Good Morning, Sweet Prince Shakespeare & Modern Poetry In Association with Poets House with Robert Pinsky

• Books & Literature
• Performing Arts

Robert Pinsky (former Poet Laureate of the United States) will explore the influence of Shakespeare’s work on the imaginations of 20th century poets. From Yeats and Eliot to Langston Hughes and Allen Ginsberg, modern poetry can be a wonderfully surprising prism through which to view Shakespeare. The evening will focus first on poems that resonate with Shakespeare directly (e.g., Eliot’s Coriolan poems, Cavafy’s “The God Leaves Antony” and Delmore Schwartz’s “Gold Morning Sweet Prince”) and will include readings from the plays addressed in those poems. Then Mr. Pinsky will surprise us with some mash-ups of his own- poetic collages, originally composed for this program, that combine Shakespeare’s sonnets with modern poems and in which the sometimes invisible seams suggest intriguing insights about both art forms.