F.T. Prince Centenary Symposium

F.T. Prince Centenary Symposium - Not to be missed!

F.T. Prince Centenary Symposium, September 20th 2012
0930 Registration and coffee
0945 Welcome

1000-1100 Remembering Prince
Eleanor Crawforth Prince and Carcanet
Alka Nigam Remembering Prince
Anthony Rudolf F.T. Prince and small presses, especially my own

Tea / Coffee

1115-1245
Style and Metrics
Derek Attridge F.T. Prince and syllabics
Gareth Farmer The Intaglio Element in Prince’s Verse
Todd Swift F.T. Prince’s Foppish Style
Michael Molan F.T. Prince and the Modernist Milton

Lunch

1330-1430
Bodies at work
David Kennedy ‘The completed story incomplete’: F.T. Prince and the Portrayal of National Bodies
Adam Piette ‘My soldiers’: F.T. Prince and the sweetness of command
Peter Robinson Reading ‘Memoirs of Caravaggio’

Tea/Coffee

1500-1600 Lyric and Legacy
Natalie Pollard Lyric Material: Place, Print and Prince
Mark Ford Prince and the Dramatic Monologue
David Herd ‘The gift being passed on’: Reading F.T. Prince through Ken Bolton’s eyes

1600-1730 Exhibition and wine reception, Hartley Library

1730-1830 Poetry Reading, John Hansard Gallery
Chair: Peter Robinson
Mark Ford, John Hall, Lee Harwood, John Haynes, Anthony Howell, Todd Swift, Tom Raworth, Peter Robinson

Comments

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

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