Our Life in Poetry: Auden in New York

Poetry course with Michael Braziller and David Lehman.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• philoctetes
• poetry
• david
• lehman
• w.h.
• auden

[dlmlewis]

Thanks for sorting out Dave Lehman's ancient Greek, JamBrop. Though Lehman's pronunciation of ancient Greek may not be as exemplary as yours, he does seem to know a thing or two about the lecture topic - WH Auden!

[cieobt2]

FYI: Correct, @crazymarine: Philoctetes (Φιλοκτήτης) Philoctētēs, or stess on the penultimate (next to last) syllable.

Alas, I, too, pretend, at times, to know anything, but, as a non-existing illusion, I lie.

[JamBrop]

@crazyxmarine I'm not sure where you're coming from on this. Anger, jealousy, whatever. I'm not in the habit of adding to You Tube comments, but I can't abide a Greek mistake. He did not pronounce Philoctetes correctly. You showed your ignorance by saying he did. The emphasis is on the first TE sound; one should say philoct-TAY-tease. Few professors know Greek these days. Particularly English professors, and I speak as someone trained as a classicist who now works among English Professors.

[crazyxmarine]

this is the horror of post-post-post-post (ad nausea) modern poetry & poetics; mid & sub mediocre poets allying themselves with a fabulous name & TRUE poet such as Wystan Auden... Dave Lehman's almost old enough to have known Auden, and how much he DESPISED this kind of academic bullshit! & then the silly preamble about not knowing how to pronounce "Philoctetes" (Fill Oct Ta Teez) he got it right, by god, as if that's a surprise, a dried up old professor not knowing Greek!

[andrewnorris1]

What an interesting lecture, in such conducive surroundings. I recently began to read Auden and this lecture has helped me to find a way into Auden's work. Thanks

[2bsirius]

Another good series.