The prime aim of "The Sense of Poetry" is to put great poetry before the public for whom simultaneous reading and listening offers a clearer presentation than either can apart. This series of eight lectures by Harvard Professor I.A. Richards gives background and insight, and will provide an exciting introduction to poetry that will capture the imagination of almost any group. In this first episode, "Professor and Lowell Television Lecturer at Harvard University" I. A. Richards reads and discusses "Selected Ballads." He sits at a desk and addresses the camera; texts read at length are presented as scrolling intertitles. Richards begins by discussing what a sense of poetry means, and by suggesting that lullabies should be the starting point for an investigation. An anonymous, untitled lullaby-ballad contributed by Ellery Sedgwick provides the exemplary text. Directing the viewer's attention to the brief poem's dramatic reversal of tone, Richards insists that poetry is not "namby pamby" and that the ballad lullaby is "packed with poetic vitamins." The episode concludes with Alice Bitter singing a 15th century ballad, "The Unquiet Grave." Summary and select metadata for this record was submitted by John Marx & Mark Cooper.
