Shakespeare's 'The Phoenix and Turtle' spoken by OÁC / Music: W. Byrd - 8 subs

The Phoenix and Turtle may well be William Shakespeare's most mysterious poem, the most esoteric. I've always found it fascinating.
Some people see scholastic theology references and refer to it as an argument that W.S. was a recusant, a secret catholic.
He may well be, but of the esoteric type, the type that was to form the base of a renewed interest for hermeticism, when the rosicrucian enlightenment was in its cradle. Poetry reading #9
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Poetry reading by actor.
The Phoenix and Turtle
Let the bird of loudest lay
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.
But thou shrieking harbinger,
Foul precurrer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-divining swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou, treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they loved, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none;
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen:
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight;
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.
Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together;
To themselves yet either neither;
Simple were so well compounded,
That it cried, 'How true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none
If what parts can so remain.'
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supremes and stars of love,
As chorus to their tragic scene.
THRENOS
BEAUTY, truth, and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclosed in cinders lie.
Death is now the phoenix' nest;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,
Leaving no posterity:
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem, but cannot be;
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

[@ikmarchini]

I listened last week and chose not to comment because I didn't understand what I was hearing. I found the poem and studied it and now listen again. May understanding find me.

Dear Italo, one of the aspects of this poem that makes it so fascinating is that it is very much in the hermetic tradition.
Understanding may come to you if you consider that prior to San Francesco d'Assisi, there was Farid ud Din Attar.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_the_birds

[@glitter_and_doom9218]

This is such a wondrously beautiful poem. I came to it in a novel and looked it up and have been a bit obsessed with it since. I very much enjoyed this reading.

Obsessed?
May I ask in what way?
I’d also be interested to know which novel you found it in.
I am glad you enjoyed the reading.

[@glitter_and_doom9218]

@ I get obsessed with poems occasionally and this one grabbed me straight away. I love its contradictions - it’s allusion to two states of being being seemingly incompatible and even disapproved of, coming together despite it (but again there is always distance between the turtle and his queen). I find it a very beautiful lament. The fact that it’s a scene of catastrophe, or post-catastrophic, yet deftly weaves from truth and beauty and then reason and love is really quite impressive. I absolutely adore it

[@glitter_and_doom9218]

@ and I came across it in The Ancestor Game by Alex Miller, an acclaimed author from Australia. The book won the Miles Franklin Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary prize.
Also have to say the first 4 lines of the threnos popped into my head when, on a recent visit back to my childhood home, I was looking at my mother’s ashes in an urn on a shelf. I googled the the poem and it just overwhelmed me from the get go.
Also love the way it sets up the rules early on before getting to the anthem. Great stuff.

[@Erok9]

Read this is a recent Batman comic (Tyrant Wing), The penguin recites it while mourning a loss, to him the poem was a cruel and and heartbreaking reminder, showing that without love we lose reason and hope. When love dies, we die, everything dies.

The ways to access The Bard's poetry are many & mysterious. @glitter_and_doom9218 found it in a novel. You found it in a Batman comic. 😆

[@r.thomas9478]

Very beautiful, great reading of a great poem!

Thank you very much indeed, R. Thomas, for this sympathetic comment.
It is the very first one after almost three years!

[@mr.richardson9975]

@ 👌

[@divishaghanghas685]

The way you read it gave me goosebumps! Thank you and keep up the great work.

Wow, thank you!

[@subramanijothidam9march1890]

good voice to here and nice to here again and again...

[@sambalhijo]

Wow! This was the final piece I read as part of the Shakespeare 2020 project (reading the entire canon in a year. Yeah, I'm a wee bit behind.) Your reading sent chills down my spine. What an incredible way to end a year with the Bard. Thank you so much.

So glad you've liked it.

[@azahirib231]

Let the bird of loudest lay,
On the sole Arabian tree,
Herald sad and trumpet be,
To whose sound chaste wings obey.
But thou, shrieking harbinger,
Foul pre-currer of the fiend,
Augur of the fever's end,
To this troop come thou not near.
From this session interdict
Every fowl of tyrant wing,
Save the eagle, feather'd king:
Keep the obsequy so strict.
Let the priest in surplice white,
That defunctive music can,
Be the death-defying swan,
Lest the requiem lack his right.
And thou, treble-dated crow,
That thy sable gender mak'st
With the breath thou giv'st and tak'st,
'Mongst our mourners shalt thou go.
Here the anthem doth commence:
Love and constancy is dead;
Phoenix and the turtle fled
In a mutual flame from hence.
So they lov'd, as love in twain
Had the essence but in one;
Two distincts, division none:
Number there in love was slain.
Hearts remote, yet not asunder;
Distance, and no space was seen
'Twixt the turtle and his queen;
But in them it were a wonder.
So between them love did shine,
That the turtle saw his right
Flaming in the phoenix' sight:
Either was the other's mine.
Property was thus appall'd,
That the self was not the same;
Single nature's double name
Neither two nor one was call'd.
Reason, in itself confounded,
Saw division grow together;
To themselves yet either-neither,
Simple were so well compounded.
That it cried how true a twain
Seemeth this concordant one!
Love hath reason, reason none
If what parts can so remain.
Whereupon it made this threne
To the phoenix and the dove,
Co-supreme and stars of love;
As chorus to their tragic scene.
THRENOS.
Beauty, truth, and rarity.
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclos'd in cinders lie.
Death is now the phoenix' nest;
And the turtle's loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,
Leaving no posterity:--
'Twas not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem, but cannot be:
Beauty brag, but 'tis not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.

[@sebastianverney7851]

thank you for doing this

You are most welcome, Sebastian. I am overjoyed that you've liked it. I've been a fan of this poem ever since my mid twenties. And I did it for my own satisfaction and for th sake of making this poem better known. And I made this video with the idea of pleasing myself, expecting it to experience a flop. How wrong can you get! It is my most viewed video.

[@sebastianverney7851]

@ .. thank you so much for your reply. i love this poem too, and though i realise it is "allegorical", "about the death of ideal love", "obscure" and so on, what matters most to me is the fantastic power of his words in creating the image of two people whose love for each other was so intense that they became one. you read it well, and i have forwarded it to my queen.

[@lazyacademic]

Thanks for this! Loved it

You're welcome. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@markhughes7927]

Positively tantric in its thinking......
Lovely poem by the ‘Egyptian’.......

[@luv2read322]

Bravo bravo 👏

Thank you, luv 2read!

[@christiananimates8555]

0:26

[@alia.m8559]

Which app you used for editing voice?

I used Audacity. Why?

[@jamesdean6660]

Pretty good bro.
Are you thinking this poem is about God and our relationship to and with God? How the whole universe is the fabric of God?

In a very understative sort of way, possibly. But surely not as explicitly as in St Francis' Canticle of Brother Sun or Gerard Manley Hopkins's God's Grandeur.

[@jamesdean6660]

It seems to me nobody really knows what's going on in this poem (P&T). I've been banging my head against it for years. CS Lewis thinks it might be the greatest poem ever written.
What do you think it's about?
@

[@jamesdean6660]

@ you also haven't got a clue have you?

I would tend to agree with CS Lewis
Did you read the description I've written, @jamesdean6660 ?

[@jamesdean6660]

@ I did. It is an all round great effort post from OP.

[@philipgoetz8681]

A good reading marred by a terrible microphone.

No need to put the blame on the recording equipment.

If you use a webphone, bring the volume down a bit.
Most smartphones are equipped with speakers that are… not so smart.
If you listen to something at full volume, it might be overdriven & distorted.

[@jamesdean6660]

Could be an artistic choice. A metaphor.

[@subramanijothidam9march1890]

sorry ,here instead of hear

[@liamaugustmorrisey8943]

☺️ There's an "edit" function in case of typo.