In the first, Pinsky delivers an excellent reading of "Chard Whitlow" (written by Henry Reed in 1941 and subtitled "Mr. Eliot's Sunday Evening Postscript," after this poem), and then compares it with a selection from Eliot's "East Coker":
Followed up with this conversation with some first-time Reed (and Eliot) readers:
Pinsky's point being that effective parody is more than just kidding around: it can help the reader appreciate or even understand the source material better. "Chard Whitlow" is possibly the best example of this, because it can be backed up with Eliot's own statement (also read by Mr. Pinksy):
Most parodies of one's own work strike one as very poor. In fact, one is apt to think one could parody oneself much better. (As a matter of fact, some critics have said that I have done so.) But there is one which deserves the success it has had, Henry Reed's "Chard Whitlow."
Eliot's quote first appeared as a blurb for Reed's tribute in Dwight Macdonald's anthology, Parodies: An Anthology from Chaucer to Beerbohm—and After (New York: Random House, 1960).
There's much, much more to be found on the Art of Poetry's YouTube page.
