Welcome back to This Week in Poetry. Oh, I am absolutely thrilled to be back with my listeners after a break. We shall begin our new season, visiting some of the great minds who made a huge difference to the ways creativity and poetic imagination would take shape in the 20th century.
In this episode, we shall listen to couple of poems from W. B. Yeats, the Anglo, Irish poet, and two poems from the Tamil revolutionary poet of the 20th century, Bharathi Dasan.
Adam's Curse by W.B. Yeats. Professor Harold Bloom calls this poem, a wisdom meditation. Quite rightly so. Meditation on hard work, beauty and love.
A Coat by Yeats. He wrote this poem in 1914. An interesting poem about the need for a poet to be inventive, creating new rhythms, discovering new content while discarding, old coats, though embroidered and attractive. For me as a teacher, I have to keep alive the urge to be creative, inventive and enterprising. Even though as a teacher, I'm burdened with critiques and interpretations by scholars from around the world.
But then as I, walk into the class, in the words of Yeats, walk naked. Don't carry, your burdens of knowledge. No more embroideries.
Puratchi Kavingyar Bharathi Dasan. It was a major voice after Poet Bharathi. Deeply engaged, in the self-respect movement of Periyar EVR, a strong and passionate believer in Tamil nationalism, a casteless tamil society, a pure and de Sanskritised Tamil language and above all a great lover of nature.
One could find the traces of the revolutionary fervor of Shelley's poetry in poems like Sudanthiram, and Ulagappan Paattu.
That's all I have for you this week. Thanks for listening. Please do share this link with friends and families. We'll catch up with you in my next episode, with more voices from the 20th century till then stay safe and keep listening.
Episode 6 - W.B. Yeats & Bharathi Dasan
profrn.substack.com
Episode 6 - W.B. Yeats & Bharathi Dasan
This Week in Poetry
This Week in Poetry With Prof.Nedumaran is a podcast series aimed at fostering a passion for poetry through listening to select poems as they are read by an expert. <br /><br />Poetry is an auditory experience. Words, chosen and arranged by the poet when read aloud come to life lighting up the content the poet has packed in the words and sounds. A good poem brightens up our moments. It gives us the glory and the grief, the ebb and flow of life eventually, helping us understand ourselves and others in a better light. Frost said a poem is a clarification of life; it raises questions, stirs our curiosity, builds imaginary bridges to negotiate doubts and uncertainties.<br /><br />The podcast presents some of the best moments in the history of civilization. Listening to the best minds can be a very invigorating exercise, energising, entertaining and profoundly illuminating. <br /><br />Prof. R.Nedumaran with his thirty some years of teaching and living poetry at The American College, Madurai reads poems of his choice from English and Tamil Literatures for your listening pleasure.<br /><br />“The word / was born in the blood / grew in the dark body,beating / and flew through the lips and the mouth” Pablo Neruda the Latin American poet in his poem, The Word. <br /><br />Words are a source of life. Reach the source through the sounds. “ The sound makes no sense unless it is heard” Robert Frost.<br /><br />A poem is always an attempt at clarification of life. A poem is a performance.<br />Come let's perform poetry ! Let the sounds of life from the poems we read give us joy and light.<br /><br />Welcome to This Week in Poetry with Prof.Nedumaran.
This Week in Poetry With Prof.Nedumaran is a podcast series aimed at fostering a passion for poetry through listening to select poems as they are read by an expert. <br /><br />Poetry is an auditory experience. Words, chosen and arranged by the poet when read aloud come to life lighting up the content the poet has packed in the words and sounds. A good poem brightens up our moments. It gives us the glory and the grief, the ebb and flow of life eventually, helping us understand ourselves and others in a better light. Frost said a poem is a clarification of life; it raises questions, stirs our curiosity, builds imaginary bridges to negotiate doubts and uncertainties.<br /><br />The podcast presents some of the best moments in the history of civilization. Listening to the best minds can be a very invigorating exercise, energising, entertaining and profoundly illuminating. <br /><br />Prof. R.Nedumaran with his thirty some years of teaching and living poetry at The American College, Madurai reads poems of his choice from English and Tamil Literatures for your listening pleasure.<br /><br />“The word / was born in the blood / grew in the dark body,beating / and flew through the lips and the mouth” Pablo Neruda the Latin American poet in his poem, The Word. <br /><br />Words are a source of life. Reach the source through the sounds. “ The sound makes no sense unless it is heard” Robert Frost.<br /><br />A poem is always an attempt at clarification of life. A poem is a performance.<br />Come let's perform poetry ! Let the sounds of life from the poems we read give us joy and light.<br /><br />Welcome to This Week in Poetry with Prof.Nedumaran.Listen on
Substack App
RSS Feed
Appears in episode
Ramanujam Nedumaran
Episode 6 - W.B. Yeats & Bharathi Dasan