In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
Lady in the Leopard Coat Unpublished in book form.
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
Jim Poor's his name Unpublished in book form.
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
Scuttle up the workshop, Unpublished in book form.
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
There was a bridge once that said I'm going Unpublished in book form.
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
When do we live again Ann, Unpublished in book form.
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
Missus Dorra Unpublished in book form.
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
No retiring summer stroke Unpublished in book form.
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
To war they kept Unpublished in book form.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
Petrou his name was sorrow Unpublished in book form.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
The eleventh of progressional Unpublished in book form.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
Young girl to marry, Unpublished in book form.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
I spent my money Unpublished in book form.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
Trees over the roof Unpublished in book form.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
NEW GOOSE
The completed typescript of New Goose went to the Press of James A. Decker in Sept. 1944, and was published in March 1946, a small book 4½ × 6 inches.
Don't shoot the rail! NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW [EA].
MFT variant line 4: he is falling asleep.
Bombings NG, T&G, MLBW.
Hop press NG.
Ash woods, willow, close to shore, NG, T&G, MLBW [EA].
NG variant line 7: the wornout roof hanging there
LN regretted that this poem was excluded from MFT.
EA variant line 1: Ash woods, willows close to shore
An undated letter (probably late 1930s) from LZ to LN letter finds signs of Thomas Hardy in the poem, especially in the inversions of speech for rhyme. He praises the movement of the poem, particularly “now twitter.”
The music, lady, NG.
Titled “Fascist Festival” in the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS (probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936) and in the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
For sun and moon and radio NG.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p., as a two-stanza poem, beginning with the following stanza:
In speaking spokes the mighty
come down from welding wires
to light up the farmers
with electricity.
She had tumult of the brain NG, T&G, MLBW [EA, VV].
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
My coat threadbare NG, T&G, MLBW.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p. Possibly derived from the longer, unpublished, undated poem “News,” speculatively dated 1936 (see p. 79). The spelling “Capital” occurs in all appearances of the poem.
Mr. Van Ess bought 14 washcloths.? NG, T&G, MLBW.
In NG the “14” of line 1 is “fourteen” and “church” of line 4 is “Methodist Church”.
Revised to the present text for T&G and Origin ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 5.
Not feeling well, my wood uncut. NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW [EA].
Remember my little granite pail? NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW [EA].
In NG and MFT line 3 ends with an exclamation point.
A lawnmower's one of the babies I'd have NG.
My man says the wind blows from the south, NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW [EA,VV].
An undated letter from LZ to LN has high praise for this poem, seeing it as quintessential Niedecker.
Du Bay NG.
I'm a sharecropper NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW.
Here it gives the laws for fishing thru the ice— NG.
On Columbus Day he set out for the north NG.
Black Hawk held: In reason NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW [EA].
LN's notes on Life of Black Hawk edited by J.B. Patterson are dated May 28, 1941 (HRHRC).
We know him—Law and Order League— NG, T&G, MLBW.
In Furioso: A Magazine of Verse 1.1 (Summer 1939): 5, with “A working man appeared in the street,” under the title of “TWO POEMS FROM ‘NEW GOOSE.’ “
An undated letter from LZ to LN reports that his friends are crazy about this poem.
The clothesline post is set NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW [EA].
I said to my head, Write something. NG.
Grampa's got his old age pension, NG, T&G, MLBW.
NG omits dollar sign in line 2.
LN ignores LZ's suggested revision of the final line: you can have everything I got.
There's a better shine NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW [EA].
In the 13-poem “MOTHER GOOSE” MS (probably sent to Poetry on Feb. 25, 1936) and in the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936) n.p., the poem has a variant line 4: and many's the time.
Revised to the present text for LZ's A Test of Poetry (New York: Objectivist Press, 1948).
MLBW uses only three bullets between lines 4 and 5; the present text adopts the four used in all other appearances.
The museum man! NG, T&G, MLBW [EA].
Line 2 in MLBW: I wish he'd take Pa's spitbox!
The present text adopts the line 2 used in all other appearances including Origin ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 5.
An undated letter from LZ to LN notes that she's right to spend half her time copying and editing her mother's statements. He says that the spitbox lines make a perfect poem and he envies the gold mine of poetry that LN has available to her.
LN to Ron Ellis in 1966 refers to this poem: “My mother who was a kind of Mother Goose, straight out of the people etc. told me this just as it is. You see at this time—1930s—there was this rage to get poetry into direct, simple speech…” (LN:W&P 94).
That woman!—eyeing houses. NG, T&G, MLBW [EA].
Hand Crocheted Rug NG.
They came at a pace NG.
I doubt I'll get silk stockings out NG.
To see the man who took care of our stock NG, T&G, MLBW [EA].
NG line 2: As we slept in the dark, blackbirds flying
Revised to the present text for T&G and Origin ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 6.
Letter to Ron Ellis in 1966 refers to this poem: “This one not understood by most—it was a depression poem and those years were not over yet when I made my 1st visit to NY whose streets frightened me as much as not having money” (LN:W&P 95).
A monster owl NG.
An early version can be reconstructed from LZ's letter to LN, March 9, 1938:
A monster owl
out on the fence
flew away. Now
what's it the sign
of. The sign of
an owl I guess.
LN adopts LZ's revisions for NG.
Ge
n. Rodimstev's story/(Stalingrad) NG, T&G, MLBW.
Birds' mating-fight NG, MLBW.
From my bed I see NG.
Asa Gray wrote Increase Lapham: NG, T&G, MLBW.
According to LN's letter to LZ, July 11, 1961, she planned to use the following revision for MFT:
Great grass! The shoots Michaux
brought back to Philadelphia
by way of Bartram and known to Linné
bear Jefferson's name.
Asa Gray wrote Increase Lapham:
pay particular attention
to my pets, the grasses—
on these lie fame.
In fact, the poem was not included in MFT, and the above version was never published.
Origin ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 6.
Pioneers NG, T&G, MLBW [EA].
In NG and T&G, the two halves of the poem are divided by three bullets.
Excerpted in EA: Between fighting…swayed back and forth from food-lack. (“Food-lack” is an EA revision of “lack of food.”)
Well, spring overflows the land, NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW [EA].
Audubon NG, T&G, MLBW.
The present text uses the line 5 of NG, T&G, and Origin ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 4.
MLBW variant line 5: with fear
van Gogh NG, T&G, MLBW [EA].
NG variant line 1: I have at times to sit in the dunes
Revised to the present text for Origin ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 4.
What a woman!—hooks men like rugs, NG.
The brown muskrat, noiseless, NG.
The broad-leaved Arrow-head NG.
“NEW GOOSE” MANUSCRIPT
The 29-poem typescript, dated 1945 (although the opening letter/poem is dated 1943), remained unpublished in LN's lifetime.
To a Maryland editor, 1943: Unpublished.
MacCloud is Norman MacCleod, who in 1943 ran the Creative Writing Department at the University of Maryland and edited the Maryland Quarterly (first issue 1944).
Summer's away, I traded my chicks for trees Unpublished.
An undated letter from LZ to LN has high praise for this poem. He cautions her not to change anything saying there's no need to embellish a poem so instinctively right.
She was a mourner too. Now she's gone Unpublished.
Seven years a charming woman wore Unpublished.
The land of four o'clocks is here Unpublished in book form.
In the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p.
Just before she died Unpublished.
An undated letter from LZ to LN comments on the originality of the poem's movement, which he finds to be close to William Blake's “Chimney Sweep.”
Brought the enemy down T&G, MLBW.
Origin ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 8.
Nothing nourishing, Unpublished.
The number of Britons killed Unpublished.
Old Hamilton hailed the man from the grocery store: Unpublished.
Motor cars Unpublished in book form.
The present text is a revision of an earlier version in the 17-poem group, “MOTHER GEESE,” New Directions 1 (1936): n.p. Here is the variant second stanza of the earlier version:
Will the sugar bowl
of taffy color
speeding
stop to eat people?
Allied Convoy /Reaches Russia Unpublished.
Depression years T&G, MLBW [FPOP].
The “NG” MS version is untitled with variant lines 2-3: I was certified, / then for weeks I raked leaves
Revised to the present text for FPOP (see p. 165) with a variant title, “Depression ballad.”
In Origin ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 8, the title changes to “Depression years.”
Coopered at Fish Creek, Unpublished.
A working man appeared in the street Unpublished in book form.
In Furioso: A Magazine of Verse 1.1 (Summer 1939): 5, with “We know him—Law and Order League—” under the title “TWO POEMS FROM ‘NEW GOOSE.’”
Woman with Umbrella Unpublished in book form.
Accent 13.2 (Spring 1953): 96.
Automobile Accident Unpublished.
Look, the woods, the sky, our home. Unpublished.
Coming out of Sleep Unpublished.
Voyageurs Unpublished.
I walked/from Chicago to Big Bull Falls (Wausau), Unpublished.
See the girls in shorts on their bicycles Unpublished.
An earlier draft version has a variant line 1: These girls ride their bicycles in shorts
When Johnny (Chapman) Appleseed Unpublished.
Tell me a story about the war. NG, MLBW [FPOP].
The “NG” MS version is substantially different, reflecting its Mother Goose folk context:
The Marshal of France made a speech,
told the people they were hungry.
The psychologist said: reach a porterhouse steak—
place your ounce of beef on a doll's plate.
The Bishop beseeched the people to sleep.
Revised to the present text for FPOP (see p. 144).
Poet Percival said: I struck a lode Unpublished.
Terrible things coming up, Unpublished.
1937 Unpublished [FPOP].
Untitled in “NG” MS. Revised to the present text for FPOP (p. 164).
Their apples fall down Unpublished.
The government men said Don't plant wheat, Unpublished.
1945-1956
Very little poetry survives from the years 1945 to 1948. In May 1944, LN had begun work as a stenographer and proofreader for Hoard's, the Fort Atkinson printer of the prominent regional journal Hoard's Dairyman, and the job and her home life with aging parents claimed all her time. She did recover some independence with her 1946 move from her parents' home to her own newly built one-room cottage.
Many of these poems predate the “FOR PAUL” project. Others were written “FOR PAUL” groups 1-8 but were not included in FPOP.
New! Unpublished.
MS dated Nov. 22, 1945.
(L.Z.) Unpublished.
MS dated 1945.
Chimney Sweep Unpublished in book form.
MS dated Jan. 1948.
Golden Goose 1 (Summer 1948): 29.
Swept snow, Li Po, T&G, MLBW.
Two drafts on a single MS page dated Jan. 1948; draft (i) follows:
Home
Swept snow, Li Po,
by dawn's 40-watt moon
to the road that flies
to black office
away from home.
Tended my little oil-burning
stove as one would a cow—
she gave heat—till spring.
River-marsh-frog-clatter—
peace breaks out—
no fact is isolate—
grasses, heron, China,
days of light:
Saturday,
Sunday.
Draft (ii) revises draft (i) as follows:
line 1: Swept my snow, Li Po,
line 9: Now river-marsh-frog-clatter—
line 12: grasses, heron, China, three
lines 14-15:
Saturday, Sunday,
memory.
A third version appeared in New Mexico Quarterly 20.2 (Summer 1950): 209:
Swept snow, Li Po,
by dawn's 40-watt moon
to the road that hies to office
away from home.
Tended my brown little oil-burning stove
as one would a cow—she gives heat.
Spring—marsh frog clatter
peace breaks out
No fact is isolate
Grasses, heron, China,
light:
Saturday, Sunday.
In the New Mexico Quarterly, the above is number “II” of “TWO POEMS”—“I” is an untitled version of “Wartime” (see p. 172).
Regards to Mr. Glover Unpublished.
MS dated June 10, 1948.
LN letter to LZ, May 23, 1948: “by the way I had begun s
omething embodying the conversation with Glover, so when you write ‘Regards to Glover’—jiggers, there's my title. [] and now when I see the second line of God LL.D: ‘Only sometimes does one feel that intimate’—Zu could I use it and quote it?” (NCZ 147).
Sunday's motor-cars Unpublished in book form.
Undated MS, breaks line 6 in two after “waking”.
In “THREE POEMS,” New Directions 11 (1949): 303, with “I rose from marsh mud” and “Don't tell me property is sacred.”
Let's play a game. Unpublished in book form.
Poem XI in “FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO” MS dated Dec. 14, 1950, adds two lines between the present lines 10 and 11:
Trees and stars?
Of course, if they console you.
variant line 14: one constellation is:
LN's annotation: “(constellation simply a child's mispronunciation of consolation—you didn't get that? Believe I'd like ‘Trees and stars? Of course, if they console you’ taken out. Those were the additions. You understand Diddy [Paul] is the speaker on the right side??)”
LN adopts LZ's suggested “console-ation” in line 14.
Revised to the present text on an undated MS and published in “FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO,” New Mexico Quarterly 21.1 (Spring 1951): 207.
Lugubre for a child Unpublished in book form.
This poem overlaps with and replaces the earlier “You have power politics, Paul” (MS dated Dec. 14, 1950):
You have power politics, Paul,
You have “I'll call you, I'll call—”
which Indians did aptly
and more—in the forest an Indian girl,
her washing spread out on a rock,
let a song fall.
You now see man hide behind
his ribs' loose grates, his kind
eye closed, the other one screwing
the savage sprays
of our steel woods' life-everlasting,
a filing refined.
But wait! In still wilder states
he'll be Needle That Clicks. Rays
will cause counters to sing
counter to sense
and man, the weapon, must obsolesce
as he radiates.
LN to LZ, Dec. 30, 1950: “I figure the Lugubre for a child to take the place of the somewhat crazy You have power politics, Paul. Ah, how does it sound? []” (NCZ 171).
The first draft of “Lugubre for a child” is poem XV in the “FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO” MS (undated, possibly Dec. 30, 1950):
variant line 6: Some flowers have pistons,
variant line 16: Dear fiddler: how'll you carry
variant lines 19-20: stinging rays/on little whirring things?
LN offers an alternative to line 19 (“rays,” deleting “stinging”) and also alternative lines 18-20:
Collecte Works Page 20