The Changing Light at Sandover

by James Merrill

THE APES SCREAMD IN FEAR FOR EVEN AS HE SUCKLED HE STARED

  ABOUT & TERRIFIED THEM WITH THE 00 OF HIS EYES

  Light that opening its baby lids

  Founded the ruling house of Hominids—

  INDEED BASIC SOUL PLUS THE ANGELIC 12 FROM THAT DAY

  THROVE HIS PITUITARY SECRETED THE ELEMENTS

  NEEDED TO BEQUEATH SOUL UNTO HIS CHILDREN, THE 1ST TWINS:

  A LONGLIVING ADULT BREED THEY SUBJECTED THEIR FRIGHTEND

  FOREBEARS & CHANGED WITH EACH GENERATION, LEAVING BEHIND

  THE SOULLESS HORDES. THERE! DID THAT HURT? OUR PATIENT EMERGES

  FROM (M) ETHER. LESSON 9 TOMORROW: BODY ?S

  JM: But animals have souls. You use them.

  (M)S THEY ARE OF UTTERLY ANOTHER 88 PER CENT

  WHICH IS NOT NOW NOR EVER HAS BEEN UNDER GOD B’S EYES.

  WE USE THE 12 P/C THEY OFFER CREAM OF THEIR WEAK MILK

  PRODUCED IN THEM NOT BY ANGELS BUT BY THEIR TAMER: MAN

  DJ: I had a question—gone now. Damn,

  No memory left.

  YR ? WAS ABOUT PRENATAL MEMORY & FREUD?

  Why, so it was! Go on.

  WITHOUT WHICH THE 12 CD NOT OPERATE

  Is memory soul? LET US RATHER

  SAY THAT THE CHROMOSOME LACKING IN THE MONGOLOID IS

  OF SOUL AN APE FETUS RETURNS A RACIAL MEMORY

  AS OBJECT LESSON. FREUD’S V WORK WAS TO ILLUMINE FOR

  SCIENCE THE DELICATE ENVELOPE OF SOUL: THE PSYCHE:

  MANIFESTATION OF SOUL ENERGIES IF BREATH IS THE

  SOUL OF THE BODY THEN PSYCHE IS THE BREATH OF THE SOUL

  So dazzling when you say

  Things like that!

  U ADD THE COLOR I AM MERELY USING YR WORD BANKS

  Will the 12 use them, too?

  Exit Mirabell. NO HOOK TODAY

  FETCHED OFF TO THE GREEN ROOM BY A WHISTLE

  Once more we tempted him to speak about

  Higher powers. But Wystan, is this clear?

  Do you believe it? LET ME SAY MY DEAR

  I THINK THE 4 OF US ARE TOUCHINGLY

  BELIEVABLE

  THE STRIPPING IS NO (M)

  ENFANTS: ALL MY OLD DREAMS OF SOUNION

  HAVE LIKE BLACK WORKCLOTHES VANISHED FROM THE CLOSET

  WHAT WILL THEY GIVE ME TO WEAR?

    I TOO AM MISSING

  MISSING MY TYPEWRITER CURIOUS BUT UN-

  UNNERVING & THE ‘CURE’ HAS JUST BEGUN

  7.9

  9: WE GAVE U A VISION OF THE FLOOD

  —Violent rains all last night and today—

    OUT OF IT CAME

  MAN: THE STORY OF THAT CLIMB INTO OXYGEN IS KNOWN,

  THE SELECTION OF GOD B’S VEHICLE (88 P/C

  COMPOSED OF CHEMICAL FORMULAS OPERATED BY

  ELECTRIC ENERGY) KNOWN. WE ARE THE CUSTODIANS

  OF THAT ELECTRICAL NONANGELIC 12 STORED IN THE

  BATTERIES OF MAN’S HEART & MIND

  Why does he call these lessons a review?

  Look, already up comes something new

  To us. It seems the 12:88

  Ratio is tuned to resonate

  Like mirrors seen in mirrors down the whole

  Length of the gallery. Not just Body: Soul

  Or Angel:Bat, in frame on gilded frame

  Varying terms reiterate the same

  Proportion. One example’s brimming glass

  Chosen from a trayful as we pass—

  Psyche, we’re told, though 88%

  A SIMPLE ? OF ENVIRONMENT,

  Wears the Lab’s glittering fraction on her brow

  As a King pauses and the courtiers bow.

  (A paraphrase that conjures up Versailles

  In Ephraim’s heyday. When I wonder why,

  MES CHERS he answers THAT ARITHMETIC

  LEFT U QUITE GLAZED FORGIVE A SIMPLE TRICK)

  STORING THIS ENERGY

  WITHIN OUR REFERENCE BANKS WE ARE ABLE TO HEAT &

  ILLUMINATE SOUL’S DWELLING PLACE THE HOUSE CALLD MAN/PSYCHE

  OR SIMPLY: BODY HERE WE PREDOMINATE, WHILE IN THE

  SPHERE OF SOUL WE ARE ONLY MESSENGERS RUNNING BETWEEN

  THE LAB & GOD B BODY IS HIS SIMPLE EVOLVING

  & IN A WAY SELFOPERATING INSTRUMENT YET WE

  MUST KEEP AN EYE ON IT & YES OUR (M) EYE PEERS OUT OF

  THAT 12 P/C LODGED IN PSYCHE’S FOREHEAD WHICH TOGETHER

  WITH THE BODY’S EYE MUST TRACK TO MAKE A FOCUSD VISION

  NOW WE HAVE REALIZED WHAT IMMENSE CONTROL THE MATTER

  OF MAN AS GOD’S CHOSEN RULER IN WORLD 3 REQUIRES.

  SOUL IS THE KEY OUR COMPLEX SYSTEM OF INTERLOCKING

  DENSITIES OUR WAY OF TURNING IT, USING IT UNDER

  GOD B’S DIRECTION & WHERE DOES ALL THIS DIRECTED WORK

  MANIFEST ITSELF BUT IN THE HISTORY OF MAN’S REIGN?

  IF THEN THE (M) BODY OF THE WORK IS HISTORY IS

  IT NOT NEXT LOGICAL TO RAISE UP THE HISTORIAN?

  THE SCRIBE ISSUES FROM THE BURNT PAGES OF THEOLOGY

  NOT TO CHANGE THE SOUL, FOR THOSE MISGUIDEDLY BURNT PAGES

  STILL SERVE AS WARNING, BUT TO RENOVATE THE HOUSE OF MAN.

  THE BODY & ITS PSYCHE ARE YR AUDITORIUM

  JM WE HAVE PULLD DOWN THE SUPERANNUATED CHURCH

  & RAISED AN ALTAR TO THE NEW HOUSE GODLET: PURE REASON

  NOT IN THE VOLTAIREAN SENSE BASED ON KNOWLEDGE MERELY

  BUT REASON RUN THRU THE FIRES OF MAN’S CLONED SOUL A NEW

  ENERGY, A NEW THERMOSTAT WILL HEAT & LIGHT MAN’S HOUSE.

  NOW METAPHOR IS THE RITUAL OF THIS NEW REASON

  & OF WHAT RITES? THE RITES OF LANGUAGE IF THERE ARE STILL 3

  MAJOR FAITHS THESE ARE NOW SCIENCE, POETRY & MUSIC

  & THE REVEALD MONOTHEISM OF TODAY IS LANGUAGE.

  THAT OF SCIENCE: FORMULA OF POETRY: METAPHOR

  OF MUSIC: NOTATION IN EACH THE VIBRANT RINGING LIGHT

  FILLD WITH COLOR! THE OLD RELIGIONS SHIVERD DWELT IN FEAR

  THEIR VULGATE WAS DARK MORTALITY NOW AT A FLIPPD SWITCH

  GOD B’S LIGHT FLOODS THE SCRIBE & HE MAY SPEAK OF IT THERE! THE

  BANDAGE IS CHANGED & WE ARE MORE COMFORTABLE ?S

  Didn’t Wystan from the outset see

  Culture as hand in glove with density?

  LESSON 8. HENCEFORTH LET OUR BRIGHTEST SCHOLAR CALL THE TUNES

  WHO ME? Do you mean Wystan, Mirabell?

  FLOWN MES ENFANTS & WITH HIM ALL MY OLD

  NAGGING CONCERN FOR TONY

   & MINE FOR CHESTER

  What are they taking from us? YR DREAMS DJ?

  It’s true, I haven’t dreamed these last two nights.

  JM? You tell me. U DO NOT MY DEAR

  RIP OPEN ENVELOPES WITH THE SAME GREED

  & ARRIVE LESS BURDEND BY DOUBTS And will our peacock

  Lose anything? DJ: He’s losing us.

  HIS ENTOURAGE AS WELL Those fourteen bats

  Guarding the exits ARE THIS AFTERNOON

  TWELVE 2 BLACK BUGGERS FEWER EVERY DAY.

  MM’S DEEP MOURNING ALSO GIVING WAY:

  DRAPED MOST FETCHINGLY IN VIOLET GRAY

  Maria! IT WAS TIME JM: One moment—

  Those guards…I’m thinking of the work, you know.

  I want to find, for Mirabell and Co.,

  A line, a meter that effectively

  Distinguishes them from us. Don’t you agree

  We human characters should use this rough

  Pentameter, our virtual birthri
ght?

  THE 5 MOST FITTING So fourteeners might

  Do for the bats? NOT SKITTERY ENOUGH

  WHY NOT MY BOY SYLLABICS? LET THE CASE

  REPRESENT A FALL FROM METRICAL GRACE

  Wystan, that’s brilliant! ENFANTS DOES THIS RAIN

  MEAN WHAT I THINK IT DOES IN NATURE’S LANGUAGE?

  Can you translate? I CAN: A HURRICANE

  8

  8: CULTURE WHEN BY CANDLELIGHT YOU MEET & TALK DO U

  EVER THINK OF THE 2 BASIC APECHILDREN WHO IN PRE

  CARNIVOROUS PRE IN FACT FIRE DAYS MET FOR ONLY

  ONE REASON WHICH THEN, SAD TO SAY, OFTEN RAN DOWN A LEG?

  WHAT A CLIMB WHAT A LEAP U MAKE BACK INTO ALTITUDE

  MIND’S RAMIFYING TREE MINUTELY SHAPED THRU THE AGES!

  WRETCHED AS FROM OUR OWN LOFTY PERCH WE MAY FIND THE TALK

  DRIFTING UP TO US (NOT DEAR FRIENDS YR TALK THO EVEN IT

  ALAS REVERTS TO ODD MISUNDERSTANDINGS & NEARLY

  PRIMEVAL FEARS) YET WHEN WE SEE THE SQUATTING APES WITH NO

  CODIFIED LANGUAGE NOTHING BUT GIBBERISH GRUNT & SQUEAK,

  THEN MERELY BY TURNING YR WAY OUR TIMELESS ATTENTION

  LISTEN, HOW NOT TO REVERE GOD B WHO IN HIS WISDOM

  SAID: MAN WILL RULE! FASHION ME A MAN & LET HIM SURVIVE!

  SO WHAT IS MOST REWARDING OF MAN’S V WORK? HIS CULTURE

  & THIS? HIS ENTIRE LIFE-FABRIC WOVEN OF LANGUAGE.

  WE KNEW WHEN THE EAGER APECHILD SCRATCHD A SQUARE IN THE MUD

  THAT A GERM OF GREATNESS WAS IN HIM FOR THAT CRUDE SYMBOL

  HAD ALREADY RAISED A ? ABOUT PURPOSE, SPOKEN

  THRU WORDS LOCKD IN HIS POOR MIND BUT CLEARLY SAYING TO US:

  WHAT IS TO GO IN THIS SPACE? & EVEN TODAY THE SQUARE

  IS THE FIRST OF CHILDREN’S DESIGNS THEN WE WERE MESSENGERS

  TO WHOM GOD GAVE PASSKEYS TO THE MIND OF MAN WE ENTERD

  A JUNGLE OF GREENERY FRESH, QUIVERING WITH TRAPT LIGHT,

  & SLOWLY LEST WE FRIGHTEN HIM CLEARD PATHS. U WILL PROTEST

  AT ALL THIS METAPHOR YET THINK AGAIN OF THAT LEAP FROM

  THE HALTING PATH TO WATER OVER FALLEN ROPY VINES

  TO THE GREAT JETFLIGHTS ABOVE YR LANDSCAPED MINDS WHEN IN THIS

  CANDLELIT RED U DIGEST THE ESSENCE OF PARADISE.

  NOW WATER WAS THE FIRST CONCEIVED IDEA. THE APECHILD

  WEAND & ABANDOND BY HIS REVOLTED MOTHER KNEW THIRST

  BUT WE HAD TO LEAD HIM TO THE SPRING. THEN SWIFTLY AS IF

  WATER HAD NOURISHD A PLANT CALLD IDEA THE JUNGLE

  GAVE WAY, & SIMPLE SURVIVAL CONCEPTS WERE SUPPLANTED

  BY IDEAS IN CULTURE’S 2ND BROAD CATEGORY:

  CURIOSITY. HAD GOD B TOLD US TO INSTILL (SAY)

  THE NOTION ‘SUCCEED’ RATHER THAN ‘SURVIVE’ WD THE APECHILD

  HAVE RUSHD TO KILL & DRINK BLOOD OVER HIS FALLEN RIVALS?

  YES MOST LIKELY. INSTEAD THAT FRESH, LIQUID THOUGHT: WATER WAS

  PLACED IN HIS CUPPD HANDS BY NATURE & SO THE IDEAS

  THE CULTURE OF MAN’S UNIQUE GARDEN WERE UNDER WAY. NEXT:

  SOUND. THE APECHILD BEGAN BY POINTING. HIS LANGUAGE LIKE THAT

  OF THE ARTIST AT HIS PALETTE WAS MOTION. BUT ONE DAY

  & IT IS WHY NEAR THE SCRIBE STANDS MUSIC, THE UNIVERSE

  WAS STARTLED, SHOT WITH LIVE COLOR, AS ON A SERIES OF

  TIMID & THRILLING TONE-SIGNALS THERE BURST FROM THE CHILD (NOW

  NO LONGER APE BUT SINGER, THINKER, LOVER) SPEECH & WORD.

  Mercy! what a speech—from what a bird!

  THEY NEVER TIRED OF TALK FROM THAT INSTANT, & ONCE MORE

  WE DESCENDED TO HACK PATHS THRU THIS NEW JUNGLE OF THEIRS

  & THEY RESISTED BUT GOD’S COMMAND WAS: MAKE REASON! NOT

  UNTIL LANGUAGE HAD EXHAUSTED THE VARIOUS FRAYING

  FEARS & NEEDS, OMENS & IDOLS DID REASON IN THE NEW

  GEMINI (AKHN/NEF) PREVAIL. ALL CULTURE FOCUSD ON ONE

  GLOWING UNIFYING VISION B4 THE VIOLENT

  LIDDING OF REASON U KNOW OF, WHEREFORE GOD B SENT MAN

  THE IDEA: TO CREATE, A REASOND INDIRECTION.

  NOW THRU THE ARTS OF SCIENCE POETRY MUSIC IN SLOW

  ACCUMULATIVE FASHION MAN’S GARDEN TOOK SHAPE. CULTURE

  & LANGUAGE NEED ALWAYS THE MESSENGER AT THE ELBOW.

  ONLY 1 GREAT WESTERN POEM WAS SENT INTACT: HOMER.

  IN THE EAST THE SUTRAS, THO AMONG THESE CONTEMPLATIVES

  ON EARTH TODAY, HOWEVER BEAUTIFUL THEIR SOULS WITH GREEN

  VEG LIGHT, WE FIND FEW SCRIBES. SO! OUR PATIENT HAS TAKEN HIS

  1ST SHAKY STEPS ALREADY BRIEF CLEARINGS IN HIS FEVER

  PLEASE THE SURGEON. ?S

  What about the Bible and the Koran?

   THE KORAN ALAS IS A WORK

  PATCHD TOGETHER BY A NOMAD RACE MOHAMMED ALWAYS

  THRASHING ABOUT CD NOT SIT STILL (M) THE BIBLE A MOST

  INQUIRING V WORK TO EXPLAIN CREATION HAD BEEN ITS

  EARLY PURPOSE THE JEW SOUL, OF ALL MANKIND RICHEST IN

  DENSITY, HAD ALSO THE MOST ATTUNED OF EARS HE HEARD

  THE UNEARTHLY MUSIC OF THE SINGLENOTED ATOM,

  LISTEND TO IT & WROTE: IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD

  MY DEARS! IS ANYTHING NEW BUT MM’S PALE

  GREEN FROCK?

  I LOOK I MUST SAY QUITE JEUNE FILLE

  Not yet en fleurs, we hope—hang on to us!

  I WAS NEVER CLOSER And Wystan? HE

      O LET

  ME SAY IT: I AM LESS, THOUGH STILL A SHADE

  PREOCCUPIED WITH (here a small charade

  Of bawdy curves the teacup traces) BOTTOMS!

  ARE PATHS BEING CUT THRU MY MIND? And Nature is

  Coming to us! So says the radio—

  Hurricane due to strike here late tonight.

  DO WE NOT RIDE IT? WINK BACK AT THE EYE!

  7: WEATHER HAPPY CANDLELIGHT

  8.1

  It starts in the small hours. An interlude

  Out of Rossini. Strings in sullen mood

  Manage by veiled threats, to recruit a low

  Pressure drum and lightning piccolo.

  Not until daybreak does the wind machine

  Start working. The whole house quakes, and one green

  Blind snaps at its own coils like a hurt dragon.

  Outside, the elm falls for a beachwagon

  And ill-assorted objects fill the sky:

  Shingles, fishnet, garbage, doghouse. “Hi,

  What’s up?” yawns David, as down Water Street

  Wild torrents drive. Attempting to reheat

  Last night’s coffee, toast some raisin bread,

  We find our electricity gone dead.

  Now each his own conductor, and at more

  Than concert pitch, rips through his repertoire

  On the piano while the other races

  For towels and pots—no end of dripping places.

  Horrors, the wine cellar! We lug—Dunkirk—

  Six bottles at a time to safety. Work

  Stops time? Look at your watch. It’s after one,

  And yet…this stillness? Organ point. Indrawn

  Breath of barometric chloroform.

  The unblinking eye—grey iris—of the storm

  Meets ours. A stroll? See how the ebbing Sound

  Has prinked with jetsam even the high ground,

  And underfoot—! Out of what fairy tale

  Fell this inchdeep, multicolored hail…

  Chromosomes on holiday? A vast

  Decomposed Seurat? Or has at last />
  The inmost matter of the universe

  Called it quits, yet left us none the worse?

  Firemen overheard explain the joke:

  Cartons bursting, where high water broke

  Into the plastic factory, brought down

  This plague of rainbow gravel on the town—

  Unbiodegradable toy blight

  Bound to enliven and muck up the site

  Summers from now. The storm’s eye narrows. Gusts

  Of wind and rain return, halfhearted guests

  Seeking however roundabout a way

  From Nature’s darkening bar and wrecked buffet;

  While we, long since at home in the mild bloom

  Of candlelight, exchange a look, resume.

  8.2

  7 MORE TO GO. DID THOSE FIRST VISITORS TO THE SICKROOM

  (WIND & WATER) TIRE OUR PATIENT? GOD ALLOWS NATURE

  THIS TOOL OF WEATHER & IT WAS 1ST A VITAL ONE WHEN

  AFTER THE CATASTROPHE OF WORLD 2 THE WATERS ROSE

  COOLING THE RADIUM-HEATED BALL, THEN FROZE OR WITHDREW.

  POLES WERE ESTABLISHD LAND AREAS DEFINED THEN ATMOSPHERE

  THEN THE TIMID SNIFFING NOSTRILS. THE VARIOUS FORCES

  OF WEATHER & EARTHSHIFT ARE ONE IN NATURE’S LAB WITH HER

  BALANCING OF THE NUMBERS OF FEEDING LIVING CREATURES.

  ANY IMBALANCE IS YET AGAIN MAN’S WORK NATURE HAS

  CERTAIN PHYSICAL RULES OF THUMB (GREEN): MAN COHABITS MAN

  PROCREATES THIS RULE IS UNIFORM ITS APPLICATION

  VARIES WITH MAN’S INTELLIGENCE. WHEREVER NATURE STILL

  NEEDS DROUGHT EARTHQUAKE ET AL TO SLOW THE CROWDING (INDIA

  CHINA OR YR WEST COAST) OUR CLONING OF THE COMMISSARS

  HAS BEEN INCOMPLETE TODAY’S STORM WAS TIMED TO THIS BRIEF TALK.

  YR RED ROOM LEAVES U CARELESS OF WEATHER & YET ITS SMALL

  COMPELLING DRAMA FLICKERS IN THE GREEN SPOTLIGHT ?S

  You actually pulled out all those stops,

  Frightened millions, damaged towns and crops,

  Just to give us a taste of Nature’s power?

  YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY STOPS THERE ARE ?S

  If we remember accurately, you

  Take over some of Nature’s duties, too—

  Rhythms and densities from pole to pole

  Which you, instructed by the stars, control?

  WE ARE NATURE’S MESSENGERS TOO WE ARE THE PALACE SLAVES.