Do you want to know the real reason I became an English major? When I was a kid, my parents got this tape from a relative of ours. It was made by Cricket Magazine and it was full of stories and poems and songs for kids. But they really pulled out all the stops. They had famous folk singers, comedians, multiple poets laureate, T.S. Freakin' Elliott was on the tape. This was Star Studded. And my favorite of those stars was a poet and translator by the name of Richard Wilber. He read a series of poems he'd written called Opposites. Richard Wilber died in October of 2017 at the ripe old age of 96. And this video is a tribute to him. What is the opposite of July? That's hard to answer, but I'll try. In San Francisco and Quebec, Duluth, Big Forks, Mameroneck, and every other city here in the Upper Western Hemisphere, July can be extremely hot. But far to southward, it is not. July can be extremely chill in Paraguay or in Brazil. And furthermore, July can mean a blizzard or so in Argentina. These unexpected facts are why the opposite of July's July. The opposite of Donut? Wait a minute while I meditate. This isn't easy. Ah, I found it. A cookie with a hole around it. What is the opposite of hat? It isn't hard to answer that. It's shoe. For shoes and hat together, protect the two extremes from weather. Between these two extremes, their lies are middle, which it would be wise to clothe as well, or you'll be chilly, and run the risk of looking. Silly, when you are playing on the harp, the opposite of flat is sharp. And both sound very good if they are what the music's meant to play. But when you think it's time to stop and have a bit of soda pop, how bad the thought of flatness is. A soda should be full of fizz. The opposite of opposite? That's much too difficult. I quit. This is for you, Richard Wilbur.