Rita Dove and W.S. Merwin: A Gift for Language

What It Takes®

Academy of Achievement

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4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2018

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Two of America's greatest poets - both former Poet Laureates and Pulitzer Prize winners - get to the heart of why poems speak to us when other forms of language fail. They also share stories about the people who inspired them to make a life in literature. And they read some great poems, of course! (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2018

Transcript

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0:00.0	For T.S. Elliot, April was the cruelest month, but for many of us that honor belongs to
0:07.0	December when the days reach their shortest and darkest and the happy holidays sometimes just aren't.
0:15.0	That's why I've come bearing poetry for you on this December day
0:19.0	as I record this
0:23.3	Poetry and Poets.
0:24.0	Oh, I have to do it.
0:26.5	It's central to my life.
0:29.5	Rilka said to a young poet, if you can live without writing poetry, don't do it.
0:33.2	Nobody needs it.
0:34.2	But I can't live without it.
0:37.2	I've always wanted to do it.
0:39.2	And it makes sense of things.
0:46.0	Inspiration, where does it come from? If you look at the word inspiration, it comes from the root
0:50.0	inspired to breathe in, and I think that all of us here know that somehow the ideas that we get
0:57.3	come from all of life. You breathe it in and then you try to give it back. That's Rita Dove and before her
1:04.8	William Stanley Merwin better known as just W.S. Merwin, two of America's
1:11.9	greatest poets on this episode of What It Takes, a podcast about
1:17.1	passion, vision, and perseverance from the Academy of Achievement.
1:22.4	I'm Alice Winkler.
1:24.0	Had a maid, this child is gifted.
1:28.0	And I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
1:30.0	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect perfect opportunity and you don't take it you may never have another job
	...

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