George Oppen: October 29, 1969

Click here to listen to this audio file

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 Eye3m>. He then reads the two long poems in sections, "Route" in its entirety and nearly all sections from "Of Being Numerous."

Originally Recorded By
APA
Location
San Francisco State University
Date
10/29/1969
Total Run Time
0:46:40
Contributor
Mark Linenthal
Rights
©© American Poetry Archives. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For all other uses please email poetry@sfsu.edu
Views
3832
Downloads
1138
  • 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)

Related Items

George Oppen: February 21, 1968 William Carlos Williams: May 19, 1955 Charles Reznikoff and George Oppen: February 19, 1963 Joseph Donahue, The George Oppen Memorial Lecture: December 14, 2013 Shipwreck near the Hook of Holland. Charles Reznikoff: March 21, 1974 Mark Linenthal: May 30, 1965 Divya Victor, The George Oppen Memorial Lecture: December 9, 2023 Sotère Torregian and William Everson: December 15, 1976 Louis Zukofsky — USA: Poetry, NET Outtakes Series: March 16, 1966 John Ashbery — USA: Poetry, NET Outtakes Series: March 4 & 6, 1966 1963.064 Robinson Jeffers Memorial Program: December 4, 1962 Bill Berkson, Jim Carroll, Anne Waldman: October 10, 1974 2000.316 2001.188 Tyrone Williams, The George Oppen Memorial Lecture: December 6, 2019 Shipwreck. Gregory Pardlo: December 1, 2015 John Hawkes, Herbert Kubly, Wright Morris: March 12, 1965