Here's a recording of me reading one of the poems from my Mini-Con poetry appreciation class. I want to share lots of the content with the readers of my blog, but you guys will have to forgive me my many flaws, including sound quality, as this was recorded with a camera and not anything super special.
But still, my motto is that the perfect is the enemy of the good. So here's my reading of Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night."
I read this poem after explaining that knowing something about the circumstances of a poem's composition could increase the reader's enjoyment. Thomas wrote this poem near the end of his father's life, as his dad was going blind. Thomas hated seeing his father give up and stop living; he wanted his dad to exert himself to action, to go out with a bang instead of a whimper. I like this poem so much because it is such a rousing a call to value pursuit and because it's forward driving rhythm and its repetition really do sound like a person trying to argue and cajole another into action.
8/8/10
