George Oppen: October 29, 1969 - Poetry Center Digital Archive

George Oppen: October 29, 1969 (Updated a year ago)

The Poetry Center presents a return reading (following his early 1968 Poetry Center reading) by George Oppen, in honor of his receiving the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for his book Of Being Numerous. Oppen begins with "the last two poems from a new group of poems," the first a poem resembling "The Translucent Mechanics" only in its title, and the second, "But So As By Fire," the final poem in his sequence "Some San Francisco Poems," to appear in his successive book, Seascape: Needle's Eye. He then reads the two long poems in sections, "Route" in its entirety and nearly all sections from "Of Being Numerous."

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The Poetry Center presents George Oppen in his third reading for The Poetry Center, following earlier appearances in 1963 (with Charles Reznikoff) and in early 1968.

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Added to Poetry Center Digital Archive on August 17, 2015.

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Information

Originally Recorded By: APA
Location: San Francisco State University
Date: 10/29/1969
Total Run Time: 0:46:40
Contributor: Mark Linenthal

Audio Content:
- Opening remarks and introduction by Mark Linenthal, on Oppen's recent Pulitzer Prize, his "Imagist background," a comparison with Wallace Stevens, and citation from section 8 of Oppen's long poem "Route" (0:00)
- Brief remarks by Oppen; suggests to barking dog's owner "You'd better take him out" (4:35)
- "The Transparent Mechanics" [sic] (5:30)
- Feedback, adjusts microphone (7:47)
- "But So As By Fire" (8:35)
- "Route, 1-14" (10:02)
- from "Of Being Numerous" (24:12)
- Applause, followed by Mark Linenthal's closing remarks (7:47)