Collecte Works
Page 28
Revised to the present text for H&SF: “savour” is LN's spelling.
On the tape recording, she omits the title, hence its untitled appearance in BC.
POEMS AT THE PORTHOLE
Blue and white Unpublished in book form [EA, VV, H&SF].
A separate poem in Origin ser. 3, 19 (Oct. 1970): 54, and posthumously in BC (1976).
The soil is poor Unpublished in book form [EA, H&SF].
The first of four “POEMS AT THE PORTHOLE” in Stony Brook 3/4 (1969): 32.
Michelangelo Unpublished in book form [EA, H&SF].
The fourth of four “POEMS AT THE PORTHOLE” in Stony Brook 3/4 (1969): 32.
Wallace Stevens Unpublished in book form [EA, VV, H&SF].
A separate poem in Origin ser. 3, 19 (Oct. 1970): 56, and in BC (1976). Stony Brook's other two “POEMS AT THE PORTHOLE” are “The man of law” and “Not all harsh sounds displease” (see p. 271).
BC's “POEMS AT THE PORTHOLE” duplicate Stony Brook's.
SUBLIMINAL The title is first used in H&SF.
Sleep's dream Unpublished in book form [H&SF].
A separate poem in Origin ser. 3, 19 (Oct. 1970): 55, with two additional lines at the end of the poem:
and my sometimes
happy fatherphosphor
Copytext for posthumous publication in BC (1976).
Waded, watched, warbled Unpublished in book form [H&SF].
In Origin ser. 3, 19 (Oct. 1970): 55, this two-stanza poem is followed by three bullets and a further three stanzas:
Faithful to the marsh
of my childhood
we camp on the dryest portion
In April's flood-freeze
crystals hang low on the bush
all day
Then green—we're en rapport
with grass as once or twice
with humans
Copytext for posthumous publication in BC (1976).
Revised to the present text for H&SF.
Illustrated night clock's; Honest; and Night Unpublished [H&SF].
After seeing the H&SF typescript, CC published the complete five-poem sequence, “SUBLIMINAL,” in Origin ser. 4, 16 (July 1981): 32-33.
LZ Unpublished in book form [H&SF].
Origin ser. 3, 12 (Jan. 1969): 3:
line 2: waved toward Peck Slip
line 5: was “Test”
Copytext for posthumous publication in BC (1976).
LN to CC, Aug. 6, 1968: “Peck Slip—you know—it's the fish market area my father shipping carp from our lake in refrigerated cars to Peck Slip. We followed Jewish holidays—the buyers did—but LZ says his folks did not eat carp. LZ was at our place in ′36 & my father spoke confidentially and kindly in his gentle fashion to him and LZ was touched” (BYHM 170).
Peace Unpublished in book form [H&SF].
Origin ser. 3, 19 (Oct. 1970): 54, and BC (1976).
LN to LZ, April 1956: “AEn[eas McAllister] came over to show me two tiny music box movements—wound one up (Strauss waltzes) and went out into the dark night with it to go home—a kind of musical firefly” (NCZ 227).
Thomas Jefferson Inside Unpublished in book form [H&SF].
Tuatara 2 (June 1970): 8, and posthumously in BC (1976).
Foreclosure Unpublished in book form [H&SF].
Tuatara 2 (June 1970): 8, and posthumously in BC (1976).
HIS CARPETS FLOWERED Unpublished in book form [EA, H&SF].
The first version of the poem appears in EA without the subtitle and with the following variants (listed by section numeral):
I, stanza 2, line 5: of society's
I, stanza 5, line 4: I'd be now a rich man
I, stanza 6, lines 2-4:
Item—I work in—sabots
and blouse
in the dye-house
I, stanza 7, line 3: I enjoy the indigo vats
II, stanza 1, line 2: by religion—slow
III, stanza 2, line 1: growing here—Please do not mow
In Origin ser. 3, 19 (Oct. 1970): 51-53, with the following variants:
I, stanza 2, line 5: of society's
I, stanza 5, line 4: I'd be now a rich man
I, stanza 6, line 3: and blouse—
The Origin version serves as copytext for BC (1976).
LN to CC, May 7, 1969: “I'm absorbed in writing poems—sequence—on William Morris. I know how to evaluate—Ruskin, etc., their kind of socialism—paternalism—but the letters of William Morris have thrown me. Title will be His Carpets Flowered. I can't read his poems. I'd probably weary of all those flowery designs in carpets, wall papers, chintzes…but as a man, as a poet speaking to his daughters and his wife—o lovely” (BYHM188).
DARWIN Unpublished [VV, H&SF].
Completed Aug. 18-24, 1970 (BYHM 230-31). VV excerpts only the following:
His holy
slowly
mulled over
matter
LN gave Gail and Bonnie Roub an undated draft of “DARWIN” (possibly in Aug. 1970) with the following variants (listed by section numeral):
III, stanza 3:
the earthquake—
Talcahuana Bay drained out—
an all-water wall
thrown up from the ocean
III, stanza 4, lines 1-2:
Six seconds
and the town demolished
III, stanza 8, lines 2-3:
Penguins and seals
those cold-sea creatures
III, stanza 9, line 1: For FitzRoy it was Hell
IV, stanza 3, line 1: Brought Drosera home
IV, stanza 4, line 4: till he published it
V, stanza 2:
Tierra del Fuego's
shining glaciers—
translucent blue
clear down to the indigo sea
V, stanza 3, line 3: that anyone should care
V, stanza 6, line 4: with the details left
V, stanza 7, line 1: to the working out of chance
CC's transcription of the tape recording was published posthumously in BC (1976) and in Montemora 2 (Summer 1976). A collation of the Roub draft and the tape recording was subsequently published in Origin ser. 4, 1 (Oct. 1977): 54-58.
Prose and Radio Plays
1937
UNCLE Unpublished in book form.
New Directions 2 (1937): n.p. Much of the story is autobiographical: the characters of Great Uncle Gotlieb and Great Aunt Riecky Beefelbein are based on LN's maternal grandparents, the Kunzes. The “two hundred acres owned by the family” is a reference to the property on Black Hawk Island that passed from the Kunzes to Henry and Daisy Niedecker at the time of their marriage. The character of Uncle John has some of Henry Niedecker in him: his ownership of the hotel, his carp fishing, his sale of the land, and his too-generous nature. The character of Matty is partly based on the neurasthenic Daisy Niedecker.
1951—1952
SWITCHBOARD GIRL Unpublished in book form.
The first trace of this prose piece is the poem MS “Titillated flip Switchboard girl,” dated Feb. 27, 1951.
Titillated flip switchboard girl
on the tide of the red-lit plug-in are you high
with those whose bag is full—“Get me a single”
“Good, I like to sleep close”—or low with those
who must be jazzed Honeypot switchboard girl
hand em your line they'll slip you more nylons
than you can use Yes Go ahead switchboard lust
takes love out of life Lewd sings cuckoo
A second draft is dated March 5, 1951:
Are you high
with those whose bag is full—
“Get me a single”
“Good, I like to sleep close”—
or low
with those who must be jazzed
honeypot
switchboard girl
hand em your line
they'll slip you more
nylons
than you can use
&nb
sp; yes
go ahead
lewd sings cuckoo
The prose MS “SWITCHBOARD GIRL,” dated April 16, 1951, has the following variants: par. 3: “in America they gear civilization to the seventeen-year-old” replaces the present “in America…to the seventeen-year-old”, and six lines from the end:
“Whom did they say they wanted? Somebody by the name of Christ.”
“Human materiel obsolescing. Boy, pass the blood.”
replaces the present “What was the name…obsolescing.”
New Directions 13 (1951): 87-89.
The piece relates her search for a job when her poor eyesight made proofreading too difficult.
The evening's automobiles… Unpublished.
MS dated June 15, 1951, with appended “Notes” addressed to LZ:
all about the virgin is out! Too pretentious—you saw that.
No title as yet—your “The Evening's Automobiles”—well, something like that along line of moving, something that has to do with mind moving so as to unite all time etc…
or: ‘Brute Goodness’ or Renaissance…
I feel queer too as a man! I could print it under a man's name! No.
1. “Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle a man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.” (This is Yeats, but I wdn't credit him, I guess?) [Refers to p. 338, line 25.]
2. It was abrupt you said with just saying “and said”—I don't feel that's so—it wouldn't be in poetry necessarily. But maybe you like this better. [Refers to p. 339, line 12.]
3. Some things in life are not credible as fiction! She actually did carry milk bottles for that purpose, she said. A great many things about her I can't tell—just wouldn't be believed. [Refers to p. 340, lines 1-2.]
4. I've used spaces to give the eye the confusion in her mind. [Refers to p. 340, lines 20-25.]
5. Here's my “brute goodness,” won't use it if I use it as title. [Refers to p. 341, line 4.]
6. This maybe I'd better omit—she was socially unacceptable, taking a laxative and then f—ting all afternoon. Or it could be interpreted differently and melt in with the rest of that paragraph's horror. [Refers to p. 341, lines 4-7.]
Nevermind spelling—my dictionary says dead line, two words—I always look [up] everything before I send em out [ ]
Thanks—I know you're busy [ ]
Lorine
This piece adopts a male persona but the content is thinly veiled autobiography. It begins as LN leaves her job at Hoard's and returns home to Black Hawk Island.
AS I LAY DYING Unpublished.
A 17-page radio script of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.
MS dated Jan. 11, 1952. A page of revisions dated Jan. 28, 1952.
LN to LZ, Jan. 23, 1952: “I don't write a terribly conventional radio script (not good radio they'll say) because I like to take hunks from the printed page and plunk em down in radio” (NCZ 188-89).
from TASTE AND TENDERNESS Unpublished.
A typescript of the complete two-act script for radio about the James family went to LZ for Valentine's Day in 1952.
Only Act 1, scene 3 survives in MS sent to Dahlberg on Aug. 30, 1955.
LN to LZ, Feb. 14, 1952: “Radio should be a good medium for poetry—speech without practical locale. Stage with all its costumes and place and humans tripping about too distracting sometimes. Poetry and poetic drama—suggestion—the private printed page plus sound and silence” (NCZ 191).
CONTENTS LISTS THAT DIFFER FROM ORDER IN THIS VOLUME
Listed here are the contents of those collections—published or unpublished—that are not represented in the text in their original sequence. Alternate titles and first lines are enclosed in brackets.
My Friend Tree (Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1961)
My friend tree
You are my friend—
The young ones go away to school
There's a better shine
Black Hawk held: In reason
I'm a sharecropper
Remember my little granite pail?
Paul/when the leaves
Along the river
Old man who seined
Don't shoot the rail!
He built four houses
Not feeling well, my wood uncut.
My man says the wind blows from the south,
Well, spring overflows the land,
The clothesline post is set
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Gift-book for Cid Corman, Oct. 1964)
Consider at the outset:
Ah, your face—
Alcoholic dream
To my pres- /sure pump
March
Something in the water
Santayana's
If only my friend
Frog noise/suddenly stops
Laundromat
In the transcendence
Is there someone [To whom]
Margaret Fuller
Watching dan-/cers on skates
Hospital Kitchen
Chicory flower/on campus
Fall (“Early morning corn”)
LZ's
Ian's [Letter from Ian]
Some float off on chocolate bars
I knew a clean man
Scythe
So he said/on radio
I visit/the graves
For best work
The radio talk this morning [The obliteration]
Spring
The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”
Who was Mary Shelley?
Ruskin found wild strawberries [Wild strawberries]
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Gift-book for Jonathan Williams, Xmas 1964)
Consider at the outset:
Ah, your face
Alcoholic dream
Something in the water
To my pres- /sure pump
Laundromat
Santayana's
If only my friend
Frog noise / suddenly stops
In the transcendence
Margaret Fuller
Watching dan- /cers on skates
Chicory flower/on campus
Fall (“Early morning corn”)
LZ's
Ian's [Letter from Ian]
Some float off on chocolate bars
I knew a clean man
Spring
The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”
Who was Mary Shelley?
So he said/on radio
Scythe
The radio talk this morning
Wild strawberries
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Gift-book for Louis Zukofsky, Xmas 1964)
Consider at the outset:
Ah, your face
Alcoholic dream
To my pres- /sure pump
Laundromat
March
Something in the water
Santayana's
If only my friend
Frog noise /suddenly stops
In the transcendence
Someone?—[To whom]
Margaret Fuller
Watching dan- /cers on skates
Hospital Kitchen
Chicory flower/on campus
Fall (“Early morning corn”)
LZ's
Ian's [Letter from Ian]
Some float off on chocolate bars
I knew a clean man
Spring
The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”
Who was Mary Shelley?
Wild strawberries
T&G: The Collected Poems
(1936-1966) (Penland, N.C.:
The Jargon Society, 1969)
NEW GOOSE/MY FRIEND TREE
There's a better shine
My friend tree
Black Hawk held: In reason
Remember my little granite pail?
Ash woods, willow, close to shore,
Audubon
Gen. Rodimstev's story/(Stalingrad)
Bombings
My coat threadbare
She had tumult of the brain
To see the man who took care of our stock
The museum man!
Mr. Van Ess bought 14 washcloths?
We know him—Law and Order League—
Don't shoot the rail!
Not feeling well, my wood uncut.
Grampa's got his old age pension,
My man say the wind blows from the south,
Asa Gray wrote Increase Lapham:
I'm a sharecropper
That woman!—eyeing houses.
van Gogh
The clothesline post is set
He built four houses
Well, spring overflows the land,
Pioneers
Old man who seined
You are my friend—
Along the river
FOR PAUL
Nearly landless and on the way to water
What bird would light
Dear Paul:
O Tannenbaum
Dear Paul /now six years old:
Some have chimes
If he is of constant depth
Tell me a story about the war.
Laval, Pomeret, Pétain
How bright you'll find young people,
Not all that's heard is music. We leave
The young ones go away to school
Paul/when the leaves
BALLADS
Sorrow moves in wide waves,
Old Mother turns blue and from us
He lived—childhood summers
A student
In Europe they grow a new bean while here
What horror to awake at night
Depression years
European Travel/(Nazi New Order)
Don't tell me property is sacred!
You know, he said, they used to make
Wartime
Brought the enemy down
To Paul now old enough to read:
Keen and lovely man moved as in a dance
I knew a clean man
Jesse James and his brother Frank
Who was Mary Shelley?
THE YEARS GO BY
In the great snowfall before the bomb
Swept snow, Li Po,
March
Two old men—
My father said I remember
Dead
Mother is dead
The graves
He moved in light
Shut up in woods
To Aeneas who closed his piano
I am sick with the Time's buying sickness.
Hi, Hot-and-Humid
Horse, hello
Energy glows at the lips—
Happy New Year
I've been away from poetry
On hearing/the wood pewee
I rose from marsh mud,
February almost March bites the cold.
IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU
Hear