Today is the 3rd anniversary of our launch of Word & Song! We wish all of you a very happy and enjoyable Independence Day!
Last summer, many of you joined us for a weekly visit with Huckleberry Finn, which I read in its entirety. (Paid subscribers may find all of those readings in our archive.) This summer, we are offering another special Poetry Aloud series. On Fridays in July and August, I’ll be reading to you not a work of poetry, but “The Voyage to Lilliput,” Book One of the most brilliant of all English satires, Gulliver’s Travels. For this week’s podcast, we’re setting sail with Gulliver, who is the only survivor of a shipwreck in the East Indies. When he wakes up, he’s flat on the ground, on his back, and he’s tied to the ground by dozens of — strings. That’s right, not ropes, but strings!
Imagine a person six inches tall, pretending to be the Lord of the earth, posing in regal attire while he presumes to rule over his fellows as he pleases, because, after all, he’s a full half inch bigger than everybody else! Swift takes our pretensions to worldly greatness, as light and empty as a balloon — and pop! with one touch of his pen, they come to nothing. Enjoy this voyage into human folly. Gulliver’s Travels is in one way or another like other tales of voyages to strange places. But nothing in English literature is like Gulliver’s Travels.
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