Episode forty five of The Poe Underground podcast is called Screaming at the Sun. The ideas for the episode were inspired by the acoustic guitar, the tones that it produces and the use of space in the performances.
The first piece that was conceived and recorded was for a poem by Christina Rossetti called Echo. The techniques used on the guitar include harmonics, muted strings, and deliberate finger picking.
The piece called Screaming at the Sun is actually a suite of eleven poems. After recording three “musical poems” on the acoustic guitar, I decided to do something more fully produced. I started with drums and bass. From there I layed down some electric guitar that shaped the direction of the piece. In this instance, the music dictated the mood of the poetry and the tone of the speech for the voice-over.
In the end I feel the eleven poems I chose from my own archives fit the music perfectly. I hope you enjoy episode forty five of the podcast and notice the effort put towards “tone and space”.
October 2025 – D.K. Mckenzie
Lyrics for Echo by Christina Rossetti
Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
As sunlight on a stream;
Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.
Oh dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again tho’ cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low,
As long ago, my love, how long ago.