1954 Reading at the YMHA Poetry Center, New York
- The Idea of Order at Key West (4:52): MP3
alternate recording of "The Idea of Order at Key West" MP3
- Not Ideas About the Thing But the Thing Itself (1:33): MP3
- Infanta Marina (1:09): MP3
- Fabliau of Florida (0:48): MP3
- Bantams in Pine-woods (0:52): MP3
- Nomad Exquisite (0:53): MP3
- Indian River (0:45): MP3
"Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 14.
The PennSound/Woodberry Poetry Room Wallace Stevens Audio Project
PennSound is pleased to present recordings of Wallace Stevens made for the Woodberry Poetry Room at
Harvard University, by permission of the Houghton Library's Woodberry Poetry Room
(pictured below), and with special thanks to Susan Pyzynski, Peter Steinberg, David Ackerman, Don Share,
and especially Christina Davis (Director of the Woodberry); and Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. & the Estate of
Wallace Stevens.
1952 Reading at the New Lecture Hall, Harvard
This recording was made on May 1, 1952, during Stevens' reading in the New Lecture Hall, now called the
Lowell Lecture Hall. The original recording is in two tape reels, housed at the Woodberry Poetry Room,
Lamont Library, Harvard.
- Introduction by Richard Wilbur (3:32): MP3
- A Pastoral Nun (1:34): MP3
- Credences of Summer (13:41): MP3
alternate recording of "Credences of Summer" (13:05): MP3
- Large Red Man Reading (1:58): MP3
- This Solitude of Cataracts (1:57): MP3
- In the Element of Antagonisms (1:20): MP3
- Puella Parvula (2:00): MP3
- To an Old Philosopher in Rome (7:32): MP3
- Two Illustrations That the World Is What You Make of It (2:01): MP3
- Vacancy in the Park (1:11): MP3
alternate recording of "Vacancy in the Park" MP3
- The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain (1:36): MP3
alternate recording of "The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain"MP3
- The World Is Larger in Summer (2:02): MP3
- Prologues to What Is Possible [second section] (2:38): MP3
- Looking Across the Fields and Watching the Birds Fly (4:35): MP3
- Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour (2:55): MP3
"The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain" is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 83.
1954 Readings at the Trans-Radio Recording Studio, Boston
This recording was made at the Trans-Radio Recording Studio in Boston over the course of two recording
sessions,
the first on October 8, 1954; the second at a later but unknown date. The recording was made on two
reels divided as follows: reel 1, all poems, including "The Auroras of Autumn" parts 1-5; reel 2,
only "The Auroras of Autumn," parts 6-10. (Note: It is not certain that the division of poems recorded
at the two sessions coincides with the division of the two reels, which are housed
at the Woodberry Poetry Room.)
- [Now it is September]* (0:18): MP3
- The Dwarf (1:50): MP3
- This Solitude of Cataracts (2:27): MP3
- The Woman in Sunshine (1:16): MP3
- The Green Plant (1:35): MP3
- The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain (1:39): MP3
- Final Soliloquy of the Interior Paramour (2:11): MP3
- How to Live, What to Do (2:02): MP3
- To the One of Fictive Music (3:48): MP3
alternate recording of "To the One of Fictive Music" (3:53): MP3
- Not Ideas about the Thing But the Thing Itself (2:04): MP3
- The Auroras of Autumn** (24:33): MP3
alternate recording of "The Auroras of Autumn" (23:13): MP3
"Not Ideas About the Thing but the Thing Itself" and "The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain" are also featured on PoemTalk Episode 14 and PoemTalk Episode 83 respectively.
*This 18-second recording is a false start on "The Dwarf."
**Parts VI-X of "Auroras of Autumn" were recorded on a second reel.
Jan. 25, 1951 reading at the 92nd Steeet Y in New York
Stevens reads from "Credences of Summer" and "An Ordinary Evening in New Haven"
(31:32): 92Y
Note: "The Life of the Poet" is a passage from "The Figure of the Youth as Virile Poet",
section 5. One can find this excerpt in the Library of America "Collected Poetry and
Prose,"
page 678. "The Theory of Poetry" is a passage from "The Relations Between Poetry and
Painting", page 750 in the same volume.
These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to
this recorded material belong to Peter Hanchak. (c)2014 by the estate of Wallace Stevens. Used with
permission of
Peter Hanchak. Distributed by PennSound. We at PennSound are grateful to Peter Hanchak, grandson of
Wallace Stevens, for his permission to make this material widely available. We also wish to thank our
colleagues at Harvard's Woodberry Library, in particular Christina Davis, for their help with the
recordings in the archive there; and John Serio.