Nocturne of Remembered Spring
Conrad Aiken
What Spoon River Anthology does for a Midwestern small town, Turns and Movies does for the world of vaudeville. Like Masters, like Aiken: passions, betrayals, secrets, sins, victories, defeats, and inevitable losing struggles against age and death are the stuff of this work. And that's only the first part of the book.
The rest of the book consists of a set of four long poems: Discordants, Evensong, Disenchantment and This Dance of Life. In these poems Aiken takes on a subject that strikes home now just as much as it did then: what happens to love when the flame of romance flickers, or even goes out?
Aiken's men - he always writes from a man's point of view - make a variety of decisions, but for Aiken, the underlying determinant of all of those choices, for good or ill, is the ongoing, quiet, patient force of life itself:
"A light wind blew; the curtains stirred;
The east grew pale; a sleepy bird
Sang a few notes, then life was still:
A calm, unhurrying, soulless will."
Aiken's words may be a almost a century old, but they still speak powerfully today. Enjoy!
Author - Conrad Aiken.
Narrator - Robert Bethune.
Published Date - Thursday, 19 January 2023.
Location:
United States
Networks:
Conrad Aiken
Robert Bethune
Early Poetry of Conrad Aiken
Freshwater Seas
English Audiobooks
Findaway Audiobooks
Description:
What Spoon River Anthology does for a Midwestern small town, Turns and Movies does for the world of vaudeville. Like Masters, like Aiken: passions, betrayals, secrets, sins, victories, defeats, and inevitable losing struggles against age and death are the stuff of this work. And that's only the first part of the book. The rest of the book consists of a set of four long poems: Discordants, Evensong, Disenchantment and This Dance of Life. In these poems Aiken takes on a subject that strikes home now just as much as it did then: what happens to love when the flame of romance flickers, or even goes out? Aiken's men - he always writes from a man's point of view - make a variety of decisions, but for Aiken, the underlying determinant of all of those choices, for good or ill, is the ongoing, quiet, patient force of life itself: "A light wind blew; the curtains stirred; The east grew pale; a sleepy bird Sang a few notes, then life was still: A calm, unhurrying, soulless will." Aiken's words may be a almost a century old, but they still speak powerfully today. Enjoy! Author - Conrad Aiken. Narrator - Robert Bethune. Published Date - Thursday, 19 January 2023.
Language:
English
Chapter 1
Duration:00:00:13
Chapter 2
Duration:00:08:44
Chapter 3
Duration:00:10:51
Chapter 4
Duration:00:03:37
Chapter 5
Duration:00:08:44
Chapter 6
Duration:00:10:50
Chapter 7
Duration:00:12:55
Chapter 8
Duration:00:06:47
Chapter 9
Duration:00:08:36
Chapter 10
Duration:00:22:53
Chapter 11
Duration:00:15:18
Chapter 12
Duration:00:16:46
Chapter 13
Duration:00:18:07
Chapter 14
Duration:00:00:52