Rhapsodize Audio presents
Poems - 1913
by Christopher Brennan
Performed by Denis Daly
Christopher Brennan (1870 -1932) was the first major Australian poet who did not draw his inspiration from colonial narrative around which the verse of his predecessors was built. Brennan’s influences are all Eurocentric – he was a student of European languages, and the predominant influence on his poetry was French symbolism. He is the most metropolitan of Australian poets: his extraordinarily introverted verse creates an impression that it could have originated in almost any urban environment in the world.
Brennan’s major poetic work was an anthology, entitled Poems – 1913, which was first published in 1914 and which is the subject of this recording.
Section 1
TOWARDS THE SOURCE
1. 1893 – A Prelude
2. We sat entwined an hour or two together
3. Sweet silence after bells!
4. Autumn: the year breathes dully towards its death,
5. Where star-cold and the dread of space
6. Dies Dominica! the sunshine burns
7. The grand cortège of glory and youth is gone
8. Epigraph
9. Under a sky of uncreated mud
10. The yellow gas is fired from street to street
11. I saw my life as whitest flame
12. Epigraph
13. Where the poppy-banners flow
14. Deep mists of longing blur the land
15. When Summer comes in her glory and brave the whole earth blows,
16. And shall the living waters heed
17. And does she still perceive, her curtain drawn,
18. Of old, on her terrace at evening
19. Was it the sun that broke my dream
20. When the spring mornings grew more long
21. An hour's respite; once more the heart may dream:
22. Spring-ripple of green along the way,
23. I am shut out of mine own heart
24. Spring breezes over the blue,
25. White dawn, that tak'st the heaven with sweet surprise
26. Four springtimes lost: and in the fifth we stand,
27. Old wonder flush'd the east anew
28. The winter eve is clear and chill.
Rhapsodize is a classic poetry performance initiative dedicated to engaging in, encouraging, instructing, guiding, and facilitating dramatic presentations of classic poetry. For further information about the Rhapsodize initiative or to explore our catalogue, please visit reverberance.org
