CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
8335
Partner Institution:
University of Calgary
Source Collection Title:
Earle Birney fonds
Source Collection ID:
Source Collection Contributing Unit:
University of Calgary, Archives and Special Collections
Source Collection URI:
Source Collection Image URL:
ITEM DESCRIPTION
Title:
Earle Birney reading from a manuscript called Poems new or revised.
Title Source:
Transcribed from the artifact
Title Note:
Label of recording title and included poems taped to box. Box stamped JS 0X6.
Language:
English
Production Context:
Studio recording
Identifiers:
[7.1]
Rights
Rights:
The Public Domain Mark (PDM)
CREATORS
Name:
Birney, Earle
Dates:
1904-1995
CONTRIBUTORS
MATERIAL DESCRIPTION
Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Reel to Reel
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Extent:
1/4 inch
Playing Speed:
7 1/2 ips
Tape Brand:
CBC Radio - Canada
Sound Quality:
Excellent
Physical Condition:
Good
DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION
Duration:
T00:30:01
Size:
494.72 MB
Dates
Date:
1966
Type:
Performance Date
Notes:
[1966]. Performance date supplied from creation dates listed for item level descriptions in archival finding aid for the Earle Birney fonds Item number 7.1
LOCATION
CONTENT
Contents:
Earle Birney
[00:00:24]
Reads "Alaska Passage".
Earle Birney
[00:01:34]
Reads "Buildings".
Earle Birney
[00:03:13]
Reads "Christmas Comes".
Earle Birney
[00:06:01]
Reads "For Imageorge & Imangela in Calgary".
Earle Birney
[00:08:10]
Reads "Haiku".
Earle Birney
[00:08:26]
Reads untitled.
Earle Birney
[00:09:05]
Reads "If Only Someone Else Would Come".
Earle Birney
[00:10:07]
Reads untitled.
Earle Birney
[00:12:08]
Reads "In Purdy's Ameliasburg".
Earle Birney
[00:16:45]
Reads "I think you are a whole city...".
Earle Birney
[00:17:56]
Reads "Like an eddy...".
Earle Birney
[00:18:16]
Reads "There are delicacies in you...".
Earle Birney
[00:18:35]
Reads "The Mammoth Corridor".
Earle Birney
[00:28:01]
Reads "To Ikuko With a Single Chopstick".
Notes:
Title based on contents of file.
- Studio recording from manuscript Poems New or Revised.
- The first few are audiovisual or kinetic poems, Birney states that they really should be projected on a screen and seen by the audience.
- In reading “Buildings,” Birney also indicates the titles of the subpoems: “Lines,” “Waiting Room,” “Schoolhouse,” and “Walls”
- Reads a revised version of “Christmas Comes” which he has updated for December 1966. This revised version has not, as far as can be found, been published despite “Christmas Comes” being republished in various anthologies/magazines since 1966. Birney puts on a British accent for the BBC broadcaster within the poem.
- "For Imageorge & Imangela in Calgary” is addressed to George and Angela George Bowering after Birney visited them in Calgary.
- Untitled - [00:08:26] is a double haiku for John and Elaine Gill, American poets.
- "If Only Someone Else Would Come" is a translation of a Hungarian poem by Endre Ady (1877-1919), from work by Juditte Sarkany-Perret.
- Untitled - [00:10:07] about the pleasure of reading Chaucer, put into Chaucerian language and rhythms. Birney pronounces the poem in accordance with Middle English (vowel shift).
- "In Purdy's Ameliasburg" to Al Purdy, spending time in Purdy’s shack in Ameliasburgh when Purdy wrote many of his poems. Birney likens it to going to the Lake District after Wordsworth. It is both exhilarating and disappointing, realize that the place exists in the poet’s mind.
- “The Mammoth Corridor” contains two styles: found poetry and formal poetry. Includes extracts from various Canadian guidebooks (Calgary, BC, Vancouver, etc.). In his reading, Birney indicates what portions are abstracts by reading in a lighter tone/faster pace. Whereas the “formal” sections are read as Birney would normally read.
NOTES
RELATED WORKS
Citation:
manuscript of Poems New or Revised