In this talk, Derek Attridge addresses the question: "What is a poem's mode of existence?" Using a poem by William Wordsworth as an example, he argues that poems are not fixed lines of words but human experiences of language and the power of language.
 
He is the author of The Experience of Poetry. From Homer's Listeners to Shakespeare's Readers. 

Speaker: Professor Derek Attridge FBA, Professor Emeritus of English, University of York  

Image: William Wordsworth engraving, 1873. Credit traveler1116 via Getty Images