George Oppen & David Ignatow CD

Recorded on April 9, 1964, at the Guggenheim Museum, this unexpected pairing of poets represent two very distinct lines of poetic thought.

Mr. Oppen's work is sparse, fragmentary, and engages the physical world through a reasoning, humanist lens. He is credited as a forefather of the adventurous poetics of the latter Twentieth Century, and his 1934 publication, Discrete Series—much of which he reads here—remains a work of Objectivist genius.

Mr. Ignatow takes a more direct approach, and his work is rife with images of everyday, working-class life. He is blunt and plain-spoken, and is cynical almost to the point of nihilism. His oratory style, however, highlights the humor that cracks through each poem, and his tragicomic delivery in this reading will captivate listeners. Introduced by William Meredith.

Length: 53 min.

Track List

George Oppen

1. Introduction by William Meredith
2. A Narrative

13. Introduction to "Psalm"
14. Psalm
15. Introduction to "Guest Room"
16. Guest Room
17. Of This All Things...
18. The Forms of Love
19. Introduction to "Penobscot"
20. Penobscot
21. Introduction to "The Mayan Ground"
22. The Mayan Ground
23. The People, The People
24. Street
25. Introduction to "Giovanni's Rape of the Sabine Women at Wildenstein"
26. Giovanni's Rape of the Sabine Women at Wildenstein
27. Introduction to "Leviathan"
28. Leviathan

David Ignatow

29. Introduction by William Meredith
30. Introduction to "How Come?"
31. How Come?
32. Two Friends
33. Side by Side
34. To an Apple
35. Obsolete
36. The Debate
37. The Nailhead
38. I Want My Check
39. For One Moment
40. Beautiful and Kind
41. Figures of the Human
42. Introduction to "Play Again"
43. Play Again
44. That Is
45. Lives I
46. In a Dream I

George Oppen Encore

47. William Meredith re-introduces George Oppen
48. Four Poems about Poetry
49. Introduction to "To Charles Tomlinson"
50. To Charles Tomlinson