Irving Layton at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 18 March 1967

CLASSIFICATION

Swallow ID:
1262
Partner Institution:
Concordia University
Source Collection Label:
SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds
Series:
The Poetry Series
Sub Series:
SGWU Reading Series-Concordia University Department of English fonds

ITEM DESCRIPTION

Title:
Irving Layton at Sir George Williams University, The Poetry Series, 18 March 1967
Title Source:
Cataloguer
Title Note:
"IRVING LAYTON (2 tracks-3 3/4)" written on sticker on the front of the tape's box and on the reel. "I086-11-031" also written on sticker on the reel.
Language:
English
Production Context:
Documentary recording
Genre:
Reading: Poetry
Persistent URL:
http://archives.concordia.ca/I086
Identifiers:
[]

Rights

CREATORS

Name:
Layton, Irving
Dates:
1912-2006
URL:
http://viaf.org/viaf/66482092
Role:
"Author", "Performer"
Notes:
Canadian poet Irving Layton was born Israel Lazarovitch in Romania on March 12, 1913. His parents moved to Montreal when he was an infant. He attended Baron Byng High School, and then received a B.Sc. in agriculture in 1939 at MacDonald College. He completed an M.A. in 1946 in economics and political science at McGill University. At McGill, Layton began publishing his poetry in 1943 in First Statement, joining John Sutherland and Louis Dudek on the editorial board, and was involved with Northern Review from 1945-1956. Irving Layton was a founding member of Contact Press, along with Dudek and Raymond Souster in 1952. Layton’s first collection of poems began with Here and now (First Statement, 1945), followed by Now is the place (First Statement, 1948), The black huntsman (Contact Press [?], 1951), Love the conqueror worm (Contact Press, 1953), In the midst of my fever (published by Robert Creeley for Divers Press in 1954), The long pea-shooter (Laocoon Press, 1954), The cold green element and The blue propeller (Contact Press, 1955), The bull calf and other poems, Music on a Kazoo and The improved binoculars (published with an introduction by William Carlos Williams, Contact Press and J.Williams Press, 1956), A laughter in the mind (J. Williams, 1958) and A red carpet for the sun (J. Williams, 1959), which won a Governor General’s Award. He was a member of the editorial board of the Black Mountain Review in 1955. Layton also taught part time at Sir George University (now Concordia University) which appointed him poet-in-residence in 1965. Producing an average of one collection of poems per year, Layton published The swinging flesh (1961), Balls for a one-armed juggler (1963), The laughing rooster (1964), Collected poems (1965), Periods of the moon (1967), The shattered plinths (1968), The whole bloody bird: obs, alphs, and poems (1969), Nail polish (1971), Lovers and lesser men (1973), The pole vaulter (1974), For my brother Jesus (1976), The covenant (1977), The tightrope dancer (1978), Droppings from heaven (1979), For my neighbours in hell (Mosaic Press, 1980), Europe and other bad news (1981), The Gucci bag (1983), and Fortunate exile (1987), all published by McClelland and Stewart Press unless otherwise indicated. Layton also published selected poems in The collected poems of Irving Layton (McClelland and Stewart Press, 1971), The darkening fire: selected poems, 1945-68 (McClelland and Stewart Press, 1975), The unwavering eye: selected poems, 1969-75 (McClelland and Stewart Press, 1975), A wild peculiar joy: selected poems 1945-1982 (1982), Final reckoning: poems 1982-1986 (Mosaic Press, 1987), and Fornaluxt: selected poems 1928-1990 (1992). Layton has edited dozens of anthologies of Canadian poems and prose, as well as having his poetry published internationally. Layton ended his teaching career at York University in Toronto. An influential part of Canada’s literary scene, Irving Layton died on January 4, 2006.

CONTRIBUTORS

Name:
Fink, Howard,
Dates:
1934-
URL:
http://viaf.org/viaf/6332801
Role:
"Presenter", "Series organizer"

MATERIAL DESCRIPTION

Recording Type:
Analogue
AV Type:
Audio
Material Designation:
Reel to Reel
Physical Composition:
Magnetic Tape
Storage Capacity:
00:60:00
Extent:
1/4 inch
Playing Speed:
3 3/4 ips
Track Configuration:
2 track
Playback Mode:
Mono
Tape Brand:
BASF
Sound Quality:
Good

DIGITAL FILE DESCRIPTION

File URL:
https://files.spokenweb.ca/concordia/sgw/audio/all_mp3/irving_layton_i086-11-031.mp3
Show Content
File Path:
files.spokenweb.ca>concordia>sgw>audio>all_mp3
Duration:
01:23:43
Size:
200.9 MB
Content:
Howard Fink 00:00:00 ...Irving Layton to this stage again tonight, this time to read his poetry. The last time he was up here was to introduce Robert Creeley , and what was said then clearly explained the close relations between Mr. Layton and the Black Mountain Group in the 50's, so I won't go into that again, but I'll only add that Mr. Layton was a member of the editorial board of Black Mountain Review from 1955 on. Of course he's been publishing poetry since the 40's and was associated during those years with the First Statement Press, which became the Northern Review in 1949, and all this time studying at McGill University where he received the M.A. in Political Science and Economics in 1946. It's impossible to list all of his appearances in periodicals and little magazines, and I'll mention only a few of his two dozen or so volumes of poetry, anyway that's what it seemed like to me when I looked at that page in the new one. A Red Carpet for the Sun in 1959, with the well-known introduction by William Carlos Williams which acknowledged, American recognition of Mr. Layton's reputation. A Red Carpet, like all of Mr. Layton's subsequent books was published by McClelland and Stewart . Then, a book of short stories and poems, The Swinging Flesh, which came out in 1961, Balls for a One-armed Juggler in 1963, The Laughing Rooster in 1964, Collected Poems in 1965 and his latest work, just published this winter, Periods of the Moon. And I should say the ones that I have mentioned are the ones which are still in stock and able to be bought. Among Mr. Layton's other frenetic activities, poetry readings in Canada , United States , Germany and elsewhere, television appearances, controversial ones and so on, he finds time to communicate with students as well as Poet in Residence of this university . I'd like to present Mr. Irving Layton. Audience 00:02:21 Applause. Irving Layton 00:02:30 Thank you Howard, for your kind introduction. I'm glad that you did not introduce me as a letter writer. I'm very glad to see so large a turn out this evening. I am very heartened by it, very moved, and I'm very glad to see so many of my friends and former students in the audience. I like beginning my reading with a poem "There Are No Signs" because if any one poem expresses what I try to say, and all the poems and stories that I have written, is that modern man, pretty well, has to find out where he is going, by just going. Now the old sign posts are down, and that he must make his sign posts as he goes along. Irving Layton 00:04:00 Reads "There Are No Signs" [published as “There Were No Signs in Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:04:51 "The Swimmer", my symbol for the poet, condemned to live in two realms, and happy to live in neither of them. The realm of actuality and the realm of the imagination. Here I compare the poet to the swimmer. Irving Layton 00:05:15 Reads "The Swimmer" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:06:38 Several years ago I taught at the Jewish Library, one of my students was a Mrs. Fornheim, who had lived in Vienna , and left Vienna when that city fell to the Nazis. She went to Paris , and left Paris for Spain , when the Vichy government was formed. From Spain, she went to Portugal and then came to Montreal , where I taught her English. She died of cancer, this is my poem for her. "Mrs. Fornheim, Refugee". Irving Layton 00:07:19 Reads "Mrs. Fornheim, Refugee" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:08:12 "Gothic Landscape", or what it means to be a Jewish boy growing up in a hostile neighbourhood of French Canadians and Italians who are convinced that you have lately murdered Christ. And where you are entranced by the church bells every Sunday, because of the ecstatic music over the sky, over the rooftops, and yet, in that ecstatic music of the bells, a sound of menace, something alien and frightening. Irving Layton 00:09:00 Reads "Gothic Landscape" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:10:19 "The Black Huntsmen". This was written at a time when Jewish skin was made into lampshades. Or, the song of innocence becoming the song of experience. Irving Layton 00:10:42 Reads "The Black Huntsmen" [from Collected Poems]. Unknown 00:12:07 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. Irving Layton 00:12:08 This is how the fringes of a prayer shawl, a sheitel is a wig. If you are an Orthodox, Jewess as my mother was, you have to cut your hair very short and wear a wig so that you are no longer attractive so to speak, to any other man but your husband. Peculiar way of looking at it. Irving Layton 00:12:43 Reads "Archetypes" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:13:38 Reads "Soleil de Noces" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:14:15 "De Bullion Street". I don't suppose De Bullion Street has the reputation that it had when I was a boy. I suppose the present administration has cleaned up things, and anyway harlots now are more peripatetic. So this, in a sense, is an old fashioned poem. Irving Layton 00:14:40 Reads "De Bullion Street" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:16:10 "On My Way To School" or the changes that come. I wasn't the most punctual of students, and it's a great comfort to me therefore when I was late to find a sign on a Baptist church "Jesus Saves". Many years, I returned and found some change had taken place and this poem celebrates the change, or records it. Irving Layton 00:16:44 Reads "On My Way To School" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:17:20 Reads "Love the Conqueror Worm" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:18:31 "Vexata Quaestio". Western man is the product we are told, of two traditions, the Greek, and the Hebrew. The Greek, pagan, believing that all experience is worth having, and man should refuse no experience. The Hebrew believing that the proper life, salvation is to be found in obedience to God's will. The two traditions are quite contradictory and can never be reconciled. It is our unfortunate destiny to try to reconcile them. I do not think we have been successful at it because the task cannot be done, it's impossible. So I've written this poem, "Vexata Quaestio" and what I'm saying is that each and every one of us in the West is a sort of compromise between these two traditions. Here I use the tree, a tall tree, as a symbol for the Hebraic, the Maccabean and the sun becomes a symbol for the pagan, and you'll see what happens to both the tree and the sun. Irving Layton 00:20:11 Reads "Vexata Quaestio" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:21:19 "Cemetery in August". Only humans of course are aware of death, and even in August, when you feel the flush and thrill and intensity of life, you are aware of the autumn and the winter and when you are in a cemetery, the macabre juxtaposition of life and death becomes even more intense. So I wrote this poem, "Cemetery in August". Irving Layton 00:21:54 Reads "Cemetery in August" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:24:20 "To the Girls of my Graduating Class". This was a graduating class, not at Sir George Williams, but my high school I taught several years ago. And I was very fortunate one year in having six very, very lovely, nubile adolescents, very attractive, and very, very well aware of precisely where attractions lay [audience laughter]. And very often when I was in the middle of a serious lecture in history, one of them would make some provocative gesture that would drive my thoughts from the lecture to something far more interesting [audience laughter]. Irving Layton 00:25:15 Reads "To the Girls of my Graduating Class" [from Collected Poems]. Audience 00:26:30 Laughter. Irving Layton 00:26:33 And what you see when you are in the tavern, the kind of dreams you have about pleasure and about the strange, the strange dance that all of us lead. And this very queer life and journey of ours. And I call this "Bacchanal", and it's a rather unusual Bacchanal, because it's a rather sad one, or shall I say a prayerful one. Irving Layton 00:27:10 Reads "Bacchanal" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:28:18 This one is for my son, "Maxie". Irving Layton 00:28:24 Reads "Maxie" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:30:03 And I suppose all teachers of literature have had the experience of giving an inspired lecture on Shakespeare or John Donne , and finding some hand at the back waving furiously as you're getting to the home stretch and your peroration is the most resounding thing that you've ever thought about but this hand out there, very insistent, you know, and finally you stop in the middle of the peroration and you say "Yes, yes what is it?" and the student says, "Sir, will this be on the exam?" [audience laughter]. Irving Layton 00:30:57 Reads "Seven o'Clock Lecture" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:34:07 "The Birth of Tragedy". The title is taken from one of the earliest books of Nietzsche , the gods here that I speak about in the poem, are the gods of Dream and Dance, of Reason and Ecstasy, Apollo and Dionysus, Nietzsche held that tragedy came from the union of both dream and dance, intellect and impulse. Irving Layton 00:34:44 Reads "The Birth of Tragedy" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:36:44 And I suppose no Layton reading would be quite complete without this poem, "Misunderstanding". Irving Layton 00:36:54 Reads "Misunderstanding" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:37:16 "The Cold Green Element". This is about life, death, nature, and poetry. It's really a meditation, and, I hope, a passionate meditation on art and life. Like Yeats , I am very concerned with the necessary antinomies or contradictions of life. Like Yeats, I believe that great art results from the happy, the miraculous fusion of the two. Irving Layton 00:38:04 Reads "The Cold Green Element" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:40:20 "The Improved Binoculars", my symbol for science. It is truism to say that unless man's moral development, his capacity for sympathy, keeps space, or this development in science and technology he's in danger of blowing himself off the face of this earth. This poem is an apocalyptic poem, it is a vision of the future, such as I hope will never be realized. But in one of my more despairing moments, or one of my more savage and bitter moments, I wrote this poem, "The Improved Binoculars". Irving Layton 00:41:05 Reads "The Improved Binoculars" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:42:25 Reads [“Orpheus” from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:44:11 Reads "Death of a Construction Worker" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:45:08 Reads “Theology” [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:45:47 Reads “For Louise, Age 17” [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:47:14 "Song for Naomi". Naomi's my daughter. Several years ago we were out in the country, I was appalled to find that while she was by the bank of the lake, I couldn't see her because the weeds and the flowers were taller than she was. If she fell into the lake, neither I nor my wife might see it. But nothing happened. Just a day before we were to pack up to leave, I noticed my daughter down by the lake, and this time, her dear little head was peeping just above the weeds and the flowers and this gave me the idea for this poem, which I wrote, while of course my wife did the packing. Irving Layton 00:48:12 Reads "Song for Naomi" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:49:47 Here's a rather erotic poem, called "Gathering of Poets", to be taken of course with a grain of salt. Unknown 00:49:59 [Cut or edit made in tape]. Irving Layton 00:50:00 ...to be taken, of course, with a grain of salt. Just a short thing. Irving Layton 00:50:08 Reads "Gathering of Poets" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:50:40 Reads "The Bull Calf" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:53:19 And here's a lighter poem called "Bargain". Irving Layton 00:53:22 Reads "Bargain" [from Collected Poems]. Audience 00:53:46 Laughter. Irving Layton 00:53:58 This next poem is for my mother, who died at the age of 89. She was a very remarkable woman, I'd like to tell you a great deal about her, she certainly merits it, she was a most remarkable character with a tremendous joie-de-vivre and a wonderful gift of vituperation, which it is said I have inherited [audience laughter]. Certainly I learned the cadence of poetry from my mother's cursing. My mother would start cursing as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning and wouldn't stop cursing until I closed them at night when I went to bed. But the cadence was what interested me [audience laughter] and I didn't pay any attention to words. Occasionally I would get the drift, of course, of what the curses were intended to say, and I must say it did me a wonderful lot of good because later on when I got knocked my critics and so on, it was like so much water off a duck's back after my mother's cursing. Nothing the critics say could possibly make any impression upon me whatsoever [audience laughter]. She was extremely vain of her black eyebrows. When she was 85, I was taking her somewhere and we stopped for a red light. I noticed a very lovely girl standing on the curb, and of course, I looked very intently at her. My mother caught my intent gaze and said, sighing, "Yes, she's very beautiful, but has she got my black eyebrows?" [audience laughter]. She wore earrings that were made of old Romanian coins, she wore an amber necklace, which I remember playing with when I was a child. But it was her immense vitality and joie-de-vivre, coupled with an immense discontent that always fascinated me about my mother. She was a very Orthodox woman, reverencing God, but often giving me the impression that she might have made a much better job of creation than God himself. So this is my tribute to my very, very remarkable mother. Irving Layton 00:56:56 Reads "Keine Lazarovitch, 1870-1959" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:59:16 Reads "The Well-Wrought Urn" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:59:57 Some time ago, I went down to the church at Notre Dame, and you know, you have halos lighting up over the head of your favourite saint, or the Virgin Mary, if you drop the requisite number of coins. There's nobody else in that vast gloomy church, except another man and myself, and he went over to the little machine and he dropped some coins, and he waited for the halo to light up and it didn't. And that nettled him a great deal, and he waited, and it still didn't light up so he gave the machine a kick, nothing happened. But he said something and I went home and I wrote this poem. Irving Layton 01:01:01 Reads "This Machine Age" [from Collected Poems; audience laughter throughout]. Irving Layton 01:02:09 This next poem of mine is also based on an actual experience, I'm sure that most of you have heard of Djilas , the very courageous Yugoslav writer who's imprisoned by his erstwhile comrade and companion in arms, Tito. He's imprisoned for writing and publishing outside of the country, Conversations with Stalin . That was several years ago, he's just been released. Well I thought a brave man like that deserves some kind of support, especially from and by writers, and so I decided to go up to Ottawa and demonstrate in front of the Yugoslav Embassy. I took my wife with me, and one or two of the local poets, we made some signs and we drove up to Ottawa. We got out of the car, and the sign read, of course, "Free Djilas", and I was amazed and delighted to find that a considerable crowd gathered around me and the sign. Until I realized just what was happening. And so I wrote this poem, called "Free Djilas". Irving Layton 01:03:31 Reads "Free Djilas" [from Collected Poems; audience laughter throughout]. Irving Layton 01:04:29 This one, in a more serious vein, "The Predator". Irving Layton 01:04:36 Reads "The Predator" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 01:06:41 Reads "Plaza de Toros" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 01:09:13 Reads "At the Alhambra" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 01:10:20 Reads "For My Green Old Age" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 01:11:44 Now I want to read a few poems from my most recent book, Periods of the Moon. "Castles on the Rhine". Irving Layton 01:12:01 Reads "Castles on the Rhine" [published as “Rhine Boat Trip in Periods of the Moon]. Irving Layton 01:12:54 Reads "Mutability" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:14:19 Reads "Time's Velvet Tongue" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:15:20 Reads "Gratitude" from Periods of the Moon. Audience 01:16:00 Laughter Irving Layton 01:16:04 My contribution to the centennial year, “Confederation Ode”. Irving Layton 01:16:10 Reads "Confederation Ode" from Periods of the Moon [audience laughter throughout]. Audience 01:17:23 Laughter and Applause. Irving Layton 01:17:34 Reads "The Beautiful Unknown Girl" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:18:55 And this one, "For Musia's Grandchildren". Irving Layton 01:19:09 Reads "For Musia's Grandchildren" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:20:59 Reads "Look Homeward, Angel" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:21:45 And this last one, "Family Portrait". Irving Layton 01:21:54 Reads "Family Portrait" [from Collected Poems; audience laughter throughout]. Audience 01:22:59 Laughter and Applause. END 01:23:43
Notes:
Irving Layton reads from Collected Poems (McClelland & Stewart, 1965) and Periods of the Moon (McClelland &Stewart, 1967). I086-11-031.1 00:00- Howard Fink introduces Irving Layton [INDEX: Layton introduced Robert Creeley in earlier reading, Black Mountain Poetry Group in 1950’s, Board of Black Mountain Review in 1955 onwards, First Statement Press- became Northern Review in 1949, A red carpet for the sun (1959) with intro by William Carlos Williams, published by McClelland and Stewart, The swinging flesh, Balls for a one-armed juggler (1963), Laughing Rooster (1964), Collected Poems (1965), Periods of the Moon (1967), controversial T.V. appearances, Poet in Residence at Sir George University 1967] 02:30- Irving Layton introduces “There Are No Signs” 04:00- Reads “There Are No Signs” 04:51- Introduces “The Swimmer” [INDEX: Poet as swimmer symbol; Howard Fink List “The Summer”.] 05:15- Reads “The Swimmer” 06:38- Introduces “Mrs. Fornheim, Refugee” [INDEX: Jewish Library: teaching English, Mrs. Fornheim: an European refugee from Nazis] 07:19- Reads “Mrs. Fornheim, Refugee” 08:12- Introduces “Gothic Landscape” [INDEX: Jewish boy living in Christian and Catholic neighborhoods] 09:00- Reads “Gothic Landscape” 10:19- Introduces “The Black Huntsman” 10:40- Reads “The Black Huntsman” 12:08- Introduces “Archetypes” [INDEX: Orthodox Judaism] 12:43- Reads “Archetypes” 13:38- Reads “Soleil de Nos” 14:15- Introduces “De Bullion Street” 14:40- Reads “De Bullion Street” 16:10- Introduces “On My Way To School” 16:44- Reads “On My Way To School” 17:20- Reads “Love the Conqueror Worm” 18:31- Introduces “Exata Christio” [INDEX: Western man: Greek vs. Hebraic Cultures] 20:11- Reads “Exata Christio” 21:19- Introduces “Cemetery in August” 21:54- Reads “Cemetery in August” 24:20- Introduces “To The Girls of My Graduating Class” 25:15- Reads “To The Girls of My Graduating Class” 26:33- Introduces “Bacchanal” 27:10- Reads “Bacchanal” 28:18- Introduces “Maxie” [INDEX: poem for his son] 28:24- Reads “Maxie” 30:03- Introduces “Seven O’Clock Lecture” 30:57- Reads “Seven O’Clock Lecture” 34:07- Introduces “Birth of a Tragedy” [INDEX: Nietzsche] 34:44- Reads “Birth of a Tragedy” 36:44- Introduces “Misunderstanding” 36:54- Reads “Misunderstanding” 37:16- Introduces “A Cold Green Element” [INDEX: William Butler Yeats] 38:04- Reads “A Cold Green Element” 40:20- Introduces “The Improved Binoculars” [INDEX: dangers of science and technology] 41:05- Reads “The Improved Binoculars” 42:25- Reads first line “Poets of a distant time...” 44:11- Reads “Death of a Construction Worker” 45:08- Reads “Theology” 45:47- Reads “For Louise, Age 17” 47:14- Introduces “Song for Naomi” 48:12- Reads “Song for Naomi” [INDEX: Poem for Naomi, daughter] 49:47- Begins to introduce “Gathering of Poets” 49:59.53- END OF RECORDING Howard Fink List of poems: 18/03/67 mono, 2 tracks, speed 3 3/4 one one 5” reel, lasting 1 hr 35 min 1. “There Are No Signs” 2. “The Summer” 3. “Mrs. Fornheim, the Refugee” 4. “Gothic Landscape” 5. “The Black Huntsman” 6. “Archetypes” 7. “Soleil de Nos” 8. “DeBullion Street” 9. “On My Way To School” 10. “Love the Conquerer Worm” 11. “Exata Christio” 12. “Cemetary in August” 13. “To the Girls (gauls) of My Graduating Class” 14. “Bachnal” 15. “Maxie” 16. “Seven O’clock Lecture” 17. “The Birth Of Tragedy” 18. “Misunderstanding” 19. “The Cold Green Element” 20. “The Improved Binoculars” 21. first line “Poets of a distant time...” 22. “Death of a Construction Worker” 23. first line “She came to us...” 24. “Song for Naomi” 25. “Gathering of Poets” I086-11-031.2 00:00- Irving Layton introduces “Gathering of Poets” 00:08- Reads “Gathering of Poets” 00:40- Reads “The Bull Calf” 03:20- Reads “Bargain” 03:58- Introduces “Keine Lazarovitch, 1870-1959” [INDEX: Layton’s mother, Keine Lazarovitch] 06:57- Reads “Keine Lazarovitch, 1870-1959” 09:15- Reads “The Wall Watt Urn” 09:56- Introduces “This Machine Age” 11:01- Reads “This Machine Age” 12:09- Introduces “Free Djilas” [INDEX: Milovan Djilas Conversations with Stalin, Tito] 13:31- Reads “Free Djilas” 14:29- Reads “The Predator” 14:36- Reads “Plaza de Toros” [Plaza de Toros in Madrid] 19:14- Reads “At The Alhambra” 20:20- Reads “For My Green Old Age” 21:44- Reads “Castles on the Rhine”, following poems are from Periods of the Moon 22:54- Reads “Mutability” [INDEX: The Rhine] 24:20- Reads “Time’s Velvet Tongue” 25:02- Reads “Gratitude” 26:02- Reads “Confederation Ode” [INDEX: Canada’s Centennial Year, Confederation Ode] 27:35- Reads “The Beautiful Unknown Girl” 28:55- Reads “For Musia’s Grandchildren” 31:00- Reads “Look Homeward, Angel” 31:45- Reads “Family Portrait” 33:43.03- END OF RECORDING Howard Fink list of poems: 26. “The Bull Calf” 27. “Bargain” 28. “Kana (sp??) Laserovich” (Layton’s mom)--Keine Lazarovitch 29. “The Will Watt Van” 30. “This Machine Age” 31. “Free Gilas” 32. “The Predator” 33. “Plaza de Toro’s” 34. first line “I sat where...” 35. “For My Green Old Age” The following poems are from Layton’s book Periods of the Moon: 36. “Castles On the Rine” 37. “Meutability” 38. “Times Velvet Tongue” 39. “Gratitude” 40. “Confederation Ode” 41. “The Beautiful Unknowen Girl” 42. “For Muska’s Grandchildren” 43. “Look Homeward Angel” 44. “Family Portrait”
Content Type:
Sound Recording
Featured:
Yes
File URL:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-0cAe1GF8xZsc62jpUDXwgvyCd6ZmvSw
Show Content
Title:
Irving Layton Tape Box - Back
Credit:
Drew Bernet
Content Type:
Photograph
File URL:
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Title:
Irving Layton Tape Box - Front
Credit:
Drew Bernet
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Photograph
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Show Content
Title:
Irving Layton Tape Box - Reel
Credit:
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Dates

Date:
1967 3 18
Type:
Performance Date
Source:
Previous researcher

LOCATION

Address:
1455, Boul de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Venue:
Hall Building Basement Theatre
Latitude:
45.4972758
Longitude:
-73.57893043
URL:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/22080570
Notes:
Previous researcher

CONTENT

Contents:
irving_layton_i086-11-031.mp3 Howard Fink 00:00:00 ...Irving Layton to this stage again tonight, this time to read his poetry. The last time he was up here was to introduce Robert Creeley , and what was said then clearly explained the close relations between Mr. Layton and the Black Mountain Group in the 50's, so I won't go into that again, but I'll only add that Mr. Layton was a member of the editorial board of Black Mountain Review from 1955 on. Of course he's been publishing poetry since the 40's and was associated during those years with the First Statement Press, which became the Northern Review in 1949, and all this time studying at McGill University where he received the M.A. in Political Science and Economics in 1946. It's impossible to list all of his appearances in periodicals and little magazines, and I'll mention only a few of his two dozen or so volumes of poetry, anyway that's what it seemed like to me when I looked at that page in the new one. A Red Carpet for the Sun in 1959, with the well-known introduction by William Carlos Williams which acknowledged, American recognition of Mr. Layton's reputation. A Red Carpet, like all of Mr. Layton's subsequent books was published by McClelland and Stewart . Then, a book of short stories and poems, The Swinging Flesh, which came out in 1961, Balls for a One-armed Juggler in 1963, The Laughing Rooster in 1964, Collected Poems in 1965 and his latest work, just published this winter, Periods of the Moon. And I should say the ones that I have mentioned are the ones which are still in stock and able to be bought. Among Mr. Layton's other frenetic activities, poetry readings in Canada , United States , Germany and elsewhere, television appearances, controversial ones and so on, he finds time to communicate with students as well as Poet in Residence of this university . I'd like to present Mr. Irving Layton. Audience 00:02:21 Applause. Irving Layton 00:02:30 Thank you Howard, for your kind introduction. I'm glad that you did not introduce me as a letter writer. I'm very glad to see so large a turn out this evening. I am very heartened by it, very moved, and I'm very glad to see so many of my friends and former students in the audience. I like beginning my reading with a poem "There Are No Signs" because if any one poem expresses what I try to say, and all the poems and stories that I have written, is that modern man, pretty well, has to find out where he is going, by just going. Now the old sign posts are down, and that he must make his sign posts as he goes along. Irving Layton 00:04:00 Reads "There Are No Signs" [published as “There Were No Signs in Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:04:51 "The Swimmer", my symbol for the poet, condemned to live in two realms, and happy to live in neither of them. The realm of actuality and the realm of the imagination. Here I compare the poet to the swimmer. Irving Layton 00:05:15 Reads "The Swimmer" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:06:38 Several years ago I taught at the Jewish Library, one of my students was a Mrs. Fornheim, who had lived in Vienna , and left Vienna when that city fell to the Nazis. She went to Paris , and left Paris for Spain , when the Vichy government was formed. From Spain, she went to Portugal and then came to Montreal , where I taught her English. She died of cancer, this is my poem for her. "Mrs. Fornheim, Refugee". Irving Layton 00:07:19 Reads "Mrs. Fornheim, Refugee" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:08:12 "Gothic Landscape", or what it means to be a Jewish boy growing up in a hostile neighbourhood of French Canadians and Italians who are convinced that you have lately murdered Christ. And where you are entranced by the church bells every Sunday, because of the ecstatic music over the sky, over the rooftops, and yet, in that ecstatic music of the bells, a sound of menace, something alien and frightening. Irving Layton 00:09:00 Reads "Gothic Landscape" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:10:19 "The Black Huntsmen". This was written at a time when Jewish skin was made into lampshades. Or, the song of innocence becoming the song of experience. Irving Layton 00:10:42 Reads "The Black Huntsmen" [from Collected Poems]. Unknown 00:12:07 [Cut or edit made in tape. Unknown amount of time elapsed]. Irving Layton 00:12:08 This is how the fringes of a prayer shawl, a sheitel is a wig. If you are an Orthodox, Jewess as my mother was, you have to cut your hair very short and wear a wig so that you are no longer attractive so to speak, to any other man but your husband. Peculiar way of looking at it. Irving Layton 00:12:43 Reads "Archetypes" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:13:38 Reads "Soleil de Noces" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:14:15 "De Bullion Street". I don't suppose De Bullion Street has the reputation that it had when I was a boy. I suppose the present administration has cleaned up things, and anyway harlots now are more peripatetic. So this, in a sense, is an old fashioned poem. Irving Layton 00:14:40 Reads "De Bullion Street" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:16:10 "On My Way To School" or the changes that come. I wasn't the most punctual of students, and it's a great comfort to me therefore when I was late to find a sign on a Baptist church "Jesus Saves". Many years, I returned and found some change had taken place and this poem celebrates the change, or records it. Irving Layton 00:16:44 Reads "On My Way To School" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:17:20 Reads "Love the Conqueror Worm" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:18:31 "Vexata Quaestio". Western man is the product we are told, of two traditions, the Greek, and the Hebrew. The Greek, pagan, believing that all experience is worth having, and man should refuse no experience. The Hebrew believing that the proper life, salvation is to be found in obedience to God's will. The two traditions are quite contradictory and can never be reconciled. It is our unfortunate destiny to try to reconcile them. I do not think we have been successful at it because the task cannot be done, it's impossible. So I've written this poem, "Vexata Quaestio" and what I'm saying is that each and every one of us in the West is a sort of compromise between these two traditions. Here I use the tree, a tall tree, as a symbol for the Hebraic, the Maccabean and the sun becomes a symbol for the pagan, and you'll see what happens to both the tree and the sun. Irving Layton 00:20:11 Reads "Vexata Quaestio" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:21:19 "Cemetery in August". Only humans of course are aware of death, and even in August, when you feel the flush and thrill and intensity of life, you are aware of the autumn and the winter and when you are in a cemetery, the macabre juxtaposition of life and death becomes even more intense. So I wrote this poem, "Cemetery in August". Irving Layton 00:21:54 Reads "Cemetery in August" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:24:20 "To the Girls of my Graduating Class". This was a graduating class, not at Sir George Williams, but my high school I taught several years ago. And I was very fortunate one year in having six very, very lovely, nubile adolescents, very attractive, and very, very well aware of precisely where attractions lay [audience laughter]. And very often when I was in the middle of a serious lecture in history, one of them would make some provocative gesture that would drive my thoughts from the lecture to something far more interesting [audience laughter]. Irving Layton 00:25:15 Reads "To the Girls of my Graduating Class" [from Collected Poems]. Audience 00:26:30 Laughter. Irving Layton 00:26:33 And what you see when you are in the tavern, the kind of dreams you have about pleasure and about the strange, the strange dance that all of us lead. And this very queer life and journey of ours. And I call this "Bacchanal", and it's a rather unusual Bacchanal, because it's a rather sad one, or shall I say a prayerful one. Irving Layton 00:27:10 Reads "Bacchanal" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:28:18 This one is for my son, "Maxie". Irving Layton 00:28:24 Reads "Maxie" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:30:03 And I suppose all teachers of literature have had the experience of giving an inspired lecture on Shakespeare or John Donne , and finding some hand at the back waving furiously as you're getting to the home stretch and your peroration is the most resounding thing that you've ever thought about but this hand out there, very insistent, you know, and finally you stop in the middle of the peroration and you say "Yes, yes what is it?" and the student says, "Sir, will this be on the exam?" [audience laughter]. Irving Layton 00:30:57 Reads "Seven o'Clock Lecture" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:34:07 "The Birth of Tragedy". The title is taken from one of the earliest books of Nietzsche , the gods here that I speak about in the poem, are the gods of Dream and Dance, of Reason and Ecstasy, Apollo and Dionysus, Nietzsche held that tragedy came from the union of both dream and dance, intellect and impulse. Irving Layton 00:34:44 Reads "The Birth of Tragedy" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:36:44 And I suppose no Layton reading would be quite complete without this poem, "Misunderstanding". Irving Layton 00:36:54 Reads "Misunderstanding" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:37:16 "The Cold Green Element". This is about life, death, nature, and poetry. It's really a meditation, and, I hope, a passionate meditation on art and life. Like Yeats , I am very concerned with the necessary antinomies or contradictions of life. Like Yeats, I believe that great art results from the happy, the miraculous fusion of the two. Irving Layton 00:38:04 Reads "The Cold Green Element" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:40:20 "The Improved Binoculars", my symbol for science. It is truism to say that unless man's moral development, his capacity for sympathy, keeps space, or this development in science and technology he's in danger of blowing himself off the face of this earth. This poem is an apocalyptic poem, it is a vision of the future, such as I hope will never be realized. But in one of my more despairing moments, or one of my more savage and bitter moments, I wrote this poem, "The Improved Binoculars". Irving Layton 00:41:05 Reads "The Improved Binoculars" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:42:25 Reads [“Orpheus” from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:44:11 Reads "Death of a Construction Worker" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:45:08 Reads “Theology” [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:45:47 Reads “For Louise, Age 17” [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:47:14 "Song for Naomi". Naomi's my daughter. Several years ago we were out in the country, I was appalled to find that while she was by the bank of the lake, I couldn't see her because the weeds and the flowers were taller than she was. If she fell into the lake, neither I nor my wife might see it. But nothing happened. Just a day before we were to pack up to leave, I noticed my daughter down by the lake, and this time, her dear little head was peeping just above the weeds and the flowers and this gave me the idea for this poem, which I wrote, while of course my wife did the packing. Irving Layton 00:48:12 Reads "Song for Naomi" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:49:47 Here's a rather erotic poem, called "Gathering of Poets", to be taken of course with a grain of salt. Unknown 00:49:59 [Cut or edit made in tape]. Irving Layton 00:50:00 ...to be taken, of course, with a grain of salt. Just a short thing. Irving Layton 00:50:08 Reads "Gathering of Poets" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:50:40 Reads "The Bull Calf" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:53:19 And here's a lighter poem called "Bargain". Irving Layton 00:53:22 Reads "Bargain" [from Collected Poems]. Audience 00:53:46 Laughter. Irving Layton 00:53:58 This next poem is for my mother, who died at the age of 89. She was a very remarkable woman, I'd like to tell you a great deal about her, she certainly merits it, she was a most remarkable character with a tremendous joie-de-vivre and a wonderful gift of vituperation, which it is said I have inherited [audience laughter]. Certainly I learned the cadence of poetry from my mother's cursing. My mother would start cursing as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning and wouldn't stop cursing until I closed them at night when I went to bed. But the cadence was what interested me [audience laughter] and I didn't pay any attention to words. Occasionally I would get the drift, of course, of what the curses were intended to say, and I must say it did me a wonderful lot of good because later on when I got knocked my critics and so on, it was like so much water off a duck's back after my mother's cursing. Nothing the critics say could possibly make any impression upon me whatsoever [audience laughter]. She was extremely vain of her black eyebrows. When she was 85, I was taking her somewhere and we stopped for a red light. I noticed a very lovely girl standing on the curb, and of course, I looked very intently at her. My mother caught my intent gaze and said, sighing, "Yes, she's very beautiful, but has she got my black eyebrows?" [audience laughter]. She wore earrings that were made of old Romanian coins, she wore an amber necklace, which I remember playing with when I was a child. But it was her immense vitality and joie-de-vivre, coupled with an immense discontent that always fascinated me about my mother. She was a very Orthodox woman, reverencing God, but often giving me the impression that she might have made a much better job of creation than God himself. So this is my tribute to my very, very remarkable mother. Irving Layton 00:56:56 Reads "Keine Lazarovitch, 1870-1959" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:59:16 Reads "The Well-Wrought Urn" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 00:59:57 Some time ago, I went down to the church at Notre Dame, and you know, you have halos lighting up over the head of your favourite saint, or the Virgin Mary, if you drop the requisite number of coins. There's nobody else in that vast gloomy church, except another man and myself, and he went over to the little machine and he dropped some coins, and he waited for the halo to light up and it didn't. And that nettled him a great deal, and he waited, and it still didn't light up so he gave the machine a kick, nothing happened. But he said something and I went home and I wrote this poem. Irving Layton 01:01:01 Reads "This Machine Age" [from Collected Poems; audience laughter throughout]. Irving Layton 01:02:09 This next poem of mine is also based on an actual experience, I'm sure that most of you have heard of Djilas , the very courageous Yugoslav writer who's imprisoned by his erstwhile comrade and companion in arms, Tito. He's imprisoned for writing and publishing outside of the country, Conversations with Stalin . That was several years ago, he's just been released. Well I thought a brave man like that deserves some kind of support, especially from and by writers, and so I decided to go up to Ottawa and demonstrate in front of the Yugoslav Embassy. I took my wife with me, and one or two of the local poets, we made some signs and we drove up to Ottawa. We got out of the car, and the sign read, of course, "Free Djilas", and I was amazed and delighted to find that a considerable crowd gathered around me and the sign. Until I realized just what was happening. And so I wrote this poem, called "Free Djilas". Irving Layton 01:03:31 Reads "Free Djilas" [from Collected Poems; audience laughter throughout]. Irving Layton 01:04:29 This one, in a more serious vein, "The Predator". Irving Layton 01:04:36 Reads "The Predator" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 01:06:41 Reads "Plaza de Toros" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 01:09:13 Reads "At the Alhambra" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 01:10:20 Reads "For My Green Old Age" [from Collected Poems]. Irving Layton 01:11:44 Now I want to read a few poems from my most recent book, Periods of the Moon. "Castles on the Rhine". Irving Layton 01:12:01 Reads "Castles on the Rhine" [published as “Rhine Boat Trip in Periods of the Moon]. Irving Layton 01:12:54 Reads "Mutability" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:14:19 Reads "Time's Velvet Tongue" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:15:20 Reads "Gratitude" from Periods of the Moon. Audience 01:16:00 Laughter Irving Layton 01:16:04 My contribution to the centennial year, “Confederation Ode”. Irving Layton 01:16:10 Reads "Confederation Ode" from Periods of the Moon [audience laughter throughout]. Audience 01:17:23 Laughter and Applause. Irving Layton 01:17:34 Reads "The Beautiful Unknown Girl" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:18:55 And this one, "For Musia's Grandchildren". Irving Layton 01:19:09 Reads "For Musia's Grandchildren" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:20:59 Reads "Look Homeward, Angel" from Periods of the Moon. Irving Layton 01:21:45 And this last one, "Family Portrait". Irving Layton 01:21:54 Reads "Family Portrait" [from Collected Poems; audience laughter throughout]. Audience 01:22:59 Laughter and Applause. END 01:23:43
Notes:
Irving Layton reads from Collected Poems (McClelland & Stewart, 1965) and Periods of the Moon (McClelland &Stewart, 1967).

NOTES

Type:
General
Note:
Year-Specific Information: His collection of poetry Periods of the Moon was published in 1967, and he participated in several other readings at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal, among other places. His poetry was anthologized in Modern Canadian Verse: In English and French (Oxford University Press), edited by F.R. Scott and A.J.M. Smith, The Blasted Pine: An Anthology of Satire, also edited by F.R. Scott and A.J.M. Smith in 1967 (Macmillan). Layton was poet-in-residence at Sir George Williams University.
Type:
General
Note:
Local Connections: Layton’s meeting with Louis Dudek and John Sutherland culminated in the very influential First Statement magazine and press in 1942. His poetry is widely-read and has been awarded generously. Layton has also become a well-known figure in Montreal, and caught the attention of many critics--for better or for worse. Layton and Dudek helped Aileen Collins found the magazine CIV/n, and with Raymond Souster founded Contact Press in 1952, which both published many young Canadian poets like Margaret Atwood, Phyllis Webb, Eli Mandel, D.G. Jones, Alden Nowlan, Gwendolyn MacEwen, George Bowering, Frank Davey and John Newlove. Through Raymond Souster, he began correspondence with Robert Creeley in 1953, and continued to prove to American poets that Canadian poets had something interesting to say. Layton, Dudek and F.R. Scott promoted and mentored the newer generation of Canadian poets. He has become a Montreal icon, as he spent most of his life in the city.
Type:
General
Note:
Original transcript, research, introduction and edits by Celyn Harding-Jones Additional research and edits by Ali Barillaro
Type:
Preservation
Note:
Reel-to-reel tape>2 CDs>digital file

RELATED WORKS

Citation:
Davey, Frank. "Layton, Irving". The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature. Eugene Benson and William Toye (eds). Oxford University Press 2001.
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https://www.worldcat.org/title/oxford-companion-to-canadian-literature/oclc/605246871&referer=brief_results
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Davey, Frank. From There to Here: A Guide to English-Canadian Literature Since 1960, Our Nature-Our Voices II. Erin, Ontario: Press Porcepic, 1974.
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https://www.worldcat.org/title/from-there-to-here-a-guide-to-english-canadian-literature-since-1960-ii-our-nature-our-voices/oclc/878901819&referer=brief_results
Citation:
Layton, Irving. Collected Poems. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1965.
URL:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/collected-poems-irving-layton/oclc/460183130&referer=brief_results
Citation:
Layton, Irving. Periods of the Moon. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1967.
URL:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/periods-of-the-moon-poems/oclc/907399867&referer=brief_results
Citation:
Lynch, Gerald. “Layton, Irving (1912-)”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Eugene Benson and L.W. Conolly, (eds). London: Routledge, 1994. 2 Vols.
URL:
https://www.worldcat.org/title/encyclopedia-of-post-colonial-literatures-in-english-vol2/oclc/1156824609&referer=brief_results
Citation:
“Poetry Readings”. Post-Grad. Montreal: Sir George Williams University, Spring 1967, page 13.
URL:
https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/concordia/offices/archives/docs/postgrad/Postgrad-1967-Spring.pdf
Citation:
“Poetry Series Coming Up At University”. Montreal; The Gazette. 31 December 1966, page 39.
URL:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=O5UtAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4p8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=3951,6182119&dq=sir+george+williams+poetry &hl=en

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