Yeats and Broadcasting
Broadcast materials, when not suitable for verbatim reproduction in print, are peculiarly evanescent. Through the accidents of war many scripts, recordings, and written details of production were lost or destroyed in London, Dublin, and Belfast. Of the dozen broadcasts in which Yeats took part, only one complete programme and extracts from four others are now preserved on recordings. Only three of Yeats’s scripts have survived at Broadcasting House; but other scripts – most of them in draft form – are preserved in Dublin among the Yeats papers in the possession of Mrs Yeats.
An interview with Yeats on the occasion of his first broadcast was reported in the Belfast News-Letter, September 9, 1931. For an account, written by George Barnes, of Yeats’s broadcasts in 1937, see Hone’s Life, pp. 454-7. V. C. Clinton-Baddeley has also given some account of his work in these programmes in his Words for Music, Cambridge 1940; and in more circumstantial detail in a broadcast in December 1931 (see p. 417 below).
In addition to the broadcasts which Yeats gave or arranged, performances of his plays and recitals of his poems were broadcast from 1929 onwards. An Irish Programme, Dublin, March 18, 1929, included “extracts and recitations from W. B. Yeats and Lady Gregory” as well as Irish instrumental music and songs; among those taking part were Sara Allgood, Tyrone Guthrie, Fred O’Donovan, Mary O’Farrell, and Herbert Ross. It is difficult to imagine that Yeats himself had had no hand in the production; and this programme formed the model for three other broadcasts (2, 4 and 8) in which Yeats took an active part. On November 27, 1930 Sara Allgood gave a reading of Yeats poems, with a commentary by Desmond MacCarthy; and on July 12, 1937 Shelah Richards and Ian Aylmer read “a Selection of Poetry of W. B. Yeats and A. E.” Up to the end of 1937 four of Yeats’s plays had been broadcast: The Pot of Broth (September 20, 1929), King Œdipus (September 14, 1931), The Land of Heart’s Desire (August 27, 1934), and Words upon the Window Pane (November 22, 1937).
The essay “I Became an Author”, printed in The Listener of August 4, 1938, was commissioned for publication and was not broadcast.
1 ŒDIPUS THE KING. September 8, 1931: 7.15-7.30 p.m. BBC Belfast: North Ireland Programme only. Produced by H. W. McMullan.
This talk was advertised as “Mr. W. B. Yeats: On his Version for the Modern Stage of the Greek play, ‘King Œdipus,’ to be broadcast from the Belfast Studio by the Abbey Players on September 14.”
SCRIPT. The BBC Belfast file copy was destroyed during the war. A typescript, entitled “Talk on ‘Œdipus the King’ to be broadcast from Belfast September 8”, is among the Yeats papers.
2 READING OF POEMS. September 8, 1931: 9.10-9.25 p.m. BBC Belfast: National Programme and North Ireland Programme. Produced by H. W. McMullan.
Yeats’s reading comprised the central section of An Irish Programme, in which Sara Allgood sang Irish ballads, and the Belfast Wireless Symphony Orchestra played Irish music.
POEMS READ. The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The Fiddler of Dooney
The Song of Wandering Aengus
In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz
For Anne Gregory
Sailing to Byzantium [cancelled in script]
SCRIPT. The BBC Belfast file copy was destroyed during the war. A rough working typescript with many MS alterations and corrections is among the Yeats papers. Further revisions may have been made during production.
RECORDING. No recording of the original broadcast is preserved. A BBC disc (no 22145 front: duration 5.05), dated April 10, 1932, is marked “Extract from a Talk on Rhythm” – probably because the opening sentence is “I am going to read my poems with great emphasis upon their rhythm” – and contains the introduction to this programme and his reading of the first two poems. This disc is either dubbed from a recording of the original Belfast broadcast, or is a test reading recorded when Yeats was preparing Broadcast 3 in London. A copy of this recording is held by the Lamont Library, Harvard.
3 POEMS ABOUT WOMEN. April 10, 1932: 9.5-9.30 p.m. BBC London: National Programme.
The opening sentence reads: “I asked a great friend, a very old woman, what I should read tonight. She said, ‘Read them poems about women.’” The friend was Olivia Shakespear (see Letters, p. 786). Yeats read the poems with a continuous commentary.
POEMS READ. To an Isle in the Water
Down by the Salley Gardens [possibly cancelled in script]
I am of Ireland
His Phoenix
The Folly of Being Comforted
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Upon a Dying Lady I, II, VII, V
On a Political Prisoner
SCRIPT. The BBC file copy was destroyed during the war. A MS and three typescripts successively revised are among the Yeats papers.
4 ST PATRICK’S NIGHT. March 17, 1934: 9.35-10.30 p.m. BBC Belfast: National Programme and North Ireland Programme.
This broadcast was announced as “A Programme of Irish Music and Humour, and Poetry by W. B. Yeats spoken by himself.” Details of the rest of the programme are not preserved, but the recordings show that there were songs and fiddle tunes.
POEMS READ. The Song of the Old Mother
A Faery Song
The Fiddler of Dooney
Running to Paradise
The Fisherman
Down by the Salley Gardens (sung by an actor)
SCRIPT. The Belfast file copy was destroyed during the war. A typescript with final corrections in Yeats’s hand is among the Yeats paper.
RECORDING. Two BBC discs (No 216B, 22145 back: duration about 8 min) include Yeats’s introduction and his reading of the first poem, and extracts from other parts of the programme. A copy of this recording of the first poem and introduction to the second is held by the Lamont Library, Harvard.
5 THE IRISH LITERARY MOVEMENT. No date. Radio Eireann.
A dialogue between Yeats and an interviewer identified in the script as “D.McD.” The interlocutor was perhaps Donagh McDonagh.
SCRIPT. A typescript is among the Yeats papers.
6 READING OF POEMS. June 13, 1935: 10.40-10.55 p.m. BBC London: National Programme.
The script was prepared by Yeats and a contract prepared for “W. B. Yeats reading his own poems”. There is a MS note on the contract: “No longer reading these himself.” The poems were read by Audrey Moran, the programme being announced as “Selection of W. B. Yeats’s Favourite Lyrics, on the occasion of his 70th birthday.”
POEMS READ. The Song of the Happy Shepherd
The Indian to His Love
The Sad Shepherd
To an Isle in the Water
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Brown Penny
The Wild Swans at Coole
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
SCRIPT. File copy at Broadcasting House.
7 MODERN POETRY. October 11, 1936: 9.5-9.50 p.m. The Eighteenth of the Broadcast National Lectures. BBC London: National Programme.
The substance of this talk is closely connected with the Introduction to the Oxford Book of Modern Verse, in which collection are printed all the passages of verse read except the lines from Burnt Norton. For Yeats’s references to this talk, see Letters, pp. 859, 863, 866, 867, 868, 885.
POEMS READ. Lionel Johnson, The Church of a Dream
T. Sturge Moore, The Dying Swan
Michael Field, Sweeter Far than the Harp
If They Honoured Me
Paul Fort (tr. F. York Powell), The Sailor and the Shark (8 lines)
T. S. Eliot, Preludes (8 line)
C. Day Lewis, ‘I’ve Heard them lilting’ (2 stanzas)
Edith Sitwell, Ass-Face
T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton (6 lines)
Dorothy Wellesley, Matrix (20 lines)
W. J. Turner, The Seven Days of the Sun vii
O. St. J. Gogarty, Dedication
Non Dolet
SCRIPT. The text was printed in The Listener of October 14, 1936, and as a separate BBC pamphlet of 26 pages, 1936. Also printed in The Living Age, December 1936, and in Essays 1931 to 1936, 1937. See p. 359 above.
RECORDING. A BBC disc (no 1235E, 2 sides: duration 4.05+4.22) preserves the opening section and the introductory remarks to Edith Sitwell’s Ass-face. A copy of this record is held by the Lamont Library, Harvard.
8 ABBEY THEATRE BROADCAST. February 1, 1937. Radio Eireann.
This programme, recorded in the Abbey Theatre, consisted of songs, patter, and violin solos; poems by Yeats, James Stephens, and F. R. Higgins were also read. Though Yeats had much to do with the preparation of this programme (see Letters, pp. 875, 878-9), the only voices identifiable in the recording are those of John Stephenson and Miss Ria Mooney.
SCRIPT. No script is preserved.
RECORDING. Radio Eireann has a recording of this performance. It is reported to be “technically extremely bad”, and was not used – as Yeats originally intended – for a rebroadcast from London.
9 IN THE POET’S PUB. April 2, 1937: 9.20-9.40 p.m. BBC London: National Programme. Produced by George Barnes.
The script was prepared and introduced by Yeats, the poems being read by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley after rehearsal under Yeats’s direction. A second performance was planned for April 8, 1938, but was cancelled because Clinton-Baddeley was not able to take part.
POEMS READ. I. Hilaire Belloc, Tarantella
G. K. Chesterton, The Rolling English Road (omitting the last 2 stanzas)
Walter de la Mare, Off the Ground (read as patter)
II. Henry Newbolt, Drake’s Drum
Sylvia Townsend Warner, The Sailor
Paul Fort (tr. F. York Powell), The Sailor and the Shark
The poems were read in two groups, each group being introduced by Yeats. Intervals between the poems, and sometimes between stanzas, were marked by drum-rolls to emphasise the rhythm and “to set the mind dreaming”; and towards the end of the last poem other voices joined in the refrain and the verse passed into an improvised song.
Yeats had originally chosen a poem each by Hardy, Kipling, and Edith Sitwell; but these were “sternly rejected” [? by George Barnes] in production. See Hone’s Life, p. 456.
SCRIPT. File copy at Broadcasting House. A MS version of the introduction is among the Yeats papers.
RECORDING. BBC discs of the whole programme, 5 sides, are preserved at Broadcasting House (No. 14879, 14880, 14881A front: duration 18.58)
10 IN THE POET’S PARLOUR. April 22, 1937: 10.20-10.40 p.m. BBC London: National Programme. Produced by George Barnes.
The script was prepared and introduced by Yeats. The poems were read by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley and Margot Ruddock; Eva Towns also took part, apparently playing the bamboo pipe. Melodies and rhythms were devised by Imogen Holst to meet Yeats’s wishes.
POEMS READ. I. Sweet Dancer (spoken by Margot Ruddock)
‘I am of Ireland’ (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley, the refrain sung by Margot Ruddock)
‘The Wicked Hawthorn Tree’ from The King of the Great Clock Tower (sung by Clinton-Baddeley and Margot Ruddock)
II. J. E. Flecker, Santorin (spoken by Margot Ruddock)
Lionel Johnson, To Morfydd (spoken and chanted by Margot Ruddock)
F. R. Higgins, Song for the Clatter Bones (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley; with a variant in line 2 proh pudore)
The Pilgrim (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley)
The poems were read in two groups, each group being introduced by Yeats. Pipe tunes were played between the poems of the first section; the same tune being played before and after “I am of Ireland”, and the tune “The Hawthorne Tree” played before the poem of the same name. An Irish cradlesong was played on the pipe before To Morfydd, the end of that poem being interrupted by drum and clatter-bones. The clatter-bones were also sounded after Song for the Clatter Bones.
The poems announced in the Radio Times were: Edith Sitwell’s The King of China’s Daughter, J. E. Flecker’s Santorin, Lionel Johnson’s To Morfydd, Yeats’s Sweet Dancer, “I am of Ireland”, Poems from the Japanese, and The Wicked Hawthorn Tree. This evidently represents an early version of the script. Clinton-Baddeley remembers rehearsing with Margot Ruddock Poem from the Japanese, but it appears not to have been broadcast. Clinton-Baddeley and Jill Balcon recorded this poem for Book IV of The London Library of Recorded English in about 1945.
SCRIPT. File copy at Broadcasting House. A MS of the introduction, fragmentary and almost indecipherable, is among the Yeats papers.
11 MY OWN POETRY. July 3, 1937: 10.0-10.20 p.m. BBC London: National Programme. Produced by George Barnes.
The script was prepared and introduced by Yeats. The poems were read by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley and Margot Ruddock, with music specially composed by Edmund Dulac (see Letters, pp. 888, 890-1). Olive Groves (singer) and Marie Goossens (harp) also took part.
POEMS READ. I. The Rose Tree (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley)
An Irish Airman Foresees his Death (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley)
The Curse of Cromwell (spoken by Margot Ruddock)
II. Mad as the Mist and Snow (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley)
Sailing by Byzantium (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley: with a variant in the first line, see Life, p. 456)
He and She (sung by Olive Groves to a setting by Edmund Dulac)
The poems were read in two groups, each group being introduced by Yeats. There is no direction in the script for instrumental interludes between the poems, but the treatment was presumably similar to that used in Broadcast 10.
The poems announced in the Radio Times were: In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz, The Rose Tree, An Irish Airman, Mad as the Mist and Snow, Sailing to Byzantium, He and She, The Curse of Cromwell. This evidently represents an early version of the script. Margot Ruddock rehearsed In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth but the poem was not broadcast.
SCRIPT. File copy at Broadcasting House. The MS draft is among the Yeats papers.
RECORDING. No recording of this programme is preserved. In 1945 V. C. Clinton-Baddeley recorded Mad as the Mist and Snow for Book IV of The London Library of Recorded English, reading the poem in the style evolved under Yeats’s direction in this broadcast.
12 MY OWN POETRY AGAIN. October 29, 1937: 10.45-11.05 p.m. BBC London: National Programme. Produced by George Barnes.
This broadcast was announced as “A Programme introduced and read by W. B. Yeats assisted by Margot Ruddock”. Unlike the other three broadcasts of 1937, but like Broadcast 3, the commentary ran continuously from one poem to another without instrumental interludes.
DD
POEMS READ. The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The Fiddler of Dooney
The Happy Townland
Into the Twilight (sung by Margot Ruddock “to her own music without accompaniment)
The Countess Cathleen in Paradise (sung by Margot Ruddock)
Coole Park and Ballylee, 1931
The Old Men Admiring Themselves in the Water (spoken by Margot Ruddock)
SCRIPT. The BBC file copy was destroyed during the war. A typescript marked “My own copy” is among the Yeats papers; but it breaks off at the foot of a page at the end of the second stanza of Coole Park. The title of the final poem and other details of the production are supplied from notes made by George Barnes and V. C. Clinton-Baddeley in 1949-1950.
RECORDING. A BBC disc at Broadcasting House (No 22145 back: duration 2.27), dated October 28, 1937, records the introduction, the reading of Innisfree, and the 3rd and 4th stanzas of Coole Park and Ballylee. A copy of this disc is held by the Lamont Library, Harvard.
NOTE. In June 1937 Yeats proposed to James Stephens that they make a radio debate on the theme that “all arts are an expression of desire” and that “all arts must be united again”; they would work the discussion “into a kind of drama in which we will get very abusive.” Stephens declined the suggestion; and although Edmund Dulac offered to take Stephen’s place the broadcast was never made. See Hone’s Life, p. 458.
SOME BROADCASTS ABOUT YEATS
AND HIS MANNER OF READING POETRY
A W. B. YEATS – A DUBLIN PORTRAIT. June 5, 1949: 7.15-8.15 p.m. BBC London: Third Programme. Repeated June 10 and 21, 1949: Third Programme. Produced by Maurice Brown.
The script was prepared and edited by W. R. Rodgers, and narrated by Fred O’Donovan. The verse was spoken by Frank O’Connor. Other material was edited from interviews recorded by Maurice Brown and W. R. Rodgers in Dublin between 3 and 18 February 1949: the speakers were Richard Best, Austin Clarke, Alfred Hanna, W. K. Magee, Madame MacBride, Sean MacBridge, Nora MacGuinness, Brinsley Macnamara, Miss Macnie, Frank O’Connor, Sean O’Faolain, Lennox Robinson, Robert Smyllie, Mrs Iseult Stuart, Dossy Wright, Anne Yeats, Mrs W. B. Yeats.
The recording of Yeats reading The Lake Isle of Innisfree in Broadcast 12 was interpolated.
Frank O’Connor read from All Souls’ Night, Sailing to Byzantium, Beautiful Lofty Things, He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, ‘I am like the children’ (from MS), Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen, What Then?, The Tower, High Talk.
SCRIPT. A file copy of the script is at Broadcasting House, transcribed from the recordings.
RECORDING. A recording of the whole programme is preserved on two BBC discs (No MX 13584-9). The unedited interviews with Madame MacBride and with Mrs Stuart are preserved separately (No 13843 back, 13844 back: duration 3.55+5.20. No 14881A back, 13843 front, 13844 front: duration 2.12+4.16+3.34). A third disc, recording the rest of the interview with Madame MacBride seems to have disappeared since I heard it at Broadcasting House in the summer of 1954.
B BROADCASTING WITH W. B. YEATS. December 11, 1949: 10.40-11.00 p.m. BBC Bristol: West of England Home Service. Repeated June 25, 1950: Third Programme. Produced by Gilbert Phelps.
The script was prepared and spoken by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley: being an account of his preparation under Yeats’s direction to speak poems in three of the 1937 broadcasts (Nos. 8, 9, 10), with illustrations of the way Yeats wanted certain poems read. Jill Balcon took part in the programme.
POEMS READ. Poem from the Japanese (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley, the refrain spoken by Jill Balcon)
Sweet Dancer (spoken by Jill Balcon)
‘I am of Ireland’ (spoken and sung by Clinton-Baddeley and Jill Balcon)
The Rose Tree (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley)
Mad as the Mist and Snow (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley)
The Curse of Cromwell (spoken by Jill Balcon)
Sailing to Byzantium (spoken by Clinton-Baddeley)
DD 2
SCRIPT. There is a file copy at Broadcasting House. Mr Clinton-Baddeley has shown me his own marked copy.
This talk supplements and expands some details in George Barnes’s account: particularly the incident of Yeats altering the opening line of Sailing to Byzantium in Broadcast 11, and the attempt to combine music and verse in Broadcast 10.
C WORDS FOR MUSIC PERHAPS. August 4, 1957: 9.00-9.30, 10.25-10.40 p.m. BBC London: Third Programme. Repeated August 8. 1957. Produced by D. S. Carne-Ross.
The script was prepared and narrated by George Whalley. Other speakers were L. A. G. Strong, Allan MacLelland, V. C. Clinton-Baddeley, and Denis McCarthy. Timpanist, James Blades.
Recordings of Yeats reading part of Coole Park and Ballylee (from No. 12), and extracts from the National Lecture (No. 7) and from In the Poet’s Pub (No. 9) were interpolated into the Introduction.
POEMS READ. I Mad as the Mist and Snow (spoken by V. C. Clinton-Baddeley)
The Fisherman (spoken by L. A. G. Strong)
II (spoken by Allan MacLelland)
Easter, 1916
The Second Coming
Leda and the Swan
Sailing to Byzantium
The Man and the Echo
High Talk
The programme was presented in two parts: an introductory discussion and exposition of Yeats’s views on reading poetry (30 minutes), followed after an interval by 15 minutes of poetry reading, the six poems being read in two groups. With a view to extending the method used by Yeats in Broadcasts 9 and 10, interludes with timpani and percussion were played between the poems.