Sonnets and Songs


Read by Bruce Kachuk

Arthur Upson's insightful and sensitive poetic art is grandly displayed in this selection of some of his best work. As a tribute to Upson, Ruth Shepard Phelps proclaims in the introductory poem of this volume, "And all the rare and lovely things that are / Bloom newly now to celebrate thy name." Indeed "rare and lovely" are apt concepts to describe the nature of Upson's work, his poems being conceived by a man with a quest, with a passion for meaning, a man "fain to know / What are humanity and human fate". Upson is a grand poet, an "explorer of a star / Where all is strange", and although his poet's determination is mired in "phantom days, each one / The shadow of a hope", he is determined to continue his fervent search for meaning, despite realizing that, "Slow-tongued Experience teaches me to bear / On lips more patient Love's impatient prayer."

Just as Upson's talent faces no diminishment by the "phantom days" that surround him, neither is his poetic skill encumbered by its mandatory human incarnation - an incarnation of which the poet is intensely aware, intensely affected by, and which compels him to produce works of insight and earthly resonance to transform his quest for a search for meaning, for truth, and for a comprehension and enactment of the power of love. This is the essence of the current that runs through this collection and is manifested in each of these magnificent poems, resulting in an uplifting volume of inspiring readability and rousing introspective depth.
- Summary by Bruce Kachuk (0 hr 55 min)

Chapters

Dedication by Arthur Upson; Introductory Poem and Note by Ruth Shepard Phelps 2:13 Read by Bruce Kachuk
After a Dolmetsch Concert 0:58 Read by Bruce Kachuk
The Earth-Errand 1:25 Read by Bruce Kachuk
"Vers La Vie" 1:14 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Phantom Life 0:38 Read by Bruce Kachuk
"At The Hill's Top Bides Love" 1:07 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Love's Patience 1:20 Read by Bruce Kachuk
A Motive out of Lohengrin 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
My Song Must Not Forsake Me 1:15 Read by Bruce Kachuk
The Lake 1:01 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Absence and Presence 0:51 Read by Bruce Kachuk
A Song of Love and Your Dreams 0:50 Read by Bruce Kachuk
The Mystery of Beauty 2:08 Read by Bruce Kachuk
The Tragic Winds 1:34 Read by Bruce Kachuk
To a Picture of My Mother as a Girl 0:42 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Song of Agamede (From "The City") 0:59 Read by Bruce Kachuk
The Sobbing Woman 1:18 Read by Bruce Kachuk
The Incurables 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Chorus (From "The City ") 2:27 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Arlington 1:15 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Between Hingham and Braintree 1:46 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Wheat Elevators 1:16 Read by Bruce Kachuk
From "Octaves in an Oxford Garden" 7:11 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Minstrels in Bloomsbury 1:09 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Thought of Stevenson 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
After Reading "The Golden Treasury" in the Green Park 1:19 Read by Bruce Kachuk
On the Lower Rhine 1:20 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Souvenance de Liège 1:16 Read by Bruce Kachuk
After Reading an Old Comedy 1:15 Read by Bruce Kachuk
After Reading "An Italian Garden" 1:51 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Chorus (From "The City") 1:08 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Golden Rod 1:16 Read by Bruce Kachuk
In October 1:16 Read by Bruce Kachuk
When Roseleaves Fall 1:09 Read by Bruce Kachuk
Springtide of the Soul 2:29 Read by Bruce Kachuk
"Ex Libris" 1:14 Read by Bruce Kachuk
When the Song is Done 0:58 Read by Bruce Kachuk