I am recording my readings of 3 authors, as a memento for my grandchildren, and ask your opinion

[CTyankee]

of which Yeats poem to read. The choice is between his well known "When I am old and gray and full of sleep" and "Cloths of Heaven." I have 4 granddaughters and one grandson.

Many, many readings are online. But if you have a moment to spare could you just give me your opinion, if you were doing this for your grandchildren.

Tell me what you think!

[Tetrachloride]

1. The old poem

has an ending that is strong

[CTyankee]

2. Yes it does. And it is a classic. "Cloths of Heaven" is an ardent love poem and would be the

more emotional choice.

[Me.]

3. I Have Always Loved ...

"But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face"

[CTyankee]

5. yes, it is gorgeous. My hope is that my readings of these 3 worthy poets will encourage my grands to

seek poetry (as well as art) for refuge when things get tough in life.

[in2herbs]

8. I am not familiar with these poems but my suggestion would be to include

joyful, uplifting poems in your mix -- something that inspires and will bring a smile to their face and joy to their heart.

[mobeau69]

9. Song of the Open Road

Afoot and lighthearted
I take to the open road
Healthy, free, the world before me
The long brown path before me
Leading wherever I choose

[in2herbs]

11. That one would work! It's short, making it easy to remember and keep in the

memory to recall as needed.

[mobeau69]

12. That's only one verse! It's not really short but it's uplifting.

I seek not good fortune
I myself am good fortune….

I think I could turn and live with the animals
They are so placid and self contained
I stand and look at them long and long

[CTyankee]

16. I've always loved that second one, by Whitman. He was fed up, disgusted with all the whining from

people. It always makes me smile.

[mobeau69]

4. When you are old...

[SKKY]

6. What does your gut tell you?

[CTyankee]

7. I think I'll go with the classic because it will open the door for them for wanting to read more.

Two are now college grads, and they may just like to hear the poetry again, but 3 are younger. The youngest is my grandson who is 9 and a NYC kid. The poetry might just hit a chord with him...

[SKKY]

13. That's awesome, but you never know when a poem will strike you...

...and spark an interest. I think how you deliver it will matter much, much more to them so I would go with whichever means the most to you and through which you can best convey your passion for it. JMHO.

[Totally Tunsie]

10. What a lovely and lasting gift for your Grands!

They'll be able to enjoy your recordings for a lifetime and pass them on to their kids as well. Nice legacy.

[Mr.Bill]

14. This is a great idea. My wife is the family geneologist

and I know she will want to do this if I mention it to her. We have five grandchildren and five great grandchildren, and my wife is very intent on leaving things behind for them. For several years she has been busy making a quilt for each of them, and other members of the family.

[CTyankee]

17. A quilt! That is so wonderful.

I gave my mother's wedding ring to my son for his wife's wedding ring. The jeweler who reset it for him commented on the shape of the diamond, saying it was an old cut he didn't see very often. When we are together I often ask to see her ring so I can remember mother.

[elleng]

15. "When I am old"

[NNadir]

18. I'm not familiar with Yeats, but your evocation led me, weirdly, to end up thinking of Dutch Elm...

...Disease, and finding out about hypovirulence resulting from viral double stranded RNA in Ophiostoma novo-ulmi.

I will surely not live long enough to see grandchildren, but, as it happens I have tapes of my mother's voice reading poems, you made me think of what poem I would read for posterity, and the first thing that popped into my mind is the savagely beautiful poem, The Elm by Sylvia Plath, a kind of suicide note, which contains these lines:

I am incapable of more knowledge.
What is this, this face
So murderous in its strangle of branches?——

Its snaky acids hiss.
It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults
That kill, that kill, that kill.

I had not read the poem in many years, and the reference to "acids" - which may refer either to an owl in context and the fact that the image for "knowing the depths" is an elm tree - along with my long time interest in the fungal chestnut blight that devastated North American forests in the 20th century, a disease involved with oxalic acid - led me to think about Dutch Elm disease, whose mechanism of killing was unfamiliar. (Was Plath aware of the disease? I have no idea.)

So I decided to find out about the mechanism of Dutch Elm Disease and so in searching, I came across this paper:

Hypovirulence-Associated Double-Stranded RNA from Sclerotinia homoeocarpa Is Conspecific with Ophiostoma novo-ulmi Mitovirus3a-Ld PHYTOPATHOLOGY Vol. 93, No. 11, 2003 1407-1414.

It turns out that a virus that attacks a fungus on grass also attacks the fungus that causes Dutch Elm Disease (The trees are not killed with acids but by their own immune response to the infection.)

It's very strange how the mind works I guess, how fast associations run. I'm sure that viral double stranded RNA was not on your mind at all, nor should it be, but your evocation of a poet whose works I've actually not read made me learn something I would have never known, so thanks for that.

Perhaps I'll read some Yeats some time.

For the record, I have not listened to my mother reading poems for some decades, but your thought is a very beautiful one.