CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
8305
Partner Institution:
University of Calgary
Source Collection Label:
Alden Nowlan fonds
Sub Series:
Alden Nowlan fonds
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Title:
Alden reading poems
Title Source:
Transcribed from the artifact
Language:
English
Production Context:
Documentary recording
Identifiers:
[3.1.1]
Rights
Rights:
In Copyright (InC)
Notes:
Enters Public Domain at the end of 2032
CREATORS
Name:
Nowlan, Alden
Dates:
1933-1983
CONTRIBUTORS
MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Cassette
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/8 inch
Side:
A and B
Tape Brand:
Scotch Highlander
Sound Quality:
Good
Physical Condition:
Good
DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION
Duration:
T00:58:32
Size:
107.17 MB
Dates
Type:
Performance Date
Notes:
[after 1980]. (poems from I Might Not Tell Everyone This, which was published in 1982)
LOCATION
CONTENT
Contents:
Alden Nowlan
[00:00:00]
Reads "God sour the milk of the knacking wench".
Alden Nowlan
[00:00:45]
Reads "Marian at the Pentecostal Meeting".
Alden Nowlan
[00:01:18]
Reads "For Nicholas of All the Russias".
Alden Nowlan
[00:02:33]
Reads "Poem [for Helen and Martha Knox]".
Alden Nowlan
[00:03:25]
Reads "Beginning".
Alden Nowlan
[00:04:27]
Reads "Aunt Jane".
Alden Nowlan
[00:05:12]
Reads "The Anatomy of Angels".
Alden Nowlan
[00:05:59]
Reads "Looking for Nancy".
Alden Nowlan
[00:06:49]
Reads "Homecoming".
Alden Nowlan
[00:07:27]
Reads "Stars".
Alden Nowlan
[00:08:22]
Reads "The Bull Moose".
Alden Nowlan
[00:10:49]
Reads "Dancer".
Alden Nowlan
[00:12:16]
Reads "The Execution".
Alden Nowlan
[00:13:19]
Reads "I, Icarus".
Alden Nowlan
[00:15:09]
Reads "Footsteps in the Dark".
Alden Nowlan
[00:16:44]
Reads "The Palomino Stallion".
Alden Nowlan
[00:17:29]
Reads "My Beard, Once Lionheart Red".
Alden Nowlan
[00:21:30]
Reads "Word From the Losers".
Alden Nowlan
[00:23:37]
Reads "'Why So Sad My Dear?' Said Queen Anne".
Alden Nowlan
[00:25:05]
Reads "He Visits the Shrine of a Saint".
Alden Nowlan
[00:28:57]
Reads "He Attempts to Love His Neighbours".
Alden Nowlan
[00:31:24]
Reads "He Sits down on the Floor of a School for the Retarded".
Alden Nowlan
[00:36:48]
Reads "The Red Wool Shirt".
Alden Nowlan
[00:39:07]
Reads "Election Song".
Alden Nowlan
[00:40:24]
Reads "It’s Good to Be Here".
Alden Nowlan
[00:41:36]
Reads "Decline and Fall".
Alden Nowlan
[00:42:48]
Reads "Fair Warning".
Alden Nowlan
[00:43:50]
Reads "A Tiger in the Dublin Zoo".
Alden Nowlan
[00:44:55]
Reads "He Grows in Understanding".
Alden Nowlan
[00:45:38]
Reads "Survival".
Alden Nowlan
[00:46:42]
Reads "The Married Man’s Poem".
Alden Nowlan
[00:47:25]
Reads "Interview".
Alden Nowlan
[00:50:17]
Reads "Plot for a Science Fiction Novel".
Alden Nowlan
[00:50:49]
Reads "The Mysterious Naked Man".
Alden Nowlan
[00:52:44]
Reads "Absolution".
Alden Nowlan
[00:53:29]
Reads "For Claudine Because I Love Her".
Alden Nowlan
[00:55:10]
Reads "A Poem About Miracles".
Alden Nowlan
[00:56:50]
Reads "X-ray".
Notes:
- [00:02:33] “Poem” subtitled “for Helen and Martha Knox, Hainesville, New Brunswick. Missionaries to Kenya, 1910-40”
o “bare-naked men, horned gods” (line 3) is read as “stark-naked men, bull gods” by Alden Nowlan
- [00:17:29] “My Beard, Once Lionheart Red”. Audio is quieter than other poems. Kitchen noises in the background.
- [00:21:16] wind chimes in background.
- [00:21:30] “Word From the Losers”
o Line 24 Alden Nowlan reads “If Lucifer got had done to God…” (“got” being an addition to the line)
- [00:25:05] “He Visits the Shrine of a Saint”
o Cut off mid-poem at - [00:26:52] to another voice testing the microphone. Returns - [00:26:57] to poem (“…he looked out / at that vast army”). Two line fragments now missing from the poem reading (“…human gesture / I’m reminded of how Xerxes felt when…”).
- [00:36:12] prefatory remarks from Alden Nowlan, trying to capture the speech patterns of “ordinary” people in various parts of Atlantic Canada
o - [00:36:48] “The Red Wool Shirt”. Reads “pegs” instead of “pins” in line 4.
- [00:39:07] “Election Song”. Includes prefatory remarks, poem is in memory of the 5th Prime Minister of Canada, “now remembered chiefly for having been totally forgotten”
- [00:41:36] “Decline and Fall”. Recording begins on line 2 of poem.
- [00:47:25] “Interview”
o - [00:48:46] Alden Nowlan reflects on his experiences with interviews—both as a journalist and as an interviewee. “I long ago concluded that an interview is much more the product of the interviewer than it is of the person being interviewed. In fact, an interview is the product of the interviewer almost in a way that a poem is the product of the poet, because the answers are shaped to such a large extent by the question. And I think this is truer with the electronic media than it is with the print media, because you can take the beginning of a sentence that the person in the interview said at 7 o’clock and connect it with the end of a sentence that he said at 11, and make a completely new sentence neither actually said.”
- [00:50:17] prefaces by saying it’s a silly little poem. “Plot for a Science Fiction Novel”
- [00:56:50] Reflections on being a rogue when sick (paraphrasing Samuel Johnson). “X-ray”
- “God sour…” – “Poem” published in Wind in a Rocky Country
- “Beginning” – “Homecoming” published in Under the Ice
- “Stars” and “Palomino” published in Playing the Jesus Game
- “Bull Moose” – “The Execution” published in The Things Which Are
- “Icarus” and “Footsteps” published in Bread, Wine and Salt
- “Beard” – “Sits” published in I Might Not Tell Everybody This
- “Red Wool” – “It’s Good” published in Smoked Glass
- “Decline” – “Science Fiction” published in Between Tears and Laughter
- “Mysterious” – “X-ray” published in The Mysterious
- “Beginning” – “Homecoming” published in Under the Ice
- “Stars” and “Palomino” published in Playing the Jesus Game
- “Bull Moose” – “The Execution” published in The Things Which Are
- “Icarus” and “Footsteps” published in Bread, Wine and Salt
- “Beard” – “Sits” published in I Might Not Tell Everybody This
- “Red Wool” – “It’s Good” published in Smoked Glass
- “Decline” – “Science Fiction” published in Between Tears and Laughter
- “Mysterious” – “X-ray” published in The Mysterious Naked Man
Significant pauses between poems. Can hear Alden Nowlan resting and readjusting in his seat, flipping pages in his book.
NOTES
RELATED WORKS
Citation:
Wind in a Rocky Country (1960), Under the Ice (1961), Playing the Jesus Game (1970), The Things Which Are (1962), Bread, Wine and Salt (1967), I Might Not Tell Everybody This (1982), Smoked Glass (1977), Between Tears and Laughter (1971), The Mysterious Naked Man (1969)