Basil Bunting

PoemTalk #74, discussing Walt Whitman's "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking" as performed by Basil Bunting, November 5, 2013

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

From the Odes

The Odes are available in the Complete Poems of Basil Bunting from Bloodaxe and New Directions

From Briggflatts

Part Four, London, 1967 (10:05): MP3
Coda, London, 1967 (1:02): MP3

YouTube: Video of Briggflats, from part 1, line 118. Briggflatts, including a CD of Bunting reading the entire poem, and a DVD documentary on Bunting is available: Briggflatts, published by Bloodaxe Books
Basil Bunting reading Briggflatts, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and Coda. Recording courtesy of University of Warwick.

• Interview with Andrew McAllister and Sean Figgis (1:19:54): MP3

Northumberland, 1981, 1982

1. Opening Statement on Northumbrian art (1:12): MP3
2. Interview with Tom Pickard, June 17-18, 1981 (13:14): MP3
3. Interview with Philip Trevelyan, March 10, 1982 (3:33): MP3

1. Quaker beliefs and Atheism (4:23): MP3
2. Music and poetry (3:44): MP3
3. Influence of editing (2:41): MP3
4. Central themes; animals (2:22): MP3
5. Wordsworth and the Romantic poets (8:08): MP3
6. Standard English and dialects (2:25): MP3
7. Sailing and navigation's relevance to poetry (3:26): MP3
8. Place and memory (2:23): MP3
9. Central images; the stone mason (3:01): MP3
10. 20th century poets (4:20): MP3
11. On reading well (3:18): MP3
12. Similarities between Pound, Eliot, and Bunting (6:11): MP3
13. Arcangelo Corelli's compositions (2:26): MP3
14. Bloodaxe as King; influence of visual art (5:00): MP3
15. Cubist influence on design and balance (5:13): MP3

Reading from Briggflatts and interview with Hugh Kenner, May 1, 1982

Complete recording (1:21:38): MP3

Courtesy of Simon Pettet

NPR "The Sound of Poetry" with Bunting produced by Hugh Kenner, 1980

Interview with Hugh Kenner and Carroll Terrell at University of Maine, Orono, August 1980

Lectures at Percy Building, University of Newcastle, January-March 1979

1. on Ezra Pound and sources of poetry (1:35:28): MP3
2. on Ezra Pound and Medieval English poetry (1:03:27): MP3

Courtesy of Simon Pettet

• They flee from me that sometime did me seek (2:27): MP3
• The longe love that in my thought doth harbour (1:21): MP3
• You that in love find luck and abundance (2:29): MP3
• Help me to seek; Ye old mule (2:07): MP3
• There was never nothing more me pained (1:54): MP3
• What death is worse than this (1:04): MP3
• My lute awake (5:47): MP3
• What meanth this (2;05): MP3
• Blame not my lute (2:25): MP3
• What should I say (0:58): MP3
• Grudge on who list (2:53): MP3

Ezra Pound

• Canto I (6:59): MP3
• Canto II (5:23) incomplete: MP3

• The Shepheardes Calander: three stanzas from April Eclogue (1:46): MP3
• The Shepheardes Calander: the Dirge from the November Eclogue (lines 53 to 202, from "Up then Melpomene" to "O joyful verse") (11:57): MP3

Walt Whitman

• Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking (18:54): MP3 (This performance is also featured on PoemTalk Episode 74.)

Louis Zukofsky

• The lines of those we sing (0:35): MP3
• Gulls over a rotting hull (0:25): MP3
• The rains, the rains (0:37): MP3
• Drive, fast kisses (0:16): MP3
• Strange to reach that age (0:28): MP3
• You three (5:47): MP3
• To my wash-stand (2:35): MP3
• In that this happiness (0:36): MP3
• Happier, happier now (1:11): MP3
• Ask of the sun (0:46): MP3
• Passing tall (0:37): MP3
• from "Poem beginning 'The'" (3:57): MP3
• Perchless, birth (0:44): MP3
• The Guests (1:31): MP3
• Seventh movement of A (0:24): MP3

Reading "Briggflatts," Carlisle, April 15, 1977

• Briggflats I-IV (43:01): MP3
• Briggflatts V and Coda (12:10): MP3

• Complete recording (46:37): MP3

Reading, SUNY Buffalo, July 29, 1966

• Complete recording (1:23:10): MP3
thanks to Slought Foundation.

Reading and Interview with Jonathan Williams, February 1963

1. Jonathan Williams interviews Basil Bunting (22:39) MP3
2. Chomei at Toyama (22:52) MP3
3. The Spoils, Part 1 (9:22) MP3
4. The Spoils, Part 2 (6:49) MP3

Basil Bunting on PennSound Daily

• August 5, 2010: "New Recordings of Basil Bunting Reading Whitman, Spenser, Pound and More"
• July 20, 2009: "Basil Bunting: New Author Page Added"

These recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the authors. © Estate of Basil Bunting 2009. Used with permission of Bloodaxe Books, with thanks to Neil Astey. Distributed by PennSound.