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OPEN SOURCE: New England Poetry Hour - Helen Vendler & Keith Waldrop

From: Radio Open Source with Christopher Lydon
Series: Winter 2010: Featured Shows
Length: 58:59

It's a New England poetry hour, starting with Amherst's Emily Dickinson by way of Helen Vendler, the closest of close readers of poetry, and ending with Brown University's cult-poet and verbal collager Keith Waldrop. Read the full description.

Vendo4_small Helen Vendler shows us how to swim the chilly depths of Emily Dickinson. The literary critic learned through chemistry to marvel at nature's structures and patterns. Now she ignites Miss Dickinson's precision fires, from the sublime universe down to the beetles and the bees. Then to another quilter of phrases: Keith Waldrop, Brown University's own cult-poet. He says his poems are about "having nothing to say, and saying it."

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Piece Description

Helen Vendler shows us how to swim the chilly depths of Emily Dickinson. The literary critic learned through chemistry to marvel at nature's structures and patterns. Now she ignites Miss Dickinson's precision fires, from the sublime universe down to the beetles and the bees. Then to another quilter of phrases: Keith Waldrop, Brown University's own cult-poet. He says his poems are about "having nothing to say, and saying it."