J. Robert Barth, SJ.
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J. Robert Barth, SJ. |
The 28-track CD begins with Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" and closes with Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn," which Fr. Barth said conveys the Romantic spirit in its well-known final line:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
"I like to encourage people to be aware of the 'music' of poetry, but in addition, with these poems, to be aware of the nature of the Romantic poets," he said. "These poems give a sense of the beauty of nature, and of the human search for something beyond the visible, beyond the here-and-now."
A luminous photo of the English Lake District taken by Fr. Barth provides the cover art.
Proceeds from sales of the CD support the Burns Library. The recording was made this fall in BC Media Technology Services' Eagle Sound Studios in Campion Hall. Audio Engineer Jon Sage was recording engineer, while Assistant Director for Graphics Services Michael Swanson and graphic artist Jason Williams '05 did cover graphics.
The spoken-word CD is the second released in as many years by the former A&S dean, who last fall recorded poems by Francis Thompson and Gerard Manley Hopkins, SJ.
He already is eyeing his next project: "I'm hoping it will be a CD of poetry of the seasons," said Fr. Barth.
-Mark Sullivan