"I Know a Man" is one of Robert Creeley's best-known poems. It is not only commonly anthologized, but has also been recorded multiple times since its publication. Creeley himself read the poem on many occasions and made different recordings over the years. These recordings by him, and others, elucidate an important quality about the poem: its sound. With its unique approach to abbreviations as well as its heavy use of enjambment, this poem is one that lends itself well to shifting stress and emphasis with each new recording.
In this early recording of the poem, from a reading at San Francisco State University in 1956, Creeley reads the poem fairly quickly. He places the most emphasis on the words "surrounds," "goddamn" and "christ's sake." He follows the pauses of the line breaks, but seems to preserve a great deal of the urgency of the poem's main concern. He renders the last phrase "look / out where yr going," as one sentiment.
However, in this later recitation, recorded at Harvard University in 1966, Creeley spends much more time on each individual word. He labors over longer pauses and takes particular time to break up the phrases "always talking" and "goddamn big car." He also separates the final lines more definitely into two halves.
Finally, in this 1991 recording from University of Waikato in New Zealand, he seems to approach it somewhere in the middle of the previous two examples. He reads the poem more slowly overall, but clips some of those earlier pauses more. He places emphasis on the phrase "goddamn big car" once again, but leaves the last line mostly intact. It flows more smoothly but still maintains the unevenness created by some of the unusual enjambment.
Creeley was always looking for ways to be subtly innovative in his approach to sound. In these readings it is evident how much craft he put into shaping the rhythm of his words and their relationship to each other on an auditory level. Listening to these various recordings gives the strong impression that Creeley was keenly aware of the music that lay beneath his syllables, and that he was always tuned into how to make them work in harmony.
