20 AUGUST 2020 – THE NEW ONLINE TALK
BOOKING OPEN NOW
“With my pencil and memorandum book in my hand, I was making studies, as the artists call them, and often moulding my thoughts into verse, with the objects and imagery immediately before my senses”,
wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge of his walks in the Somerset Quantocks when he was starting out as a poet.
But Coleridge’s real fascination for us, as his genius flexed its wings, lies in his studies from the mind’s eye, culminating in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner where his image-making has the commanding qualities of dream and hallucination. Not for nothing did Coleridge give us ‘suspension of disbelief’. We need it, for him, to this day.
But how did he come by this haunting way of seeing? The spotlight falls on Coleridge – and how he became the poet he was – in the talk I have recorded about him for release on August 20. There is more on him, and on how to book this recording, on my Events page, clickable here at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/coleridge-romantic-poetry-mariner
NOTES ON HOW TO WATCH AND LISTEN TO THE COLERIDGE TALK
As the talk has been recorded, you need no special equipment to view or listen to it, other than a computer, laptop, phone or tablet. The talk does not go out at a particular time, and Zoom is not involved. Further information is available at the end of this newsletter.
OTHER ADVANCE NEWS
Latest news of upcoming summer online talks and scheduled ‘live’ events in London, West Bay and Taunton can be seen now at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/events.
RECORDINGS IN THIS 2020 ONLINE SERIES AVAILABLE NOW
D H LAWRENCE, POET
Poet of human and animal creatures, love and remembrance
This talk is for all of you who read and love poetry, whether or not you have yet discovered D H Lawrence as a poet and not only as the author of Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow and other novels.
“I must write and congratulate you on a superb lecture. I came away with a completely fresh view of Lawrence as a poet. I found your reading of ‘Snake’ an incredibly emotional experience – went and looked it up – and became more transfixed. Also very interested in his line endings or where they didn’t end … just brilliant. I do hope the research and video gave you as much pleasure as it certainly did me, and I’m sure all your other viewers”. (Celia Purcell, London)
** More on Lawrence at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/dhlawrence-2
WHITMAN
Pioneer poet of love, humanity, nature, America, epiphany
Readers – and listeners – love Walt Whitman for his extraordinary musical gifts as a poet and for his invigorating wisdom which sheds light on our lives left, right and centre as though he had been passing our house and stopped to talk to us through the window.
“Bravo! Well done! A wonderful re-introduction to the life and art of Whitman, especially suggestive as to some contemporary influences on the development of his style. Your lecture reminded me repeatedly what a copious genius Whitman is/was ,- and has sent me straight off to try to write again (after feeling increasingly stale as this Covid thing has gone on.) And all beautifully written and delivered too. Thank you!”
And, twenty-four hours later:
“Whitman really has cleared away some kind of blockage in my own mind.”(Keith Chandler, Bridgnorth, Shropshire)
** More on Whitman at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/walt-whitman
WORDSWORTH
Revolutionary Romantic poet of childhood, nature, memory
On the page he is a man of elemental and fertile stamina: his vast autobiographical masterpiece The Prelude is one of the most beautiful, engrossing, accomplished, sustained, expansive and invigorating poems in our, or any other, language. It is among the finest examples ever of the grace-giving power of nature, the recoverable buried treasure of memory, and the utterly engaging companionability of commentary as he makes space for us to walk beside him.
“Feel that I’ve met Wordsworth both again and for the first time. School-Wordsworth I learnt by heart. Now he makes much more sense to me”.
(Susie Barrett, Devon – after Wordsworth Night in Taunton)
** More on Wordsworth at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/williamwordsworth
EDWARD THOMAS
Poet of Adlestrop, nature and the War
Walter de la Mare said Thomas’s aim had been “to express the truth about himself and his reality”. This throws light on how poetry suddenly surfaced in him: it was there all the time, in the glorious pastoral eloquence of his prose in praise of place and nature.
“Delivered very poignantly and emotionally. Rather than scratching the surface or providing a mere linear literary history, you seemed to enter into the head and mind-set of the poet. A tour de force”.
(Nicky Merry, Chichester – after Edward Thomas Night in West Bay, Dorset)
** More on Edward Thomas at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/edwardthomas
POETRY IS COMMUNICATION
Poems that connect with us
Graham invites his audience to live and re-live their own personal relationship with all the poetry they have ever read and listened to since they were old enough to find pleasure and meaning in it, so that they go away at the end not only remembering what has always communicated and meant so much to them but cherishing its depths afresh, even as though for the first time.
“I finally managed to sit down and listen to Poetry is Communication (my own delay) and enjoyed it very much indeed. It is wonderful, for a start, to have all that poetry read to one, but then to have your wise and imaginative thought linking it all together is a stimulating and restorative blessing after a day of sadness for the world and personal fatigue and frustration brought on by internet incompetence!” (Brenda Herbert, London)
More on Poetry Is Communication at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/poetryiscommunication
TELLING OTHERS
Do forward this newsletter to any friends and contacts who may be interested.
If you would like to make someone a present of one of these talks, just let me have the contact details of the person you would like to receive it and then book your chosen talk in the usual way.
SEPTEMBER ONLINE
The September talk will be on John Donne and will be released on September 23. Full details will appear on the website on August 21.
FURTHER INFORMATION ON HOW TO ACCESS THE COLERIDGE TALK
The talk is available on YouTube at one click, accessible to everyone who books for it. On August 20, bookers will be sent links to the talk, which you can then choose either to watch on YouTube or listen to as a downloadable audio podcast.
There are two Buy Now buttons on the Coleridge page to which the above link will take you, green for £GBP and blue for $USD. As you will see from the Coleridge page, you do not need a PayPal account to book the talk (£10), simply a debit or credit card.
Your booking for Coleridge will be acknowledged promptly. I will be sending all bookers the link to the Coleridge recording during the day on August 20. The Coleridge talk recording will also be bookable, in the same way, after August 20.
All best wishes
Graham
P.S. If you have friends who might be interested in receiving my newsletter each month, do point them in the direction of the Newsletter Sign Up feature on the Events page at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/events. They can view the present newsletter at https://grahamfawcett.co.uk/blog.