larkin. I'm Tom O'Bedlam and I read everything in the SpokenVerse channel. I hope yopu will listen to a few more.

[silharima]

@SpokenVerse Well, you have out-Larkin'd the original! And I still enjoyed the reading immensely. I'm already subscribed to your channel, so I ought to have recognized this one -- but let's just blame absent-mindedness.

[thallassocracy]

I think I agree with you that Larkin's despair was a fruit of his selfishness: he reminds me of Horace, who also never married (but had a collection of pornography even Augustus envied).

This is a fine reading, it does justice to the piece.

Setting the poem in this typeface however seems to me actually to slightly improve on Larkin:- it foregrounds a power in the poem Larkin hasn't made as explicit as he might have.

I hope you have turned it into a poster somewhere - it deserves at least that.

[tyrelcorp2004]

That's my painting - The Dead Poet , a portrait i did for the owner. You can see it at my web site petertartaglia "forget it jake, it's chinatown"

[SpokenVerse]

@tyrelcorp2004 Yes, there's a link in the notes.  If you want me to remove it, I will.

[tyrelcorp2004]

not at all! i enjoyed seeing it again. pete t

[tyrelcorp2004]

@tyrelcorp2004 how did you get a link in there? can you let me know how?

[bluecliff03]

joseph brodsky once said that he was a "biological determinist"

but, what I think it means is that man's love has to be greater than his in built love. the genetic code makes its little love a necessity

this love is, to me at least, inherently a sham

[SelfishMonologues]

Nice!

[liz1060]

I channeled Mr. Larkin for a fleeting moment while reading the paragraph that begins "We feel a sense of reward if others are surviving and prospering --" misreading, as I reached the last sentence, "Nothing could be more odious." -- heheh ...