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Charles Tomlinson

edited by Richard Swigg

The Complete Poems, 1985–1999

recorded at the Keele University music studio and Tomlinson's home in Gloucestershire, 1985–2001 [click here]


In Conversation with Sean Street for Two Counties Radio, December, 1983

Charles Tomlinson Reads His Poems, 1985

  1. The Fox Gallery (3:21): MP3
  2. Hawks (1:23): MP3
  3. The Picture of J.T. in a Prospect of Stone (1:57): MP3
  4. Event (0:46): MP3
  5. A Given Grace (1:19): MP3
  6. Stone Speech (1:08): MP3
  7. A Rose for Janet (1:06): MP3
  8. The Beech (1:37): MP3
  9. Winter Journey (2:09): MP3
  10. On the Principle of Blowclocks (3:05): MP3
  11. Above Manhattan (2:08): MP3
  12. What Virginia Said (0:58): MP3
  13. Hero Sandwiches (1:29): MP3
  14. All Afternoon (1:42): MP3
  15. Lament for Doormen (1:15): MP3
  16. In Longfellow's Library (1:06): MP3
  17. A Death in the Desert (2:24): MP3
  18. The Cavern (2:15): MP3
  19. Arroyo Hondo (1:09): MP3
  20. Mr. Brodsky (1:59): MP3
  21. The Well (1:53): MP3
  22. A Sense of Distance (1:39): MP3
  23. To Ivor Gurney (1:18): MP3
  24. The Sound of Time (0:55): MP3
  25. The Littleton Whale (5:26): MP3
  26. During Rain (1:10): MP3
  27. The Door (1:09): MP3
  28. The Chances of Rhyme (3:19): MP3

Recorded at Keele University, Clock House Studios, Staffordshire, UK, September 17, 1985


Charles Tomlinson Reading at Keele University, Staffordshire, UK, February 25, 1986

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Charles Tomlinson Reads His Stoke Poems, 1985

  1. At Stoke (1:09): MP3
  2. The Slag Heap (1:27): MP3
  3. Steel: the night shift (1:37): MP3
  4. Canal (2:54): MP3
  5. Poem for My Father (1:12): MP3
  6. John Maydew, or The Allotment (2:52): MP3
  7. The Hand at Callow Hill Farm (2:26): MP3
  8. The Farmer's Wife (2:50): MP3
  9. Black Brook (1:21): MP3
  10. The Question (1:24): MP3
  11. The Shaft (2:07): MP3
  12. After a Death (3:12): MP3
  13. Night Ride (1:28): MP3
  14. Gladstone Street (2:08): MP3
  15. Etruria Vale (1:22): MP3
  16. The Way In (4:17): MP3
  17. The Tree (1:22): MP3
  18. Midlands (0:40): MP3
  19. Portait of the Artist I (0:50): MP3
  20. Portait of the Artist II (1:43): MP3
  21. The Hoard (1:43): MP3
  22. Consolations for Double Bass (2:38): MP3
  23. The Rich (1:26): MP3
  24. Class (1:15): MP3
  25. The Hawthorn in Trent Vale (2:01): MP3
  26. Written on Water (2:40): MP3
  27. The Marl Pits (1:42): MP3

Recorded at Keele University, Clock House Studios, Staffordshire, UK, September 18, 1985


Charles Tomlinson Reads His Poems on Music, 1987

  1. Poem (1:39): MP3
  2. Their Voices Rang (1:13): MP3
  3. Nine Variations in a Chinese Winter Setting (2:01): MP3
  4. Flute Music (1:45): MP3
  5. Programme Note (excerpt) (2:36): MP3
  6. Words for the Madrigalist (1:46): MP3
  7. Hearing the Ways (1:07): MP3
  8. Walking to Bells (0:59): MP3
  9. At Wells (0:46): MP3
  10. Music's Trinity (1:02): MP3
  11. The Sound of Time (0:57): MP3
  12. A Little Night Music (1:08): MP3
  13. A Night at the Opera (2:23): MP3
  14. Curtain Call (1:14): MP3
  15. In Verdi Square (1:32): MP3
  16. Three Wagnerian Lyrics (1:40): MP3
  17. Beethoven Attends the C Minor Seminar (2:30): MP3
  18. The Spring Symphony (1:49): MP3
  19. To Ivor Gurney (1:09): MP3
  20. Melody (2:52): MP3
  21. Ode to Arnold Schoenberg (2:30): MP3
  22. Orion over Farne (1:30): MP3
  23. Chaconne for Unaccompanied Violin (0:50): MP3
  24. Da Capo (1:02): MP3
  25. Prometheus (4:28): MP3
  26. Consolations for Double Bass (2:03): MP3
  27. Mr. Brodsky (1:48): MP3
  28. At Huexotla (1:39): MP3
  29. The Tax Inspector: at Tlacolula (1:30): MP3
  30. Valle de Oaxaca (1:50): MP3
  31. Portobello Carnival 1973 (2:09): MP3
  32. Movements I (1:34): MP3

Recorded at Keele University, Clock House Studios, Staffordshire, UK, November 11, 1987


Charles Tomlinson Reads Machado and Tyutchev, 1993

Reading his translations of Antonio Machado (from Castilian Ilexes: Versions from Antonio Machado, 1875-1939 [Oxford, 1963], with Henry Gifford)

  1. Childhood Recollection (1:16): MP3
  2. Twelve was Chiming (0:38): MP3
  3. Embers of a violet dusk (0:28): MP3
  4. The Draw-Wheel (0:56): MP3
  5. Gloss (3:38): MP3
  6. O luminous late day! (0:50): MP3
  7. Guitar of the Roadside Inn (0:42): MP3
  8. Winter Sun (0:43): MP3
  9. Portrait (2:48): MP3
  10. The Ilexes (5:33): MP3
  11. Summer Night (0:46): MP3
  12. To a Dry Elm (1:42): MP3
  13. Poem of a Day (8:34): MP3
  14. November 1913 (0:52): MP3
  15. Lament (2:50): MP3
  16. The Ephemeral Past (2:32): MP3
  17. Grey Olives (0:21): MP3
  18. To José Maria Palacio (1:55): MP3
  19. To the Young Thinker José Ortega y Gasset (0:43): MP3
  20. Solitary Olive Tree (0:31): MP3
  21. From Galerias (0:28): MP3
  22. Waters (from Proverbs and Canticles) (0:56): MP3
  23. Further Proverbs and Canticles (1:10): MP3
  24. Guadalquivir (0:30): MP3
  25. Lines to a Master (1:30): MP3

Reading his translations of Fyodor Tyutchev (from Versions from Fyodor Tyutchev, 1803-1873 [Oxford, 1960], with Henry Gifford)

  1. At Tegernsee (0:46): MP3
  2. Sea and Rock (1:18): MP3
  3. Sea Dream (0:20): MP3
  4. Wave and Thought (0:42): MP3
  5. The Past (0:14): MP3
  6. Russia (1:27): MP3
  7. Italian Villa (0:50): MP3
  8. Neither Thought nor Threat (0:36): MP3
  9. First Leaf (2:11): MP3
  10. Spring: a formal Ode (0:44): MP3
  11. Spring Storm (0:44): MP3
  12. Riding (0:30): MP3
  13. The Fountain (0:40): MP3
  14. Silentium! (0:52): MP3
  15. You my Sea Wave (0:51): MP3
  16. A Storm, on the Road (1:52): MP3
  17. The Pacification (0:31): MP3
  18. Riverscape" (0:37): MP3
  19. The Fires (0:57): MP3
  20. Summer Storm (0:42): MP3
  21. On a Still Night (0:28): MP3
  22. Under Mont Blanc (0:49): MP3
  23. Entering Autumn" (0:45): MP3
  24. At the Imperial Village (0:50): MP3
  25. Winter (0:33): MP3
  26. The Prayer (0:17): MP3
  27. The Shadow (0:21): MP3
  28. Let, Lord, Your Pity Fall (1:02): MP3
  29. Night Takes the Distances (0:51): MP3
  30. Night Wind (0:50): MP3
  31. Read Here, Distracted Heart (0:43): MP3
  32. At Vshchizh (0:53): MP3
  33. Livonian Plains (1:14): MP3
  34. Nature a Sphinx (0:22): MP3
  35. On His Brother's Death (1:01): MP3
  36. To His Wife (0:22): MP3

Recorded at Charles Tomlinson's home in Gloucestershire, UK, September 26, 1993


The Modern Age: Hugh Kenner and Charles Tomlinson in Conversation, 1988

  1. Part 1 (45:47): MP3
  2. Part 2 (38:45): MP3

Recorded at Tomlinson's home in Gloucestershire, June 24th 1988


Octavio Paz Talks to Charles Tomlinson, 1989

  1. Octavio Paz in England: An Introduction by Charles Tomlinson (17:47): MP3
  2. Paz in India, England and Cambridge (2:29): MP3
  3. Wordsworth and The Prelude (3:06): MP3
  4. Blake, cosmology and Cowley (3:14): MP3
  5. Myth and the tree-trimmer (3:38): MP3
  6. Irony (0:47): MP3
  7. Savigno's The Childhood of Nirvasio Dolcemare (2:33): MP3
  8. Irony and Marvell (1:20): MP3
  9. Paz's early poetry (6:10): MP3
  10. Paz on modern Mexico (1:39): MP3
  11. Poetry as Time (2:24): MP3
  12. Speech versus écriture and modern criticism (2:41): MP3
  13. Poetry, morality, Wilde (0:57): MP3
  14. Paz as a public figure (2:38): MP3
  15. The Waste Land contrasted with Four Quartets; Eliot contrasted with Pound (1:00): MP3
  16. Huidobro, Neruda, Machado (3:00): MP3
  17. Defining the poet and defending poetry: Pope, Shelley, Sidney (3:17): MP3
  18. Hopkins in Spanish (1:32): MP3
  19. Poetry and the modern novel (0:48): MP3
  20. Paz, music and poetry (2:20): MP3

complete recording (1:01:27): MP3

Recorded at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, UK, May 1989


Also of Interest

  • "Addressing One's Peers: The letters of Charles Tomlinson and George Oppen, 1963–1981" at Jacket2, also edited by Swigg
  • Richard Swigg Talking about Williams and Tomlinson (24:41): MP3

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to Charles Tomlinson. © 2014 Charles Tomlinson. Used with permission. Distributed by PennSound.