Robert Duncan

Readings

Complete Recording (Beginning audio is distorted, but improves into the reading.)
Part 1 (24:54): MP3
Part 2 (44:14): MP3

1. Unkingd by Affection (1:25): MP3
2. Africa Revisited (9:18): MP3
3. Five Pieces (1:57): MP3
4. Hero Song (1:08): MP3
5. An Imaginary Woman (1:23): MP3
6. The Dreamers (2:04): MP3
7. The Helmet of Goliath (2:27): MP3
8. The Kingdom of Jerusalem (1:56): MP3
9. The Mirror (2:24): MP3
10. The Reaper (1:33): MP3
11. Huon of Bordeaux (1:01): MP3
12. The Albigenses (2:05): MP3

Reading and discussion of "Often I am Permitted" at the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University, May 18, 1959

Text of poem

Complete Reading (1:01:41): MP3

Often I Am Permitted (2:00): MP3

Reading in Vancouver, British Columbia, 1961

• July 23 Reading (3:05:22): MP3
• July 24 Reading (3:32:11): MP3
• July 25 Reading (3:10:17): MP3

1. The Question (3:01): MP3
2. Structure of Rime 9 (2:11): MP3
3. Structure of Rime 10 (1:41): MP3
4. Structure of Rime 11 (1:31): MP3
5. Ingmar Bergman's Seventh Seal (2:15): MP3
6. Apprehensions (17:35): MP3
7. Come Let Me Free Myself (1:39): MP3
8. Risk (4:44): MP3
9. Structure of Rime: "Back to the figure..." (4:34): MP3
10. Osiris and Set (4:31):MP3
11. Two Presentations (5:46): MP3
12. A Song of the Old Order (4:04): MP3
13. Witch's Song (from Faust Foutu: A Comic Masque) (3:26): MP3
14. Opening: On A Set of Romantic Hymns - To Michael McClure and Percy Bysshe Shelley (1:28): MP3
15. A Set of Romantic Hymns (8:38): MP3
16. Sonnet 1(2:53): MP3
17. Sonnet 2 (0:57): MP3
18. Sonnet 3, from Dante's Sixth Sonnet (0:53): MP3
19. Sonnet 4 (1:34): MP3
20. Opening: On the Pindar poem and Apprehensions (1:16): MP3
21. Witch's Song from Faust Foutu (repeated) (2:16): MP3
22. A Poem Beginning with a Line from Pindar (12:12): MP3

Complete Reading (1:34:05): MP3

Reading at the University of British Columbia, August 5, 1963

Complete Reading (2:02:38): MP3

Reading in Albuquerque, New Mexico, February 29, 1964

1. Introduction and Opening: On the Open Field (5:17): MP3
2. Roots and Branches (1:18): MP3
3. What Do I Know of the Old Law? (3:23): MP3
4. Opening: On Publication and the Floating Bear (2:26): MP3
5. Afterthought (4:47): MP3
6. Opening: Play in H.D. Book (1:09): MP3
7. "What Time of Day Is It?..." (6:53): MP3
8. Opening: On "Passages" (The Cantos and Spring & All) (3:50): MP3
9. Passages (7:33): MP3
10. A Song of the Old Order (2:48): MP3
11. Witch's Song (from Faust Foutu: A Comic Masque) (3:29): MP3
12. Complete Reading (44:07): MP3

At the Berkeley Poetry Conference, 1965

1. Often I am Permitted to Return to a Meadow (from The Opening of the Field) (1:08): MP3
2. Structure of Rime 9 (from The Opening of the Field) (2:03): MP3
3. Structure of Rime 10 (from The Opening of the Field) (1:38): MP3
4. Structure of Rime 11 (from The Opening of the Field) (1:13): MP3
5. Apprehensions (from Roots and Branches) (17:02): MP3
6. Osiris and Set (from Roots and Branches) (2:54): MP3
7. A Poem Beginning with a Line by Pindar (from The Opening of the Field) (11:14): MP3
8. The Continent (from Windings) (4:30): MP3
9. The Multiversity (from Groundwork, Vol. 1) (4:04): MP3

Reading From Passages in Berkeley, March 6, 1970

1. Introduction by David Bromige & Passages 1-10 (48:23): MP3
2. Passages 11-13 (25:18): MP3
3. Passage 14 (29:03): MP3

(recording courtesy of Ron Silliman)

Reading at the Poetry Center at San Francisco State University, December 12, 1972

1. Poetry, a Natural Thing (2:46): MP3
2. Spark from this Flint by von Heartstruck (3:46): MP3
3. Opening: Eliot & the Metaphysical Poets (3:34): MP3
4. Being Imitations, Derivations, and Varitations upon Certain Conceits and Findings Made Among Hard Lines (0:52): MP3
5. From Sir Walter Raleigh's "What Is Our life?" (3:43): MP3
6. From Thomas Suttle's "The Burning Babe" (5:33): MP3
7. From George Herbet's "Jordan I" (2:47): MP3
8. From George Herbert's "Jordan II" (1:26): MP3
9. Passages 36 (False Start and Tape Change) (1:12): MP3
10. Passages 36 (Complete) (6:39): MP3
11. Despair in Being Tedious (4:20): MP3
12. Opening : On "Over There" (3:28): MP3
13. Over There (4:26): MP3
14. Structured of Rime 28: In Memoriam Wallace Stevens (3:23): MP3

Complete Reading (48:46): MP3

• Lecture 1, Complete Recording, March 20, 1979 (1:31:20): MP3
• Lecture 2, Complete Recording, March 22, 1979 (1:29:27): MP3

Complete Reading (1:24:09): MP3

Reading in Buffalo, 1982

• Preamble (17:54): MP3
Topics in the order in which they are discussed: "The Dignities," the imagination, nationhood, Christendom and Dante's Divine Comedy, Ludwig Wittgenstein, being a "poet of the spirit", being a "Christian non-Christian", language mysticism, and prayer.


• Reading
1. The Dignities (18:07): MP3
2. from Passages: Stimmung (7:28): MP3
3. from Passages: Enthralled (3:27): MP3
4. from Passages: Quand le Grand Foyer Descend Dans les Eaux (2:50): MP3
5. from Passages: In Blood's Domain (6:00): MP3
6. After Passage (5:19): MP3
7. Seams (2:45): MP3
8. The Five Songs (16:35): MP3
complete reading (1:02:08): MP3
*all poems read, with the exception of The Five Songs, appear in the "The Regulators" sequence of Passages, from Ground Work II: In the Dark.


• Sermon (21:02): MP3

• Complete Reading (49:38): MP3 (There is a five-second break at around 44:00 where the tape turned.)

The Opening of the Field (date and location unknown)

• part one (29:23): MP3
• part two (29:23): MP3

Reading and Discussing His Work (date and location unknown)

Complete Rearding (16:34): MP3

Lectures

Lecture on Ezra Pound

• part one (45:41): MP3
• part two (45:26): MP3

"Romeo and Juliet as a Mystery Play," UC Berkeley, February 8, 1972

"Physics and Literature," Miriam College, 1978

• Part One (50:25): MP3
• Part Two (50:47): MP3
• Part Three (25:35): MP3

"Another Look at Imagism," recorded March 31, 1983 at University of Maine, Orono

• part one (46:35): MP3
• part two (46:41): MP3
• part three (30:46): MP3
• (recording courtesy of Rachel Blau DuPlessis)

Seminar on H.D., 1986

• part one (46:42): MP3
• part two (46:12): MP3
• part five (44:29): MP3
• part six (44:11): MP3

PoemTalk Podcast #27, discussing Duncan's "Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow," January 14, 2010

Listen to the complete recording and read program notes for the episode at Jacket2.

Reading of various poems, date and location unknown

1. A Poem Beginning With A Line by Pindar (12:03): MP3
2. An Owl Is An Only Bird of Poetry (4:55): MP3
3. Apprehensions (17:18): MP3
4. Two Presentations (5:40): MP3

• Third Lecture (52:30): MP3
• Fourth Lecutre (1:28:36): MP3
• This recording is courtesy of Robert Creeley

Memorial Reading for Robert Duncan, San Jose State University, Incognito Lounge, November 1990

1. introduction (2:44): MP3
2. Jim Powell (12:56): MP3
3. Aaron Shurin (12:24): MP3
4. Leslie Scalapino (8:49): MP3
5. David Bromige (15:01): MP3
6. Aldon Nielsen (13:05): MP3
7. Robert Glück (17:31): MP3

• complete reading (1:23:42): MP3

Robert Duncan on PennSound Daily

• January 17, 2010: "PoemTalk 27: Robert Duncan's 'Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow'"
• August 21, 2008: "Two New Lectures By Robert Duncan"
• February 3, 2007: "Robert Duncan Page Relaunched"

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author's estate. (c) 2008 by the Jess Trust. Used with permission of the Jess Trust. Distributed by PennSound.