CLASSIFICATION
Swallow ID:
8357
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 uncollected poems (Tape 1)
Title Source:
Transcribed from the artifact
Title Note:
Label of recording title and included poems taped to box.
Language:
English
Production Context:
Studio recording
Identifiers:
[8.1-1]
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:
T00:28:49
Size:
474.91 MB
Dates
Date:
1966
Type:
Performance Date
Notes:
Dates supplied through research for copyright.
LOCATION
CONTENT
Contents:
Earle Birney
[00:00:00]
Reads "In This Verandah of the August Heart".
Earle Birney
[00:02:04]
Reads "Montreal".
Earle Birney
[00:02:49]
Reads "Toronto".
Earle Birney
[00:03:19]
Reads "Per Ardua ad Astra".
Earle Birney
[00:03:40]
Reads "Rara avis".
Earle Birney
[00:03:58]
Reads "Oregon".
Earle Birney
[00:04:17]
Reads "Why the Churches Declined".
Earle Birney
[00:04:35]
Reads "Kootenay October".
Earle Birney
[00:05:45]
Reads "Aubade for a Fraternity".
Earle Birney
[00:08:16]
Reads "Stanzas on Certain Politicians".
Earle Birney
[00:08:53]
Reads "Lines Expressing Confidence in the Future of Canadian Literature".
Earle Birney
[00:09:35]
Reads "Crow".
Earle Birney
[00:10:23]
Reads "These With Wind".
Earle Birney
[00:11:26]
Reads "Skull in Grass".
Earle Birney
[00:12:31]
Reads "Ballad of Kootenay Brown".
Earle Birney
[00:18:40]
Reads "Moon Down Elphinstone".
Earle Birney
[00:22:10]
Reads "Valentine After Chaucer".
Earle Birney
[00:23:26]
Reads "Thanks to Gillian".
Earle Birney
[00:24:42]
Reads "Alberni Canal".
Notes:
- Epigrams: uncollected poems, some as early as 1923. Includes a title piece about epigrams.
- “Kootenay”: also titled “Creston October” and “Foothills October,” he never made his mind up.
- “Aubade”: Verses begun in 1926 while living briefly and unhappily in University of Toronto fraternity house. Revised after Second World War.
- “Stanzas”: Writing on strange animals.
- “Crow”: Birney can’t remember which academic he is liabling or perhaps he really was looking at a crow
- “These”: begun 1937, finished later. For a girl named Jessie.
- “Skull”: After seeing photo of scalped Indigenous skull in prairie grass
- “Ballad”: Kootenay Brown was an Oxford man, adventurer, pony express rider, Indian trader, owned most of Waterton, won his Cree wife in a horse race. Legend that on his deathbed he told his wife he would come back as an eagle, when the first plane landed in Waterton the next summer she believed it was her husband and ran into the propeller blades.
- “Moon”: event from 1917, Elphinstone is mountain near Vancouver which was a hideout for draft dodgers. True story of Jim and Harry.
- “Valentine”: 1929 valentine piece in Chaucerian, based on legend of St. Valentine.
- “Thanks”: 1929 Chaucerian, written after given homemade doll of Wife of Bath by student Gillian.
- “Alberni”: story of Pedro Alberni and Charles W. Barkley (Alberni canal and Barkley sound). Written in 1934 when Birney was on SS Philly bound from West coast of Canada to Hull with wheat.
NOTES
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