Muriel Rukeyser

PoemTalk #78, discussing Muriel Rukeyser's "Ballad of Orange and Grape," March 19, 2014

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

Complete recording (4:19): MP3

Special thanks to the Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University for providing this recording.

Poems and commentary by Muriel Rukeyser, March 21, 1959

from the Lee Anderson Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Library, Yale University

1. Believe that we bloom upon this stalk of time (2:27): MP3 [preceded by Lee Anderson's general introduction]
2. Ajanta (11:43): MP3 [begins with part 1, "The Journey"]
3. The Return (2:02): MP3
4. Divining Water (2:54): MP3
5. After Their Quarrel (2:22): MP3 ["very much a poem of adolescence"]
6. The Young Girl of the Mississippi Valley (1:53): MP3
7. A Birth (2:27): MP3
8. Q&A Discussion, part 1 [hosted by Lee Anderson] (31:12): MP3
Q&A Discussion, part 2 [hosted by Anderson] (2:54): MP3
on prosody (7:52): MP3
on the San Francisco Poets (1:40): MP3
on the relationship between linguistics and poetry (2:03): MP3
on contemporary prosodists (2:16): MP3
on the role of the poet (3:55): MP3
on the relationship between the poet and the mathematician (4:36): MP3
on how other art forms feed into her poetry (0:47): MP3
on the Pacific Coast and New York poetry scenes (7:59): MP3
on the difficulty of the Beats' attitude toward women (2:51): MP3
9. Suite for Lord Timothy Dexter (23:50): MP3 [about "an American eccentric" who showed "that the business proverbs were way off"]
10. Are You Born? (3:40): MP3 [in two parts; about 2-year-old children at the Vassar Family Institute; this work is "the framework for a large group of poems"]
11. Body of Waking (18:23): MP3
12. Speed, We Say (2:01): MP3 [a poem that starts with a jet plane across the sky and ends with a love poem; it is "bound by the image of speed"]
13. The Birth of Venus (2:14): MP3 ["the myth...as we scarcely ever hear it in school"]
14. Murmurs from the earth of this land (2:33): MP3 [this poem is from a group of poems enclosed with a series called "Are You Born?"]
15. The Sixth Night: Waking (1:10): MP3 [referring to the 6th night of creation, the moment of man and woman]
16. In your time, there have been those who spoke clearly (4:00): MP3 [also a poem enclosed with the "Are You Born?" series in One Life]

• Complete recording, Reel 1 (29:10): MP3
• Complete recording, Reel 2 (31:31): MP3
• Complete recording, Reel 3 (30:28): MP3
• Complete recording, Reel 4 (30:53): MP3

Special thanks to Nancy Kuhl, William Rukeyser, and the estate of Muriel Rukeyser for making these recordings available.

Reading in the Recording Laboratory at the Library of Congress, April 17, 1962

Complete recording (56:10); MP3

1. Introduction (0:37): MP3
2. Water Lily Fire (17:45): MP3
3. Song (A Voice Flew Out) (0:36): MP3
4. To Enter That Rhythm Where the Self Is Lost (1:29): MP3
5. The Speaking Tree (1:32): MP3
6. The Way Out (5:28): MP3
7. Boy with His Hair Cut Short (3:04): MP3
8. Are You Born (3:12): MP3
9. Murmurs from the Earth of This Land (2:12): MP3
10. No One Ever Walking This Our Only Earth (2:21): MP3
11. Haying Before Storm (1:39): MP3
12. A Birth (2:33): MP3
13. Night Feeding (2:00): MP3
14. Discussion (9:00): MP3

Reading in the Whittall Pavillion at the Library of Congress, April 5, 1965

Complete recording (1:12:07); MP3

1. Introduction (3:00): MP3
2. Song (0:42): MP3
3. Eyes of Nighttime (2:00): MP3
4. Reading Time (1 Minute 26 Seconds) (6:34): MP3
5. Darkness Music (0:29): MP3
6. Haying Before Storm (1:59): MP3
7. Easter Eve (4:27): MP3
8. Are You Born (2:55): MP3
9. Song (2) (0:36): MP3
10. Ajanta (15:34): MP3
11. The Seeming (2:46): MP3
12. The Orgy (2:47): MP3
13. The Poem as Mask (2:45): MP3
14. The Power of Suicide (0:26): MP3
15. Double Dialogue (2:11): MP3
16. The Transgress (1:08): MP3
17. The Outer Banks (13:32): MP3
18. The Wreck of the Tiger (1:47): MP3

Courtesy of University of Warwick.

• Complete Recording (44:47): MP3
• The Ballad of Orange and Grape (6:02): MP3

"The Ballad of Orange and Grape" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 78.

Reading at Better Books, London, January 18, 1971

From the Eric Mottram Centennial Collection.

1. Introduction (1:56): MP3
2. Song (0:39): MP3
3. In Our Time (0:43): MP3
4. Gift (0:55): MP3
5. Among Roses (1:23): MP3
6. Clues (2:27): MP3
7. Fields Where We Slept (3:45): MP3
8. Poem (I lived in the first century of world wars) (1:51): MP3
9. The Conjugation of the Paramecium (1:32): MP3
10. Myth (1:39): MP3
11. The Outer Banks (16:43): MP3
12. Despisals (2:08): MP3
13. Secrets of American Civilization (1:25): MP3
14. Rock Flow River Mix (1:04): MP3
15. Ballad of Orange and Grape (6:09): MP3

Complete recording (46:09): MP3

Reading 29 poems at the University of Warwick, January 19, 1972

Courtesy of University of Warwick.

1. Introduction (1:20): MP3
2. Song (0:41): MP3
3. In Our Time (1:49): MP3
4. Clues (2:48): MP3
5. The Poem as Mask (2:09): MP3
6. The Conjugation of the Paramecium (1:34): MP3
7. The Outer Banks (17:26): MP3
8. Myth (1:28): MP3
9. Wherever (2:36): MP3
10. Despisals (1:58): MP3
11. Looking At Each Other (1:29): MP3
12. The Speed of Darkness (6:17): MP3

Complete Recording (41:59): MP3

Reading at Dowling College, introduced by Aaron Kramer, October 11, 1976

• Full (1:15:55): MP3
• Better Quality, nearly full (1:06:07): MP3

1. The Poem as Mask: Orpheus (1:23): MP3
2. Night Feeder (1:45): MP3
3. Are You Born? (2:35): MP3
4. No One Ever Walking This Our Only Earth (2:26): MP3
5. Song (0:32): MP3
6. The Dam (7:54): MP3
7. Waterlily Fire: Fragile (0:34): MP3
8. Waterlily Fire: The Long Body (3:08): MP3
9. In Our Time (0:19): MP3
10. Poem (1:45): MP3
11. The Ballad of Orange and Grape (2:46): MP3
12. Speed of Darkness (2:52): MP3
13. This Morning (1:28): MP3
14. Despisals (1:33): MP3
15. Looking At Each Other (1:41): MP3
16. To Be a Jew in the Twentieth Century (1:08): MP3
17. Columbus (4:10): MP3
18. Burning the Dreams (0:51): MP3
19. St. Roach (1:52): MP3
20. Dream Drumming (1:15): MP3
21. Rune (0:48): MP3
22. How We Did It (1:43): MP3
23. Then (0:30): MP3
24. Mother as Pitchfork (1:11): MP3
25. Poems for the Unborn Child (2:22): MP3

Complete Recording (50:07): MP3

"The Ballad of Orange and Grape" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 78.

The Writer In America: Muriel Rukeyser, a film by Richard O. Moore, Westbeth, New York City, October 1977

Complete video recording (28:55)

Reading at the University of Warwick, September 8, 1978

Courtesy of University of Warwick.

Complete recording (46:32): MP3

Reading at the Institute of United States Studies, London, September 8, 1978, from the Eric Mottram collection

Complete recording (50:46): MP3

Reading from a group of poems about Akiba, date unknown

"The Way Out" (5:50): MP3
Recording courtesy of Poetry Foundation

Unknown Reading

Complete recording (33:18): MP3

Also of interest

"A Place to Live," 1941

Video recording (16:31): YouTube [external link]

© The Estate of Muriel Rukeyser. Recordings available for non-commercial and educational use only. Distributed with permission of the Estate of Muriel Rukeyser by PennSound (writing.upenn.edu/pennsound).