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.
Reading Letter to the Front: Sections 1, 3, and 10, 1944
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
- Believe that we bloom upon this stalk of time (2:27): MP3
[preceded by Lee Anderson's general introduction]
- Ajanta (11:43): MP3
[begins with part 1, "The Journey"]
- The Return (2:02): MP3
- Divining Water (2:54): MP3
- After Their Quarrel (2:22): MP3
["very much a poem of adolescence"]
- The Young Girl of the Mississippi Valley (1:53): MP3
- A Birth (2:27): MP3
- 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
- Suite for Lord Timothy Dexter (23:50): MP3
[about "an American eccentric" who showed "that the business proverbs were way
off"]
- 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"]
- Body of Waking (18:23): MP3
- 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"]
- The Birth of Venus (2:14): MP3
["the myth...as we scarcely ever hear it in school"]
- 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?"]
- The Sixth Night: Waking (1:10): MP3
[referring to the 6th night of creation, the moment of man and woman]
- 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.
Complete recording (56:10); MP3
- Introduction (0:37): MP3
- Water Lily Fire (17:45): MP3
- Song (A Voice Flew Out) (0:36): MP3
- To Enter That Rhythm Where the Self Is Lost (1:29): MP3
- The Speaking Tree (1:32): MP3
- The Way Out (5:28): MP3
- Boy with His Hair Cut Short (3:04): MP3
- Are You Born (3:12): MP3
- Murmurs from the Earth of This Land (2:12): MP3
- No One Ever Walking This Our Only Earth (2:21): MP3
- Haying Before Storm (1:39): MP3
- A Birth (2:33): MP3
- Night Feeding (2:00): MP3
- Discussion (9:00): MP3
Recording courtesy of Library of Congress
Complete recording (1:12:07); MP3
- Introduction (3:00): MP3
- Song (0:42): MP3
- Eyes of Nighttime (2:00): MP3
- Reading Time (1 Minute 26 Seconds) (6:34): MP3
- Darkness Music (0:29): MP3
- Haying Before Storm (1:59): MP3
- Easter Eve (4:27): MP3
- Are You Born (2:55): MP3
- Song (2) (0:36): MP3
- Ajanta (15:34): MP3
- The Seeming (2:46): MP3
- The Orgy (2:47): MP3
- The Poem as Mask (2:45): MP3
- The Power of Suicide (0:26): MP3
- Double Dialogue (2:11): MP3
- The Transgress (1:08): MP3
- The Outer Banks (13:32): MP3
- The Wreck of the Tiger (1:47): MP3
Recording courtesy of Library of Congress
Reading at the University of Warwick, 1971
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 29 poems at the University of Warwick, January 19, 1972
Courtesy of University of Warwick.
Complete Recording (41:59): MP3
Murial Rukeyser reads at Dowling College, introduced by Aaron Kramer, October 11, 1976
- Full (1:15:55): MP3
- Better Quality, nearly full (1:06:07): MP3
- Incomplete (14:06): MP3
The Caedmon Poetry Collection: A Century of Poets Reading Their Work
The Speed of Darkness (5:19): MP3
The Poetry and Voice of Muriel Rukeyser, 1977
Produced in association with the Poetry Center of the 92nd Street YM-YWHA, New York.
- The Poem as Mask: Orpheus (1:23): MP3
- Night Feeder (1:45): MP3
- Are You Born? (2:35): MP3
- No One Ever Walking This Our Only Earth (2:26): MP3
- Song (0:32): MP3
- The Dam (7:54): MP3
- Waterlily Fire: Fragile (0:34): MP3
- Waterlily Fire: The Long Body (3:08): MP3
- In Our Time (0:19): MP3
- Poem (1:45): MP3
- The Ballad of Orange and Grape (2:46): MP3
- Speed of Darkness (2:52): MP3
- This Morning (1:28): MP3
- Despisals (1:33): MP3
- Looking At Each Other (1:41): MP3
- To Be a Jew in the Twentieth Century (1:08): MP3
- Columbus (4:10): MP3
- Burning the Dreams (0:51): MP3
- St. Roach (1:52): MP3
- Dream Drumming (1:15): MP3
- Rune (0:48): MP3
- How We Did It (1:43): MP3
- Then (0:30): MP3
- Mother as Pitchfork (1:11): MP3
- 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
Watch on Media.sas
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 from a group of poems about Akiba, date unknown
"The Way Out" (5:50): MP3
Recording courtesy of Poetry Foundation
Unknown Reading
- Complete reading (33:18): MP3
Also of interest
"A Place to Live," 1941
YouTube link (16:31): here
(c) Muriel Rukeyser. Recordings available for non-commercial and educational use only. Distributed with permission by PennSound (writing.upenn.edu/pennsound).
These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the author.
© 2014 Muriel Rukeyser. Used with permission of the estate of Muriel Rukeyser. Distributed by PennSound.
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