4.4 Winter, First World Poems, and Finding Life Again

“Winter Is Here” (@ 0:27) — My tribute joke to Norm Macdonald — A reason why many old poems no longer play — First world problems — Hundreds of poetry readings from 1923 to the 1950s — Listening to some during morning exercise (5 to 6 a.m.) — Wordsworth, John Donne — Donne’s “The Sun Rising” (1633) — Raging at the sun — Determines the comings and goings of lovers — Casts an imperious eye — How privileged? — A natural phenomenon an adult should be able to accept — Painstakingly, by hand, maybe with a quill and ink — “Saucy pedantic wretch” — Spinning creative wheels — Picture the scene — Waking up — How dare the sun shine when it pleases? — Guy ranting at the window — Undercutting everything I just said — Ponderous readings and readers — One early 20th century style of reading poetry — Quivery voice — This type of tone — “Wherefore must this orb of yellow” — Where did this style come from? — A product of a particular section of civilisation — Johan Huizinga — Play can very well include seriousness, whereas seriousness excludes play — Now there are all kinds of approaches — A short, immature vignette — Lost or not? — Right person or not? — Not difficult to tell — Do you end up letting go of your greatest aspirations? — Does your world get ever narrower? — Kick down the fence — Find life again — “Some thoughts from the Twilight Zone.” — The Twilight Zone largely grew out of the creations of Ray Bradbury — Discussed often in Blu-ray commentaries — Rod Serling — The Ray Bradbury Theater — Glad things worked out the way they did — The world is richer for it — Stephen Sondheim — An episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm — Officer Krupke — Krup you