Collected Poems
Page 41
These are some names, my son, we call the prick:
The chair, the yard, the nail, the kit
The holofernes, rod, the cock, in rock,
The dickery, the dick, the liquorice stick,
The lust, Richard or the listless dick,
The old blind bob, the just on twelve o’clock,
Mercurial finger, or the lead-filled sock,
The monkey, or the mule with – kick.
The squib, the rocket, or the Roman candle,
The dumpendebat or the shagging shad
The lovelump or the pump or the pump handle
The tap of venus, the leering lad,
The hand-dandy, stiff proud as a-dandle
But most of all our sad glad bad mad dad.
In the presumed second draft MS, these lines are appended to this poem, which cannot be seen on the presumed first draft:
And I might add
That learned patents by their midnight tapers
After endless low standing high
Fat phallus done – papers
These unfinished lines are similar to those included in the novel. Note that the version used in the present sequence is much longer than a sonnet. It is presumed that the last six lines were included as a possible variant, but both are included. This also follows the pattern of lines that are embedded in the novel, which also includes extra material.
73. Local Industry. Previously unpublished. The typescript from here includes versions of ‘The Bet’, ‘Two Uses for Ashes’, and ‘The Fair Judith’ (see item 40, above). After these, the ‘Three Apocryphal Sonnets of Belli’ also includes ‘The Bet’, ‘Two Uses for Ashes’, ‘The orchidaceous catalogue begins’, and the sonnet that was eventually published in ABBA ABBA as ‘Privy Matters’. To avoid duplication, the present edition tackles the Apocryphal sonnets only once, and this is explained below. Choosing to do so allowed for the inclusion of previously unpublished sonnets ‘Local Industry’, ‘Spaniards’, and ‘Work’ at a point that seems most logical.
74. ‘Spaniards’. Previously unpublished. MS on diary paper pre-printed Sabato/Gennaio 3. Title added by editor.
75. ‘Work’. Previously unpublished. Title not given by Burgess, but adopted by editor.
76. The Bet. Previously unpublished variant. Same title as the version published in ABBA ABBA, but with different indentation. Marked, on the MS, as one of ‘Three Apocryphal Sonnets of Belli’. Note that this sub-title has not been adopted in the present edition, as there are four such sonnets. Minor variants between this and the ABBA ABBA version include: use of ‘Ah’ on line five (later removed), ‘Albert’, which became ‘one man’, ‘Right’, which became ‘Reet’, and ‘pound’, which became ‘quid’. Another variant MS exists that shows these substitutions being made in Burgess’s hand. On this variant, the following lines were considered and then redrafted by Burgess: ‘Some chaps was arguing, as chaps often will’ (first line); ‘“Coming up” was the first thing that he spoke’ and ‘“Get ready” was the first thing that he spoke’ (line 12). See ABBA ABBA, p. 88.
77. Two Uses for Ashes. Previously unpublished variant poem. Geoffrey Grigson’s full name is present in the MS version, but not in the ABBA ABBA version. In the novel, this sonnet is ascribed to J. J. Wilson, who apparently writes it having been present at a University Literary Society lecture by the Oxford poet G—y G—n. The ‘swinging censors’ is compariable with the phrase ‘swinging like twin censers’, which Burgess re-uses in his long poem about Augustine and Pelagius. Geoffrey Grigson wrote two negative reviews of Burgess’s work in 1960 and then in 1970. See Biswell, The Real Life of Anthony Burgess, pp. 217, 315. See ABBA ABBA, p. 88.
78. ‘The orchidaceous catalogue begins.’ Previously unpublished variant poem. Geoffrey Grigson’s full name is present in the MS version, but not in the ABBA ABBA version. In the novel, this sonnet is ascribed to J. J. Wilson, who apparently writes it having been present at a University Literary Society lecture by the Oxford poet G—y G—n. The ‘swinging censors’ is compariable with the phrase ‘swinging like twin censers’, which Burgess re-uses in his long poem about Augustine and Pelagius. Geoffrey Grigson wrote two negative reviews of Burgess’s work in 1968 and 1970. See ABBA ABBA, p. 89.
79. Privy Matters. Previously unpublished variant poem. In ABBA ABBA, this sonnet by Burgess is ascribed to the character J. J. Wilson, a literary historian. The indentations are not present in the ABBA ABBA version. Other variations include: ‘neighbour box’, which became ‘next nook’, ‘be damned’, which was eventually removed, ‘scatographic theses’ which became ‘a scatographic thesis’, and the last line, which was published in ABBA ABBA as ‘Lucky? I haven’t got me kecks down yet.’ Another version of the sonnet in this MS uses capital letters for the speech in line eight and line fourteen, and uses the word ‘cabinet’ for ‘box’. Following this variant sonnet in the archive MS is another copy of the poems intended for Playboy magazine, plus a number of intermediate prose transliterations that were used as part of the translation process, plus some very early drafts of sonnets included in the present sequence. See ABBA ABBA, p. 88.
80. Foreword 1974 (from Moses). Previously unpublished. IABF, AB/ARCH/A/MOS/28.
81. Foreword 1976 (from Moses). Previously unpublished in this form. The original English spelling (from the MS) has been restored. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/29.
82. Moses – The Bondage. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/28.
83. Moses – The Young Moses. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/29.
84. Moses – The Burning Bush. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
85. Moses – Return Into Egypt. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
86. Moses – The Plagues. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
87. Moses – The Passover. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
88. Moses – The Exodus. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
89. Moses – Miracles Of The Desert. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
90. Moses – The Mountain. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
91. Moses – A Restive People. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
92. Moses – The Golden Calf. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
93. Moses – Death And The Law. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
94. Moses – Unrest. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
95. Moses – The Death Of Dathan. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
96. Moses – Balaam. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
97. Moses – Zimri. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
98. Moses – Abominations Before The Lord. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
99. Moses – Jordan. IABF. AB/ARCH/A/MOS/3.
100. ‘And if there be no beauty, if god has passed some by.’ Previously unpublished. St Winefred’s Well [by Gerard Manley Hopkins and Anthony Burgess], broadcast on BBC Radio 3, 23 December 1989. BBC Written Archives Centre, ref. SBS950/89DA6366. Transcribed from the audio recording.
101. ‘Talk is easy. Easiest for one who.’ From St Winefred’s Well.
102. ‘Thank you. Enough, brother Teryth.’ From St Winefred’s Well.
103. ‘I choose no tail or toy! Truth – a light that outdoes this sun.’ From St Winefred’s Well.
104. ‘Say nothing, Priest, father, mother.’ From St Winefred’s Well.
105. The Pet Beast. This text published posthumously in Paul Phillips, A Clockwork Counterpoint, pp. 405-6. Typescript at Angers University Library.
106. Signs (Dogs Of Peace). Previously unpublished. IABF, AB/ARCH/A/POE/18.
107. ‘Augustine and Pelagius.’ A Clockwork Testament, or Enderby’s End. (London: Hart-Davis, MacGibbon,1974), pp. 22–67. Transcribed from IABF, AB/ARCH/A/TCT, IABF. Title added by editor.
108. The Princely Progress. A review of Clive James’s Charles Charming’s Challenges on the Pathway to the Throne (London: Jonathan Cape, 1981). Times Literary Supplement, 12 June 1981, p. 656.
109. ‘Sick of the sycophantic singing, sick.’ ‘Five Revolutionary Sonnets’, Transatlantic Review, 21 (1966), pp. 30–32.
110. ‘Bells broke in the long Sunday, a dressing-gown day.’ ‘Five Revolutionary Sonnets�
��, Transatlantic Review, 21 (1966), pp. 30–32.
111. ‘A dream, yes, but for everyone the same.’ ‘Five Revolutionary Sonnets’, Transatlantic Review, 21 (1966), pp. 30–32.
112. ‘They lit the sun, and then their day began.’ This sonnet appears, with the first line missing, in Enderby Outside (London: Heinemann, 1968), pp. 88–9. ‘Five Revolutionary Sonnets’, Transatlantic Review, 21 (1966), pp. 30–32.
113. ‘Augustus on a guinea sat up straight.’ ‘Five Revolutionary Sonnets’, Transatlantic Review, 21 (1966), pp. 30–32.
114. To Vladimir Nabokov On His 70th Birthday. IABF, AB/ARCH/A/POE/23.
115. The Sword. The swordstick, and the New York subway setting also appear in A Clockwork Testament, when Enderby defends himself and others against thugs on a train. The Transatlantic Review, No. 23 (Winter 1966-7), pp. 41–43.
116. O Lord, O Ford, God Help Us, Also You. ‘Hinc illae lacrimae’ means ‘hence these tears’; see: Terence. Andria (ed. by George Pelham Shipp). (London: Bristol Classical Press, 1960:2002). Burgess describes organised cannibalism, and it leading to canned food called, amongst other things, ‘Mench’. Here, Burgess partially reuses material from his dystopian novel The Wanting Seed (London: Heinemann, 1962). New York Times, 29 December 1974.
117. A Sonnet for the Emery Collegiate Institute. Previously unpublished. Addressed to: Warner Winter, Esq. and dated St. Bridget’s Day, 1976. Typescript at IABF.
118. ‘Advice to would-be writers? Simple. Don’t.’ Previously unpublished. Dated July 24, 1974, and sent to a Mrs Fischer. Burgess wrote the following note to accompany the sonnet: ‘Dear Mrs Fischer – Many thanks for your kind letter of May 4. The delay in getting it and hence replying (it came a couple of days ago) must be blamed on the Italian postal services, which are now sunk in ultimate chaos. Here is a sonnet.’ Typescript at IABF.
119. ‘I send these lines to you in Agincourt.’ Previously unpublished. Transcribed from an image of a Burgess manuscript posted online in 2007. Graphical analysis of the image showed that on the back of the sonnet is a letter from 16 February 1974 in which Burgess thanks someone for an (unknown) act of kindness. In the fragment, he tantalisingly mentions a birthday, ‘electronic equipment’, and a photograph. From a scanned image of an original MS. Location unknown.
120. ‘End of the world – cosy, something thrilling.’ Previously unpublished. Sent to the editors, Yale News. Typescript at IABF.
121. ‘Late as I am, but blame the mails, not me.’ Previously unpublished. Sent to Mr Selwyn C. Gamble. Typescript at IABF.
122. ‘Forgive the lateness, please, of this reply.’ Previously unpublished. Sent to Mr Alan Fox. Typescript at IABF.
123. ‘Some consider love is great.’ Previously unpublished. From the screenplay for Eternal Life (1991). The character Stauff notes of this: ‘There used to be a poem. I forget who composed it. I remember these lines, however…You have read no history [he tells Golisha]. You have been forbidden books. The epics of the human past are unknown to you.’ Transcribed from MS draft.
124. To Chas. Previously unpublished. Attributed to Burgess. ‘To Chas’. Emailed to IABF on 21 May 2012. The correspondent described the work as ‘a poem that Anthony Burgess wrote for a member of my family [who was] suffering from terminal lymphoma when he shared a room with Mr Burgess in Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York in 1991 or 1992.’ Typescript at IABF.
125. ‘What can I say? I’d better try a sonnet.’ Previously unpublished. Addressed to Mr Peter Brule and dated 31 March 1974. Typescript at IABF.
126. ‘Forgive my writing verse: I get so bored.’ Previously unpublished. Untitled sonnet to Mr S.G. Byam. Typescript at IABF.
127. ‘Dear Chris, the trouble is, as you must know.’ Previously unpublished. Untitled sonnet to Mr Chris Mahon, dated 14 September 1974. Typescript at IABF.
128. Happy Birthday Tae Andrew. Previously unpublished. Anthony Burgess. ‘Happy Birthday tae Andrew’. Hand-written and illustrated booklet of loose paper. Dated August 9 1979. Typescript at IABF.
129. ‘So will the flow of time and fire.’ Previously unpublished. This is deleted in the published novel. Burgess gives no indication as to why this is to be deleted, but there is a confident scrawl and deletion mark next to it. In terms of the context of the story, the second half is more believable as it is less finished:
And something something something can
Take partners for a plonk pavane,
The blinded giant’s staff
Tracing a seismograph.
This is a poem that comes to Enderby upon waking. The use of ‘something’ and ‘plonk’ is not reflective of Burgess’s general drafting technique, which – generally – involves leaving an obvious space in the line, rather than using a temporary word. Transcribed from MS draft.
130. Whisky. Previously unpublished. This is the longest of two drafts. The other draft includes these slightly varied stanzas:
Double you aitch eye ess kay ee wye spells
Irish an, without an ee, spells Scotch.
Saxon stupidity ha made a botch
Out of the autocratic pose,
Celtic uisgebaugh, which tells
The paternal strictness he distrusted, still
Clung to his utterance and features,
It was a protective imitation
For one who lived among enemies so long;
If only he was wrong and at times absurd,
To us he is no more a person
Now – but a whole climate of opinion.
IABF, AB/ARCH/A/POE/26.
131. A Ballade for Christmas. Previously unpublished. Photocopy typescript, signed Liana, Anthony, Andrew, and Bettie [i.e. Bettina Culham, Liana’s secretary]. Pencilled on the top of this MS is a note, indicating that it was ‘Sent to Gabriele and Leslie for Christmas 1984’. Gabriele Pantucci was Burgess’s agent, who married the agent Leslie Gardner.
132. January 1. Previously unpublished.
133. A l’Hôtel Le Clos Voltaire. Previously unpublished. Hand-written MS on paper headed Hôtel Le Clos Voltaire. In a typewritten essay draft, dated 15 May 1978, and written for Saturday Review, Burgess provides some comtext for this poem: ‘In May I was able to get as far as Geneva, where they were getting ready to celebrate the feast of the Ascension […] The only writing I did in this week and more was an acrostical sonnet on the name Le Clos Voltaire, the cheap hotel in Geneva where we stayed. For this, of course, I received no payment.’ Clos Voltaire is now a community centre, located at 49 Rue de Lyon, Geneva. Thomas Stearns are the first two names of T. S. Eliot. The theologian Michael Servetus also features in Byrne (1995). Typescript at IABF.
134. ‘The verses of E. Lucie-Smith.’ Previously unpublished. Typescript at IABF.
135. You were there, and nothing said.’ Previously unpublished variant text. Appears, with variants, in Enderby (p. 44). Dated 1937 on the MS, although this is probably a much later recalling of the poem. On the back of the MS is an extract from the ‘Pet Beast’.
136. Catullus 1. Previously unpublished. Burgess’s translation is found in his copy of Tibullus Catullus, Pervigilium Veneris (trans. F. W. Cornish et al.) (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1913:1976). Typescript at IABF.
137. Catullus 2. Previously unpublished. Burgess’s translation is in his copy of Pervigilium Veneris at IABF.
138. ‘Heroes are dead to us.’ Previously unpublished variant text. Also in the novelised version of The Eve of St Venus but with collective, rather than personal, pronouns used. Banbury diary, c.1954[?]. MS in notebook at IABF.
139. From typescript.
140. That The Earth Rose Out Of A Vast Basin Of Electric Sea. Written as J. B. Wilson, Burgess’s real name. Manchester Xaverian, Easter Term, 1936. Copy at IABF.
141. Sonnet In Alexandrines. John Burgess Wilson (JBW). The Manchester Xaverian (Easter Term, 1936). Copy at IABF.
142. A Rondel For Spring. Described as ‘After Charles D’Orléans’. Appears on same MS as ‘My father, his wife�
��, with minor variants (title, and no comma after ‘rain’). The manuscript version appears to be typed quite late in Burgess’s life. John Burgess Wilson (JBW), ‘A Rondel for Spring’ in Manchester Xaverian. Easter Term, 1936.
143. When It Is All Over. The Serpent, vol. 24 (1939–1940), p. 15.
144. Wir Danken Unsrem Führer. The Serpent, vol. 24 (1939–1940), p. 4.
145. Girl. This poem has been attributed to two fictional poets in Burgess’s career: to Lavinia Grantham, and to Enderby. Kevin Jackson notes that the pronouns are changed in the re-attribution from J.B. Wilson to F.X. Enderby. Jackson does not mention the re-attribution that occurred in A Vision of Battlements, which pre-dates Enderby, even if it was published later. Jackson notes that this poem was originally published in The Serpent. Later on in A Vision of Battlements, the content of the poem bleeds into Burgess’s description of Ennis’s thoughts on Lavinia: ‘Her yellow hair, sheaves shed by summer, was irradiated by the last of the sun…’ (p. 155). The last part of this sentence, although not appearing in the poem, maintains the rhythm of the line. A Vision of Battlements (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1965), p. 153; The Serpent, vol. 24, p. 26 (see Biswell, p. 73).
146. To Amaryllis After The Dance. The Serpent, vol. 24, p. 89 (see Biswell, p. 73).
147. Orpheus And Eurydice. The Serpent, vol. 24, p. 96 (see Biswell, p. 73).
148. ‘All the ore.’ The Serpent, vol. 24, p. 63.
149. A History. The Serpent, vol. 24, p. 56.
150. The Lowdown On Art Or Æsthetics For The Science Student. The Serpent, vol. 244, p. 9.
151. Dead Leaves. The Serpent, vol. 24, p. 33.
152. Sonnet on Examinations. The Serpent, vol. 24.
153. Sixth-form Triolets. Line three of part II originally read ‘It ages children to adults, –’. The em dash has been removed to regulate the punctuation. The Serpent, vol. 24.
154. Jack’s Story. A fragment of an unfinished autobiographical poem.
155. ‘Prudence! Prudence!’ the pigeons call.’ Inside Mr. Enderby, pp. 32–35.
156. Fish And Heroes. Inside Mr. Enderby, p. 73.