Report on the 2025 Stuart Curran Symposium
By Sabarno Sinha
“Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!
No hungry generations tread thee down;
The voice I hear this passing night was heard
In ancient days by emperor and clown:”
Some ten years ago, when I came across these lines in high school, I instantly knew that if I did not spend my life reading them, I might be many things but certainly not satisfied. Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale” helped me through my last years of adolescence, sustained me through college and university and finally brought me to the United States for a PhD in English Literature. I confess that I spent many years wandering, thinking I would pursue something different, but I realized, by the end of my master’s degree, that the Romantics were home.
When my PhD program began and I got my first paycheck, I decided I could check off one of the things that had long been on my “things to do when you are in the USA” list: join the Keats-Shelley Association of America (K-SAA). I still remember that the first email that I received, after signing up, was about the Annual Stuart Curran Symposium that was going to be held a month later in New York City, and I gasped at the topic (perhaps you can understand why): “Birdsong.” It was a birdsong which had steered the course of my life so far and guided me to where I was. How could I ignore this happy coincidence? Surely it was a sign for me - I had to go!
I arrived the night before the symposium and woke up early the next morning as Google Maps had told me that the journey to the Lincoln Center of Fordham University would take around an hour. I dashed through the cold morning, marveling at the sight of the long bridges and art-deco architecture that the city offered as I neared Manhattan. The venue, though nestled in one street in the Upper West Side, was quite easy to locate. I love campuses that are right in the middle of the city; they almost seem like small sanctuaries of knowledge and slow thought in an otherwise busy, fast-paced, rushing world. As I entered the campus and went up to the seminar room, I remember feeling a sense of peace and comfort. Even as I shyly took a seat at the venue, I could feel the warm spirit of familiarity there, and before long, I was a part of it.
The opening paper of the first panel by Dr. Eric Eisner introduced me to Öyvind Fahlström and his engagement with birdsong, which spanned decades of the artist reading notation systems and trying to experiment with them in poetry and music. Before then, I had never quite considered the limits and challenges of sound technologies in relation to capturing the sounds of birds and emulating the “soundscape of the field.” The second paper by Dr. Alexander Schultz was about how Peter Reading was inspired by John Keats’ poems in his own writing on birdsong. Dr. Schultz demonstrated how perfectly both poets adored their “hymnal encounter” with the nonhuman. Reading was awestricken by Keats’ “La belle dame sans Merci” in which he saw a message on the impending end of the human species which he repurposed for his own poetry to discuss contemporary political issues. The last paper by Dr. Orrin Wang, once again, dealt with my favourite poem, Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale,” and argued how the “voice of no labour” was expressed in it, its ending forewarning incoming capitalistic modernity. In Keats’ nightingale, one could indeed find a site of timeless resistance.
Before the second panel began, I realized that one of the people I was busily chatting with was going to be its opening speaker, making me all the more eager for it. Although I do not study the Early Modern period, I remain fascinated with it (as were my Romantic idols) and when Dr. Chris Barrett’s presentation began, I remembered why. Dr. Barrett took us through texts (I had no idea about) from the 17th century that showed the early modern curiosity for the natural world and its desire to accurately map it. For many of them, the singing of birds became a model of natural order, often signifying paradigms of good governance, even worthy of human imitation. Thereafter, two wonderful presentations followed, the first by Dr. Paresh Chandra and then Dr. Christopher GoGwilt. Both speakers compared the Western experience of the birdsong with their Eastern counterparts. Dr. Chandra contrasted Mirza Ghalib’s approach to the bird with William Wordsworth’s whereas Dr. GoGwilt looked at the starkly distinct form of the Sanskrit and Persian versions of the Tutinama (Tales of the Parrot) in comparison with European Romantic lyrics.
The academic panels having ended, it was time for something slightly different: a birding walk at the Central Park. I confess I did not know how ninety minutes could pass so quickly as we walked through that lovely park, binoculars at the ready, to spot birds. I had never really done bird watching properly before that, so it was quite an exciting experience for me - to channel my inner Sherlock and “observe” my surroundings carefully in the hope that a rare bird might appear to me and then I could point it out for everyone. Not surprisingly, I was terrible at it. They moved so quickly and it was so easy to miss them. I remember how I saw many flying and perching themselves on a branch, but by the time I peered through my binoculars for a closer look, they were gone! How that annoyed me, and I remarked to myself that they were too fast for me. I was positive that I had annoyed our patient guide, whom I kept asking about whatever bird I spotted, and, every time, it turned out to be the same set of doves and pigeons. But even when my vision failed me, thanks to his explanations and an app that he used to train us in paying close attention to particular sounds, my ears caught trills and chirps that would have otherwise escaped me. So much could be heard when we waited - and listened!
When our group returned, those who had stayed indoors to watch the short film, “Singing of the Evening Stars,” were getting ready for the keynote address which was to be delivered by Dr. Francesca Mackenney of the Metropolitan Manchester University. She focused on the verses of the peasant-poet, John Clare, and talked about the monumental project that he had undertaken: of recreating the nature of his childhood through poetry. In many of his poems, Dr. Mackenney discussed, Clare was virtually responding to the disappearing fens of Helpston and sometimes directly reproducing the sounds of the few birds that he heard while writing. The poor man had to live to see their sound increasingly replaced by the mechanical whirring of the steam engine.
When the speaker of the final session was introduced, I was astonished to see that the woman who rose up, Dr. Glenda Goodman, was the same person who had accompanied me through a great part of the bird walk and shared my frustration at not being able to spot those furtive creatures! Dr. Goodman talked about ways of integrating birdsong in syllabi and literature and music curricula. At the end of her lecture, three songs were played in which the authors had tried to incorporate birdsongs. After each song was performed, Dr. Goodman played the original sounds of the birds and I, dear reader, gasped in astonishment at their similarity: I never knew that the piano could replicate the sounds of nature with such accuracy!
I still smile thinking how easy it was to talk to everyone at the Curran Symposium, including the very senior academics. Graduate students are often told about the necessity and difficulties of networking, but, somehow, surrounded by the members of the K-SAA, I felt as though I was among my own teachers and peers. Perhaps, our common love for the authors and the period had surmounted every other form of hesitation and impediment that one could feel. At the reception held at the end of the day, Dr. Emily Sun greeted me happily and asked me about my long journey from the South. I also remember my first conversation with the President of the K-SAA, Dr. Kate Singer. I spoke with her about my recent writings and she candidly shared her thoughts and warmly complimented my passion which had brought me there.
Attending the Curran Symposium made me want to attend more K-SAA events in the future!