Sonnets and Songs

Arthur Upson (1877 - 1908)

Arthur Upson's insightful and sensitive poetic art is grandly displayed in this selection of some of his best work. As a tribute to Upson, Ruth Shepard Phelps proclaims in the introductory poem of this volume, "And all the rare and lovely things that are / Bloom newly now to celebrate thy name." Indeed "rare and lovely" are apt concepts to describe the nature of Upson's work, his poems being conceived by a man with a quest, with a passion for meaning, a man "fain to know / What are humanity and human fate". Upson is a grand poet, an "explorer of a star / Where all is strange", and although his poet's determination is mired in "phantom days, each one / The shadow of a hope", he is determined to continue his fervent search for meaning, despite realizing that, "Slow-tongued Experience teaches me to bear / On lips more patient Love's impatient prayer."

Just as Upson's talent faces no diminishment by the "phantom days" that surround him, neither is his poetic skill encumbered by its mandatory human incarnation - an incarnation of which the poet is intensely aware, intensely affected by, and which compels him to produce works of insight and earthly resonance to transform his quest for a search for meaning, for truth, and for a comprehension and enactment of the power of love. This is the essence of the current that runs through this collection and is manifested in each of these magnificent poems, resulting in an uplifting volume of inspiring readability and rousing introspective depth.
- Summary by Bruce Kachuk

Genre(s): Single author

Language: English

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Dedication by Arthur Upson; Introductory Poem and Note by Ruth Shepard Phelps Bruce Kachuk
00:02:13
Play 01 After a Dolmetsch Concert Bruce Kachuk
00:00:58
Play 02 The Earth-Errand Bruce Kachuk
00:01:25
Play 03 "Vers La Vie" Bruce Kachuk
00:01:14
Play 04 Phantom Life Bruce Kachuk
00:00:38
Play 05 "At The Hill's Top Bides Love" Bruce Kachuk
00:01:07
Play 06 Love's Patience Bruce Kachuk
00:01:20
Play 07 A Motive out of Lohengrin Bruce Kachuk
00:01:19
Play 08 My Song Must Not Forsake Me Bruce Kachuk
00:01:15
Play 09 The Lake Bruce Kachuk
00:01:01
Play 10 Absence and Presence Bruce Kachuk
00:00:51
Play 11 A Song of Love and Your Dreams Bruce Kachuk
00:00:50
Play 12 The Mystery of Beauty Bruce Kachuk
00:02:08
Play 13 The Tragic Winds Bruce Kachuk
00:01:34
Play 14 To a Picture of My Mother as a Girl Bruce Kachuk
00:00:42
Play 15 Song of Agamede (From "The City") Bruce Kachuk
00:00:59
Play 16 The Sobbing Woman Bruce Kachuk
00:01:18
Play 17 The Incurables Bruce Kachuk
00:01:19
Play 18 Chorus (From "The City ") Bruce Kachuk
00:02:27
Play 19 Arlington Bruce Kachuk
00:01:15
Play 20 Between Hingham and Braintree Bruce Kachuk
00:01:46
Play 21 Wheat Elevators Bruce Kachuk
00:01:16
Play 22 From "Octaves in an Oxford Garden" Bruce Kachuk
00:07:11
Play 23 Minstrels in Bloomsbury Bruce Kachuk
00:01:09
Play 24 Thought of Stevenson Bruce Kachuk
00:01:19
Play 25 After Reading "The Golden Treasury" in the Green Park Bruce Kachuk
00:01:19
Play 26 On the Lower Rhine Bruce Kachuk
00:01:20
Play 27 Souvenance de Liège Bruce Kachuk
00:01:16
Play 28 After Reading an Old Comedy Bruce Kachuk
00:01:15
Play 29 After Reading "An Italian Garden" Bruce Kachuk
00:01:51
Play 30 Chorus (From "The City") Bruce Kachuk
00:01:08
Play 31 Golden Rod Bruce Kachuk
00:01:16
Play 32 In October Bruce Kachuk
00:01:16
Play 33 When Roseleaves Fall Bruce Kachuk
00:01:09
Play 34 Springtide of the Soul Bruce Kachuk
00:02:29
Play 35 "Ex Libris" Bruce Kachuk
00:01:14
Play 36 When the Song is Done Bruce Kachuk
00:00:58