Poems at Dusk
The poet WB Yeats worked long into old age and strove to articulate the experience of physical decrepitude - and George Oppen suffered from Alzheimer's Deisease at the end of his life. Peter Simonsen gives an introduction to the both.
Poems at Dusk
Poet and critic Peter Simonsen introduces us to the final works of WB Yeats who worked long into old age and strove to articulate the experience of physical decrepitude. Peter also offers us a haunting reading of the great Objectivist poet George Oppen's The Tongues. The sparse and fractured nature of the poem makes perfect sense when we learn that, at the end of his life, Oppen was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease which slowly but surely robbed him of the ability to speak and process words.
Peter Simonsen: BBC Radio 4; 28. november 2020
PodCast: BBC Radio 4 (until December 5th, 2020)
Poet and critic Peter Simonsen introduces us to the final works of WB Yeats who worked long into old age and strove to articulate the experience of physical decrepitude. Peter also offers us a haunting reading of the great Objectivist poet George Oppen's The Tongues. The sparse and fractured nature of the poem makes perfect sense when we learn that, at the end of his life, Oppen was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease which slowly but surely robbed him of the ability to speak and process words.
Peter Simonsen: BBC Radio 4; 28. november 2020
PodCast: BBC Radio 4 (until December 5th, 2020)