Damien reading Yeats is a thing of beauty. Chills passed thru me each time he came on. His voice is just so sublime, evoking the emotion through the words, immersing us in the imagery. At times speeding up in cadence but mostly a soft cadence, a soothing lilt. I could listen to this all day.
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papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
yes, beautiful, gentle, powerful, hypnotic, transportive. Soothing for the mind and spirit!
The clips of Yeats reading his own work were also magnetic - his readings are more like incantations, as if invoking some deep and ancient magic.. adding a unnameable, transcendent element to his creations. I could listen to that for hours. Unlike many others, I love the mystical side to Yeats and am drawn to his work more because of it.
I did go to bed one night re-listening to this with my headphones. Every time he says the word dream... *sigh*
Rosie, it's only going to be up for a limited time, so go, run, listen!
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papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
Oh good - you were both able to listen on the BBC Radio iplayer Jozie and whimsy? I was going to ask if our non UK-ers had managed to tune-in!
This really is the perfect bedtime listening. I am now even more convinced that all poetry is meant to be heard not read.... although I will always appreciate the beauty of the written word on the page and the spaces in between...
I wish Damien could be voice some audio book or something, most beautiful voice on earth, that poetry reading was amazing. The first poem already took my heart.... It's amazing how he can impress you with his talents even you can't see him and only hear his voice.
Agreed! Such a melodic voice, and he knows just where to put emphasis. I would love to hear him do audiobooks. Heck he could read the phone book... Actually if his voice could be on my navigation system in the car, or replace Siri's voice on my phone that would be awesome. How much you reckon he'd charge? By the hour? By the word? I'm pretty sure we could raise the money. Have him read BH fanfiction? (Which could get a little weird depending on the fanfic...)
Supposedly he recorded something in May around the time he did the last World Theatre reading. I assume it was the story he read for World Theatre? But there's been not a sneeze on it since then.
Yes domino I've had no problems listening to this on BBC4's website. I will just have to keep listening to them over and over. And maybe they'll go up on YT when they are off the BBC site so we can have them forever.
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papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
At last I have listened to all the programme. I agree with you about Damien's lovely voice, no doubt this is one of the reasons he was chosen to read the poems. I did wonder when he was going to be acknowledged but after the last poem his name was mentioned. And the continuity announcer said "the reader was Damien Molony"!
Just listening to this now on my lunch hour from work. I actually gasped out loud when Damien began reading He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven. I have a lovely notebook where I write out poems that I come across that I like and this one is right at the front so it was so beautiful to hear Damien reading it. I'm listening through headphones so it sounds like he is murmuring right in my ear just to me!
I have mostly been ambivalent about poetry, for the most part because in school they break things down, make you analyze it to death rather than just let you enjoy the beauty of it. Plus, in my schooling we were mostly exposed to American poetry, so I can't say that I was familiar with Yeats until now. This has been a beautiful introduction. I'm most struck by "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" of course, being a romantic poem and who doesn't like those... but also by some of the imagery in the other poems.
From Easter 1916:
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
From The Wild Swans at Coole:
The trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
From The Host of The Air:
And he saw how the reeds grew dark At the coming of night-tide, And dreamed of the long dim hair Of Bridget his bride.
He heard while he sang and dreamed A piper piping away, And never was piping so sad, And never was piping so gay.
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papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
And this phrase from Easter 1916 has been reverberating around in my head. I can't help but associate it with Hal becoming a vampire.
He, too, has resigned his part
In the casual comedy;
He, too, has been changed in his turn,
Transformed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born.
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papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
The years have passed and our dreams of audiobooks by Damien are as yet unfulfileld..... but the day (which will surely come) is getting closer and closer! we cannot be the only ones who want this to happen!
Damien is an incredibly natural storyteller, and as an actor brings a wonderful level of characterization to the short stories we have heard him read. But the poetry is another level... because poetry has that transcendent quality, it speaks to something deeper and less literal... totally freeing for the imagination and the imagery and the voice together are like a painting, a different painting each time they are read and heard.
I would love an entire series of audiobooks of Damien reading poetry. Or, Damien reading poetry on video!
(a girl can dream. don't tread on them)
The Yeats poems selected on the programme are beautiful.