Dear Poetry Friends
23 SEPTEMBER 2020 – THE NEW ONLINE LECTURE
BOOKING OPEN NOW
Born as he was in 1572, John Donne was an Elizabethan, but as far as poetic fashion and convention went, young Donne from the word ‘go’ busied himself paving the future ground of English verse rather than trying to build an extension onto its past.
As suddenly as a bee in summer is how this ‘own man’ of a poet comes past your ear; only, this bee thrums an insistent message, assertive yet confiding. Donne’s sound and sense technicolour is one that Elizabethans felt, and readers like us still feel, they and we have never seen or heard the like of before. This sensation is one he will bring off again in the lecture I have recorded about him for release on September 23. There is more on Donne, and on how to book this recording, on my Events page, clickable here at https://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/johndonne-metaphysical-love-poet-2.
NOTES ON HOW TO WATCH AND LISTEN TO THE JOHN DONNE TALK
As the talk has been recorded, you need no special equipment to view it, other than a computer or laptop.
The talk does not go out at a particular time, and Zoom is not involved. Instead, it is available on YouTube at one click, accessible to everyone who books for it. On September 23, 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 John Donne page to which the above link will take you, green for £GBP and blue for $USD. As you will see from the Donne page, you do not need a PayPal account to book the talk (£10), simply a debit or credit card.
Your booking for Donne will be acknowledged promptly. I will be sending all bookers the link to the Donne recording first thing on September 23. The Donne talk recording will also be bookable, in the same way, after September 23.
OCTOBER 2020 ONLINE
The October talk will be on Thomas Hardy, Poet and will be released on October 20. Full details will appear on the website from September 24.
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://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/events. New Covid regulations permitting, Brendon Books at the Brewhouse Theatre and Arts Centre in Taunton (Shakespeare The Poet 6 Oct) and Café Sladers in West Bay (Akhmatova 27 Nov – please note change of date) are ready to welcome live audiences again. In both venues, thorough attention is being paid to social distancing, safety and comfort.
RECORDINGS IN THIS 2020 ONLINE SERIES AVAILABLE NOW
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Romantic and fantastic poet of the imagination
Coleridge was a magician of the word, an irresistible poet of nature and imagination, a wildly inventive writer . . .
**More on Coleridge at https://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/coleridge-romantic-poetry-mariner-2
ON THE COLERIDGE LECTURE
“Your lectures seamlessly blend exposition with the poems. I’m off now to Kubla and the Mariner”. (Charles Porter, San Luis Obispo)
D H LAWRENCE, POET Poet of human and animal creatures, love, 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. . . ** More on Lawrence at https://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/dhlawrence-2
ON THE LAWRENCE LECTURE
“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. . . 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)
WALT 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.
** More on Whitman at https://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/walt-whitman
ON THE WHITMAN LECTURE
“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!” (Keith Chandler, Bridgnorth, Shropshire)
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. . .
** More on Wordsworth at https://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/williamwordsworth
ON THE WORDSWORTH LECTURE
“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)
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.
** More on Edward Thomas at https://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/edwardthomas
ON THE EDWARD THOMAS LECTURE
“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)
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.
** More on Poetry Is Communication at https://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/event/poetryiscommunication
ON THE POETRY IS COMMUNICATION LECTURE
“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)
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.
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://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/events. They can view the present newsletter at https://www.grahamfawcett.co.uk/blog