Recorded at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe, New Mexico on January 22, 2003.
Helen Vendler, the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University, is one of the most influential critics of contemporary poetry in the United States. Her books include Wallace Stevens: Words Chosen Out of Desire; The Music of What Happens: Poems, Poets, and Critics; Seamus Heaney; and Yeat’s Vision and the Later Plays.
A distinguished scholar, she has published acclaimed books on the odes of Keats and on the sonnets of Shakespeare, as well as reviews for The New Yorker, The New Republic, and The New York Review of Books.
You may learn more about this event on the Lannan website.
Dear Ms. Vendler:
I heard you on NPR tonight; very good interview. I did not realize that Emily’s poems were so short and rhymed. I write rhymed poems myself and like that style. I have two CDs of poems with music background which I would be pleased to send you if you wish. Please send your snail-mail address if you would like to hear them. One can play them on a car CD player if one wishes.
I am a retired sailor of the United States Navy and have endured many interesting and dangerous years of service including Vietnam service. I often thought that this has added to my approbation, and view of life as evident in some of my poems.
Thank you and best regards, Robert E. Browne CPO, USN, Ret. rebrowne@centurytel.net