Filreis starts his write-up of the new episode by explaining the source of the recording under discussion: "We don't alas have a recording of Crane reading this poem; nor do any recordings of Crane survive. But PennSound's Hart Crane author page includes two of Crane's poems as performed by Tennessee Williams! So before our discussion began, we listened to Williams's transatlantic/southern American inflection." He continues, "Crane the Ohioan who spent a good deal of time around working-class New Yorkers, would not have sounded this way. Yet listen and get a sense of how our talk was perhaps affected by Williams's performance. Nonetheless we heard in Crane's poem major traces of Whitman, Eliot, O'Hara, Schuyler, the Romantics (that window casement...), Samuel R. Delany, even Jack Kerouac."
You can listen to this latest program, read "The Harbor Dawn," and learn more about the show here. PoemTalk is a joint production of PennSound and the Poetry Foundation, aided by the generous support of Nathan and Elizabeth Leight. Browse the full PoemTalk archives, spanning more than a decade, by clicking here.
