{"id":224,"date":"2005-12-23T07:00:14","date_gmt":"2005-12-23T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/?p=224"},"modified":"2005-12-23T15:54:35","modified_gmt":"2005-12-23T23:54:35","slug":"ive-got-nerve-poetry-out-loud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/?p=224","title":{"rendered":"I’ve Got Nerve: Poetry Out Loud"},"content":{"rendered":"

The other day I was talking with a friend about writings and recitations from childhood. He had just rediscovered a wonderful Christmas story that his daughter had written when she was all of 11 years old, and I had re-encountered a hilarious recording of ten-year-old me reciting Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem In The Morning<\/em>. My neighbor said “post it on your blog” and I laughed. <\/p>\n

Then yesterday, courtesy of About Last Night<\/a><\/strong>, I was directed to Verse By Voice<\/a><\/strong>, a poetry meme of sorts at Coudal Partners, where people call in, recite a favorite poem, and some get chosen for posting on the web site. Laura Demanski, a\/k\/a OGIC\/Terry Teachout’s co-blogger, is among those selected; she’s reciting Gerard Manley Hopkins’ Spring and Fall: to a Young Child.<\/em><\/p>\n

I don’t know if any of my colleagues in the blogosphere have any old recordings (poetry, songs, instrumentals, radio air-checks…) from days of yore, but if they do, I hope they will follow suit and post some…it seems a fun spin-off idea. So here I go — and when you fall out laughing, please remember that I was only ten and attempting, without any relevant experience, to impart the dialect in which Dunbar wrote. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(If you’re not familiar with the poem, you might want to read it first or follow along — I found the text online at Poetry Archives<\/a><\/strong>, a site created “to provide a simple interface into a dynamicially generated, database driven website archiving thousands of copyright free poems.”) <\/p>\n

In the Morning
\nby Paul Laurence Dunbar<\/p>\n

‘Lias! ‘Lias! Bless de Lawd!
\nDon’ you know de day’s erbroad?
\nEf you don’ git up, you scamp,
\nDey’ll be trouble in dis camp.
\nT’ink I gwine to let you sleep
\nW’ile I meks yo’ boa’d an’ keep?
\nDat’s a putty howdy-do–
\nDon’ you hyeah me, ‘Lias–you?<\/p>\n

Bet ef I come crost dis flo’
\nYou won’ fin’ no time to sno’.
\nDaylight all a-shinin’ in
\nW’ile you sleep–w’y hit’s a sin!
\nAin’t de can’le-light enough
\nTo bu’n out widout a snuff,
\nBut you go de mo’nin’ thoo
\nBu’nin’ up de daylight too?<\/p>\n

‘Lias, don’ you hyeah me call?
\nNo use tu’nin’ to’ds de wall;
\nI kin hyeah dat mattuss squeak;
\nDon’ you hyeah me w’en I speak?
\nDis hyeah clock done struck off six–
\nCa’line, bring me dem ah sticks!
\nOh, you down, suh; huh, you down–
\nLook hyeah, don’ you daih to frown.<\/p>\n

Ma’ch you’se’f an’ wash yo’ face,
\nDon’ you splattah all de place;
\nI got somep’n else to do,
\n‘Sides jes’ cleanin’ aftah you.
\nTek dat comb an’ fix yo’ haid–
\nLooks je’ lak a feddah baid.
\nLook hyeah, boy, I let you see
\nYou sha’n’t roll yo’ eyes at me.<\/p>\n

Come hyeah; bring me dat ah strap!
\nBoy, I’ll whup you ‘twell you drap;
\nYou done felt yo’se’f’ too strong,
\nAn’ you sholy got me wrong.
\nSet down at dat table thaih;
\nJes’ you whimpah ef you daih!
\nEvah mo’nin’ on dis place,
\nSeem lak I mus’ lose my grace.<\/p>\n

Fol’ yo’ han’s an’ bow yo’ haid–
\nWait ontwell de blessin’ ‘s said;
\n“Lawd, have mussy on ouah souls–
\n(Don’ you daih to tech dem rolls–)
\n“Bless de food we gwine to eat–”
\n(You set still–I see yo’ feet;
\nYou jes’ try dat trick agin!)
\n“Gin us peace an’ joy. Amen!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The other day I was talking with a friend about writings and recitations from childhood. He had just rediscovered a wonderful Christmas story that his daughter had written when she was all of 11 years old, and I had re-encountered a hilarious recording of ten-year-old me reciting Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem In The Morning. My … Continue reading “I’ve Got Nerve: Poetry Out Loud”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-n-that"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.devradowrite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}