Sunday

May 21, 2000

Applying for a Loan with the help of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles

by David Wagoner

Broadcast Date: SUNDAY: May 21, 2000

Poem: "Applying for a Loan with the Help of the Dictionary of Occupational Titles," by David Wagoner from Traveling Light (U. of Illinois Press).

It's the birthday of the greatest Italian poet, Dante Alighieri, born in Florence (1265) to a nobleman moneylender. The first time he saw his lifelong love, Beatrice Portinari, they were both 9 years old. There's no evidence that she ever returned his passion, and she married another man. His boyish, unrequited passion for her is recounted in La Vita Nuova, or, The New Life (1293), a collection of lyric poems. At 35 he entered politics, and for several years was a leader in Florence, but within a decade (1309), while away on a diplomatic mission, he was accused of opposing the pope, and was sentenced to death. He lived the rest of his life in exile, rambling around Italy, reduced nearly to begging, until the last 3 years of his life, spent in Ravenna (1318-1321). It was during his banishment from Florence that he wrote his masterpiece, The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, and Parasdiso. Dante died of malaria, at 55, shortly after completing Paradiso.



It's the birthday of poet and satirist Alexander Pope, born in London (1688). He's the author of The Rape of the Lock (1714), and An Essay on Criticism (1711). In his thirties he issued translations of Homer's Illiad (1720) and Odyssey (1726). Alexander Pope wrote,

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is Man."
and,
"A little learning is a dangerous thing."

It's the birthday of American ethnologist Frances Densmore, born in Red Wing, Minnesota (1867). For 60 years—she lived to be 90—she traveled from village to village, collecting songs of the Sioux Indians.



On this day in 1881, the American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton. She was a nurse during the American Civil War, and also in Europe during the Franco -Prussian War. It was in Europe that she learned about the International Red Cross, and when she came back to the States, she started the American organization.



It's the birthday of songwriter, singer and pianist (Thomas Wright) "Fats" Waller, born in Harlem, New York City (1904). He wrote "Ain't Misbehavin," "Honeysuckle Rose," "Keeping out of Mischief," and many other songs.



It's the birthday of popular novelist Harold Robbins, born in New York City (1916). The name on his birth certificate was Francis Kane, but he never knew who his parents were. When he was adopted by a family named Rubins, and took their name.



It's the birthday of poet Robert Creely, born in Arlington, Massachusetts (1926), founder of the Black Mountain movement in poetry in the1950s.



Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

«

»

  • “Writers end up writing stories—or rather, stories' shadows—and they're grateful if they can, but it is not enough. Nothing the writer can do is ever enough” —Joy Williams
  • “I want to live other lives. I've never quite believed that one chance is all I get. Writing is my way of making other chances.” —Anne Tyler
  • “Writing is a performance, like singing an aria or dancing a jig” —Stephen Greenblatt
  • “All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • “Good writing is always about things that are important to you, things that are scary to you, things that eat you up.” —John Edgar Wideman
  • “In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.” —Denise Levertov
  • “Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” —E.L. Doctorow
  • “Let's face it, writing is hell.” —William Styron
  • “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” —Thomas Mann
  • “Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials.” —Paul Rudnick
  • “Writing is a failure. Writing is not only useless, it's spoiled paper.” —Padget Powell
  • “Writing is very hard work and knowing what you're doing the whole time.” —Shelby Foote
  • “I think all writing is a disease. You can't stop it.” —William Carlos Williams
  • “Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one's luck.” —Iris Murdoch
  • “The less conscious one is of being ‘a writer,’ the better the writing.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is…that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger.” —Pico Iyer
  • “Writing is my dharma.” —Raja Rao
  • “Writing is a combination of intangible creative fantasy and appallingly hard work.” —Anthony Powell
  • “I think writing is, by definition, an optimistic act.” —Michael Cunningham
Current Faves - Learn more about poets featured frequently on the show