The Still Centre (Audio, Faber)

Spender, Stephen

ISBN 10: 0140863966 ISBN 13: 9780140863963

Publisher: Penguin Audio, 1997

Synopsis

Stephen Spender reading from his own poetry, Audio book on Cassette

About this title

From AudioFile:

Recorded shortly before Spender's death in 1995, this retrospective offers a selection of poems that spans his lifetime. Spender writes with quiet eloquence about his family, war and personal memories. Spender's voice--refined without being overly British--is well suited to his poems, calm and thoughtful. What makes this program even more enjoyable, however, are the anecdotes that Spender includes between poems, insights into the poetic process, as well as comments about poet-friends like W.H. Auden. P.B.J. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Library Journal:

Listening to Irish poet Heaney, one hears familiar words in unfamiliar yet lyrical cadences. Recordings of Dylan Thomas reading come readily to mind. Heaney spends little time on commentary; his short poems often run into each other, a movement that enhances the sense of his work as a whole. Whether he's writing about mythology, friends, and family or gazing outwardly at strangers, the intensity and craft of this Nobel laureate are unfaltering. In 1995, Spender was one of the few survivors from the generation of British poets who came of age between the world wars. This elegant tape offers a retrospective from the poems of his idealistic student days, through marriage, elegies for friends and family dead before their time, to poems for his children and grandchildren. Commenting on the poems (and thus on his life), he transforms the recording studio into an intimate drawing room. Spender died shortly after this tape was produced, making it a poignant testimonial. Both tapes are highly recommended.?Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0140863966
• ISBN 13: 9780140863963
• Binding: Audio Cassette
• Edition number: 1