[Lecture at the University at Buffalo, summer course 1968. / Robert Duncan.

Recorded at the University at Buffalo on June 26 and 27, 1968 by Allen De Loach for the Poetry Collection on two 7 inch Scotch reel-to-reel tapes.

In the first two sessions, Duncan read from Canto I of The Cantos of Ezra Pound, with the plan to also read from the opening section of Paterson by William Carlos Williams, which he would not reach until the third class. In addition to poetics, Duncan discussed the early years of his life, his time at Berkeley and Fort Knox, history, the visual arts, Eastern and Western religious traditions, philosophy, psychology, science, and politics. Dante, Blake, Freud, and Pound soon emerge as Duncan's main touchstones. Duncan had the students use blue workbooks to write several essays, the first of which was to "write ways you've been told the universe was created," and Duncan would add to what he called "an impulsive reading list" throughout the course, by writing on the chalkboard the titles and authors of works the students would benefit from studying. During the first and second sessions, the books added to the reading list were A handbook of Greek mythology by Herbert Jennings Rose, The circulation of the blood by William Harvey, the artist John Heartfield's depictions of the Nazis, and the 1855 preface to Leaves of grass by Walt Whitman.

Robert Duncan.

The Poetry Collection of the University Libraries. Digital conversion was made possible through a 2009 National Endowment for the Humanities grant.

1968

Sound recording

INT148

Canto I (Ezra Pound).

Hear@Buffalo: The Poetry Collection’s Audio Archive

UB Only

lib-pc002-INT148.mp3