Richard Makin's St Leonards is finished
What was it like being dead?
Well, he says, the best thing was that language stopped. (from XXXI)
So the mordant humour - a real scream, yes, almost a scream - carries on. A month or two back, the long-awaited (in every sense) final chapter (XXXIII) of St Leonards emerged on GreatWorks. Soon, I hope, the whole enormous work - now retitled Dwelling - will be published by Reality Street Editions. In the mean time go and check out a chapter or two. The final one, battered aficionados won't be surprised to learn, is among much else a series of increasingly hollow-laughter jokes at the expense of those who have been hanging on for it.
Much earlier in this amazing book's serialisation, I tried to say a bit more about it. Now I just want to hold the book in my hand, and start being dazzled by it in a different way.
Oh, you only want to read the last page? I can't bear to spoil it for you, but this is what it's like as it hurtles towards that silence:
Will there be music during the night. This is fate surely. They have framed us pretty well. This is that fateful empire. This is a true echo of what I was going through during time. I am now watertight. She bends the tongue of influence at court. I am a landmark work. She admits love. We are benighted. We have dipped our bodies into the old night of our names. I unbolt the word and a folding takes place: a cento and rhapsody of uncircumferenced motion. By the way, at the moment I'm hanging dead from the light flitting—a garble of patchwork, a studious incorporation of tense lines.
Suffice to say she's preaching a new demigod, a recent carnation of the heroic. Go in, enter the story in detail. We're not approaching overkill—we're now in overkill. I dream there's a fire and the things and the people have to be removed, forever. (from XXXIII)
MP
Well, he says, the best thing was that language stopped. (from XXXI)
So the mordant humour - a real scream, yes, almost a scream - carries on. A month or two back, the long-awaited (in every sense) final chapter (XXXIII) of St Leonards emerged on GreatWorks. Soon, I hope, the whole enormous work - now retitled Dwelling - will be published by Reality Street Editions. In the mean time go and check out a chapter or two. The final one, battered aficionados won't be surprised to learn, is among much else a series of increasingly hollow-laughter jokes at the expense of those who have been hanging on for it.
Much earlier in this amazing book's serialisation, I tried to say a bit more about it. Now I just want to hold the book in my hand, and start being dazzled by it in a different way.
Oh, you only want to read the last page? I can't bear to spoil it for you, but this is what it's like as it hurtles towards that silence:
Will there be music during the night. This is fate surely. They have framed us pretty well. This is that fateful empire. This is a true echo of what I was going through during time. I am now watertight. She bends the tongue of influence at court. I am a landmark work. She admits love. We are benighted. We have dipped our bodies into the old night of our names. I unbolt the word and a folding takes place: a cento and rhapsody of uncircumferenced motion. By the way, at the moment I'm hanging dead from the light flitting—a garble of patchwork, a studious incorporation of tense lines.
Suffice to say she's preaching a new demigod, a recent carnation of the heroic. Go in, enter the story in detail. We're not approaching overkill—we're now in overkill. I dream there's a fire and the things and the people have to be removed, forever. (from XXXIII)
MP
Betty Mulcahy collage: verse speaking
Seven sentences discovered in Betty Mulcahy's How to Speak a Poem (Autolycus Press, 1987):
It is therefore desirable that a considerable reserve of air be kept in the lungs, for much of the volume of the voice, as well as the control, is lost when the muscles of the chest are too slack.
(Of humming...) If the lips do not tingle at all, it will mean that the sound is being produced too far back in the throat, and for full audibility of speaking it needs to be brought forward.
But there is much that can be done quite simply to improve both vowels and consonants. The long, ie, sustainable vowel sounds are 'OO'.. 'OH'...'AW'...'AH'...'AY'...'EE'... "Who goes forth armed may lead".
Unless you are going to read in public from the book - and for me this is seldom desirable - now could be the time to write out or type out the poem to get it away from its covers and out into the open.
I do stress early memorising because it is difficult to get far with a poem until the words belong to the speaker... And when spoken from memory they do then come from inside the speaker, as they came from inside the poet.
(Of sonnets...) Incidentally, the time it takes to speak 14 lines is approximately one minute and there is a school of thought which says that this length was chosen because one minute is also the time it takes for the blood to circulate the body once. How true this is I have no idea but it is a nice thought and could ensure a good rate of speaking.
Your speaking qualifications could be tested and proved by taking the National Poetry Society's graded examinations*, which culminate in their final accolade of a Gold Medal. The Gold Medal audition is... considered a test of performance ability and takes place before an invited audience.
*Headquarters: 21 Earls Court Square, London SW5 9DE
Notes:
Betty Mulcahy: won the final English Festival of Spoken Poetry, became a professional verse reader (Midland Arts Association, BBC), worked in education (Arts Council Writers-in-School Scheme), was a National Poetry Society council member and Gold Medal judge. Also wrote To Speak True, Pergamon 1969. Unfortunately I did not manage to track down any online recordings of Betty Mulcahy's readings. I did find her memoir of the British cinematographer David Watkin.
Dannie Abse: Cardiff poet and doctor, b.1923. Many publications since 1948.
Phoebe Hesketh: Lancashire nature poet, 1909-2005, published sixteen books of which the best known was her second, Lean Forward, Spring (1948).
Vernon Scannell: British poet, 1922-2007. Many publications since 1948.
John Smith: Sussex poet, b. 1924, compiler (with William Kean Seymour) of The Pattern of Poetry: The Poetry Society Verse Speaking Anthology (1963), and A Feast of Poetry (1985).
The National Poetry Society graded examinations, like the National Poetry Secretariat and the Earls Court headquarters (also famous for Poetry Wars), no longer exist. Similar examinations are still organized by e.g. LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art).
MP
It is therefore desirable that a considerable reserve of air be kept in the lungs, for much of the volume of the voice, as well as the control, is lost when the muscles of the chest are too slack.
(Of humming...) If the lips do not tingle at all, it will mean that the sound is being produced too far back in the throat, and for full audibility of speaking it needs to be brought forward.
But there is much that can be done quite simply to improve both vowels and consonants. The long, ie, sustainable vowel sounds are 'OO'.. 'OH'...'AW'...'AH'...'AY'...'EE'... "Who goes forth armed may lead".
Unless you are going to read in public from the book - and for me this is seldom desirable - now could be the time to write out or type out the poem to get it away from its covers and out into the open.
I do stress early memorising because it is difficult to get far with a poem until the words belong to the speaker... And when spoken from memory they do then come from inside the speaker, as they came from inside the poet.
(Of sonnets...) Incidentally, the time it takes to speak 14 lines is approximately one minute and there is a school of thought which says that this length was chosen because one minute is also the time it takes for the blood to circulate the body once. How true this is I have no idea but it is a nice thought and could ensure a good rate of speaking.
Your speaking qualifications could be tested and proved by taking the National Poetry Society's graded examinations*, which culminate in their final accolade of a Gold Medal. The Gold Medal audition is... considered a test of performance ability and takes place before an invited audience.
*Headquarters: 21 Earls Court Square, London SW5 9DE
Notes:
Betty Mulcahy: won the final English Festival of Spoken Poetry, became a professional verse reader (Midland Arts Association, BBC), worked in education (Arts Council Writers-in-School Scheme), was a National Poetry Society council member and Gold Medal judge. Also wrote To Speak True, Pergamon 1969. Unfortunately I did not manage to track down any online recordings of Betty Mulcahy's readings. I did find her memoir of the British cinematographer David Watkin.
Dannie Abse: Cardiff poet and doctor, b.1923. Many publications since 1948.
Phoebe Hesketh: Lancashire nature poet, 1909-2005, published sixteen books of which the best known was her second, Lean Forward, Spring (1948).
Vernon Scannell: British poet, 1922-2007. Many publications since 1948.
John Smith: Sussex poet, b. 1924, compiler (with William Kean Seymour) of The Pattern of Poetry: The Poetry Society Verse Speaking Anthology (1963), and A Feast of Poetry (1985).
The National Poetry Society graded examinations, like the National Poetry Secretariat and the Earls Court headquarters (also famous for Poetry Wars), no longer exist. Similar examinations are still organized by e.g. LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art).
MP