"A Lovely Wallpaper" offers up guided memorizations, featuring a new poem
each episode.
Proposing memory work as a challenge to the ephemeral language of our moment, host Abby
delivers
an exploration of each new poem in two parts. In the first act, she chats with a guest
about poetry and
memory. In the second act, she presents the episode's poem, as read by her guest, in a
special format
designed to work as a roadmap to learning it by heart.
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"A Lovely Wallpaper" offers up guided memorizations, featuring a new poem
each episode.
Proposing memory work as a challenge to the ephemeral language of our moment, host Abby
delivers
an exploration of each new poem in two parts. In the first act, she chats with a guest
about poetry and
memory. In the second act, she presents the episode's poem, as read by her guest, in a
special format
designed to work as a roadmap to learning it by heart.
In this episode, Abby interviews Susie Boyt, author of several books, among them the novel Loved and Missed and the memoir My Judy Garland Life. Together, they present the poem "Piping Down the Valleys Wild," by William Blake. Recitation begins at 25:10
Piping Down the Valleys Wild William Blake
Piping down the valleys wild, Piping songs of pleasant glee, On a cloud I saw a child, And he laughing said to me:—
"Pipe a song about a lamb:" So I piped with merry cheer. "Piper, pipe that song again:" So I piped: he wept to hear.
"Drop thy pipe, thy happy pipe, Sing thy songs of happy cheer!" So I sang the same again, While he wept with joy to hear.
"Piper, sit thee down and write In a book, that all may read—" So he vanished from my sight; And I plucked a hollow reed,
And I made a rural pen, And I stained the water clear, And I wrote my happy songs Every child may joy to hear.
A Lovely Wallpaper
"A Lovely Wallpaper" offers up guided memorizations, featuring a new poem
each episode.
Proposing memory work as a challenge to the ephemeral language of our moment, host Abby
delivers
an exploration of each new poem in two parts. In the first act, she chats with a guest
about poetry and
memory. In the second act, she presents the episode's poem, as read by her guest, in a
special format
designed to work as a roadmap to learning it by heart.
