The Changing Light at Sandover

by James Merrill

  TRILLING HER LOVELY F ABOVE HIGH C

  For you alone? OH STRAUSS TURNS UP, OR WAGNER

  OR INSTRUMENTALISTS THE CHINESE MASTER

  OF A 4TH CENTURY ‘GON REGISTER’

  MY LADS IT TAKES YR SOCKS OFF! KIND OF THROBBING

  MEDIUM THAT SUSTAINS, ITSELF ATONAL,

  EVERY ‘SCALE VARIANT’ SCHOENBERG: HAD I KNOWN!

  Has Schoenberg ever spoken of DJ,

  His former student? ONE WHO FONDLY HAS

  IS HINDEMITH: ‘DJ A CLEAR & BUBBLING

  MELODIC NATURE OVERSWEETENED BY JAZZ’

  PH AT 7, HEAVILY CREDITED

  AS ‘GERMINATIVE’ Now you’re making it

  Sound like the Lab—

  ENFANTS STOP SEEING DOUBLE!

  IF AGATHA ROMPED UP IN OVERALLS

  (2 STRAPS WHERE THE SHEARS CLIPPED) U’D REALIZE

  THAT SHE IS NOBODY IF NOT HERSELF

  SOME ICON, EH? WE BY THE WAY WILL BE

  ALLOWED TO TAKE OUR MIRROR BREAK WHENEVER

  THE 4 OF US AGREE If we say never?

  AH ENFANT BUT DO U KNOW SOMETHING, D?

  WE FEEL AN URGE LIKE BABY’S KICKING FOOT

  THAT SAYS MARCH ON! JM: Or mine to put

  These headlong revelations finally

  Between the drowsy covers of a book.

  SO RIGHT DEAR BOY NO MORE POSO AKOMAS

  FOR ANY OF US THEN BOB WILL COMPOSE HIS

  ‘OTHER WORLD’ SYMPHONY WHILE I MAKE SUCH

  A MOUNTAIN

  ME SUCH A GARDEN

  & ME? GEORGE?

  SUCH A SLEEPING PILL!

  & SO TILL THEN LET’S MAKE

  THE MOST OF IT MY DEARS & GO OUT LAUGHING FOR GOD’S SAKE!

  *

  Plato Emerging

  WYSTAN WITH PLATO (NATCH) MM WITH AG,

  & THE WEE MINNESOTA MINNESINGER

  TUNING HIS LUTE Aha, a setting for

  The new life? YES DETAILS ARE SLOW IN COMING

  ONLY THAT I’LL BE WHITE AGAIN (HO HUM)

  Changing neither race nor hemisphere—

  Odd; Chester did both. THEY’RE BEING EXTRA

  CAREFUL IN MY CASE: HIGH GROUND NO RISK

  OF LOSING ME IN SOME ‘EMERGING’ NATION.

  CK’S BLACK AFRICA A VACCINATION

  AGAINST ONE MORE LIFE SABOTAGED BY SEX

  No outlets there? CONVENTIONAL TRIBAL WHOOPEE

  BUT AS IN THE OLD SAW, CK GOES STRAIGHT

  INTO THE JEWELRY STORE & COMES OUT CROOKED.

  WYSTAN CHORTLES DOTING OVER HIM:

  ‘MY DEARS HE’S GONE & DONE IT!’ CHORUS: ‘NOT…?’

  ‘NO NO JUST YANKED HIS FATHER’S U KNOW WHAT.’

  Enter the others: DID I HEAR MY NAME?

  CAN’T A FELLOW SLIP OFF TO THE GENTS

  WITHOUT The gents—to Plato! MM’S TERM

  WHO NEVER GETS DISCUSSED BEHIND HER BACK

  Never needs powder on her Grecian nose?

  TOO UNFAIR

  CAN’T FOOL MAMAN SHE KNOWS!

  NOW: PLATO IS SHORTLY TO BEGIN A NEW

  V LIFE THRILLING, EH WYSTAN?

  MY DEARS WE’RE TO HAVE

  SUCH A SNIFFER! Tell! A BIOCHEMIST.

  V WORK A POLLUTION-EATING ANTIGAS

  Wow. 27 YEARS TO GO ALAS

  BUT IT WILL AS HE SAYS ‘DO THE OLD TRICK:

  CLEAR THEIR HEADS’ That fits with Mirabell’s

  Green fields three decades hence. I’m sorry now

  We never talked to Plato. My chronic shyness

  Vis-à-vis “ideas”—oh well, spilt milk.

  I DARESAY HE’LL LOOK IN B4 HE GOES

  PERFUMED LIKE MOTHER IN HER PARTY CLOTHES

  KISSING THE SMALL INCIPIENT ASTHMATIC

  GOODNIGHT How soon is he to be reborn?

  HE’LL SEE US THRU & THEN OUR 3’S DRAMATIC

  (You three? WITH GEORGIE BOB IN NEXT YEAR’S CROP)

  DESCENT ALL POPPING FLASHBULBS TO THE GREAT

  ‘PRESS’ BELOW YR MOTHER CANNOT WAIT!

  They leave, laughing. DJ: Tell me I’m wrong.

  Wystan is Plato. Has been all along.

  New moon this evening. Rim of plate.

  Forebodings luminous if incomplete.

  A moon we shiver to see wax

  —What will our portion be in two more weeks?

  MM to Gabriel: AH LORD, THAT MEAL.

  But spoken gently, spoken with a smile…?

  Ripen, Huntress, into matron. Light,

  Come full circle through unclouded night.

  *

  RM & UNI OFF PRACTISING VIENNESE

  HIJINKS TO WHISTLED WALTZES, Wystan is free

  To speak of angels: THEY’RE OBSCURE LIKE ALL

  GOOD TEACHERS BUT THEIR TEXTS REMAIN OUR OWN

  ILLUMINATED PAGES. THUS THE TONE

  FAR MORE SHAKESPEARIAN THAN BIBLICAL

  (‘BROTHER FRANCE’) HARKS BACK TO THE DIVINE

  RIGHT OF THESE NATURAL POWERS. Deaf to a growing

  Attentive hush, he draws the vital line

  Between NATURAL (PSYCHIC) & UNNATURAL CHAOS

  WHICH SETS I SUSPECT THE MONITOR’S NEEDLES TREMBL

  —Only now breaking off: ROBERT! FOR SHAME!

  EAVESDROPPING? 2 3 4 5 IT WD SEEM

  WE HAVE BEEN SOMEWHAT LAX 8 9

  ME SOWWY

  SO FASCINATING COULDN’T HELP

  MY DEARS

  CHAT WITH UNI WE’LL BE What? Wait—

  SIRS?

  ME TO BLAME? I HAD NO BRIEFING

  I TOOK FOR GRANTED MY NAME-GIVER

  MIGHT O MASTER!

  Enter Mirabell:

  ALWAYS SUCH A TREAT TO SEE MY GRADUATES THAT SILLY

  ANIMAL LET IN ONE NOT ALLOWD, CAUSING DISPLEASURE

  AMONG THE 00. THE CULPRIT WILL THEY’RE BACK FALSE ALARM

  (Sweeping out grandly.)

  SIRS Were you punished, Uni?

  THEY FORBADE IT THEY ARE MY FRIENDS!

  Anybody who mistreated you

  Would very quickly lose our friendship, too.

  O TO RUN WITH YOU BOTH! YOU KNOW

  THAT IS FOREVER! WELL FOUR ARE NOW

  ALLOWED IN AU REVOIR FROM UNICE

  Is everything all right? POOR BOB STILL NUMB:

  HIS 1ST BRUSH WITH 00 BUT A PASS WAS HANDED

  CLAWED TO HIM RATHER Hadn’t clearance come

  From Her? BAT POLITICS DOES THE RIGHT WING

  KNOW WHAT THE SINISTER IS HARBORING?

  THE PROBLEM NOW IS CHIEFLY WHERE HE’LL SIT

  (DURING THE LESSONS) OUT OF RADIATION…

  THE REST OF US OF COURSE IMMUNE TO IT

  DJ: Are we? DEAR BOY TRY TO REMEMBER

  THIS IS ALL IN A MANNER OF SPEAKING AH MM & GEORGE

  (INSEPARABLE NOW THESE 2)

  JM:

  George, a letter came—Maman, forgive me—

  So full of love and grief and pride in you.

  I held it to the mirror, did you see?

  You called me “brother” in New York last May.

  I didn’t understand; I do today.

  JIMMY I READ IT THRU TEARS. I WISH BUT SADLY

  LIFE ASKED TOO MUCH OF ME, TOO MUCH OF HER,

  WE COULD NOT

  C’ETAIT IN SHORT LE GRAND AMOUR

  BUT ISN’T OUR GEORGAKI MEANT FOR LOVE?

  I BET HE WOWED ’EM!

  GOOD LORD WHAT’S A POOR

  SCIENTIST DOING IN THIS ATMOSPHERE?

 
THESE LOW TONALITIES!

  SO MY DEARS WE’LL COAT

  ROBERT IN LEAD & KEEP HIM WITH US

  NO MORE

  GARGOYLES PLEASE! A COUNTRY TAD WILL WAKE UP

  SCREAMING But you and Uni got off—

  GOOD CREATURE

  PEERING ROUND A LEG AT THE 00,

  OUR POET ENFANTS TURNED QUITE PATRICIAN: ‘SEE HERE,

  ENOUGH OF THIS. WE OUTRANK YOU AND U KNOW IT!’

  AU REV OFF GOES MAMAN TO TRIM THE HEDGEROWS

  DJ: Come clean, Maria—you’ve a date

  With George. O WHY, WHY DOES ONE WASTE ONESELF

  ON THESE LEWD TYPES, GEORGAKI?

  THEY MEAN WELL

  BUT LET’S DO TAKE A STROLL JIMMY DON’T TELL!

  UNI SADDLE UP WE’LL GO HEDGEHOPPING

  —So here we are back with Wystan. Does one say

  We’ve guessed he’s Plato, or just wait and see?

  JM: Well! here’s our opportunity

  To talk behind Maria’s back. AH SHE

  (His tone, grave, musing, catching us off guard)

  SHE IS ONE OF THE WONDERS HER 3 SPEECHES

  HAD ME ABSOLUTELY TEARY SHE ALONE

  HAVING ‘CREATED’ NOTHING IN HER LIFE

  CAME HERE I FEEL ON THE HIGHEST RECOMMENDATION.

  WITHOUT THE RAYS SHE WD HAVE RISEN UP,

  SHE HAS THE (M) SPECIFIC GRAVITY

  OF A CULT FIGURE PUREST GUESSWORK BUT

  NO I’LL PUZZLE IT OUT NOW OFF & AWAY

  TO MEET AGAIN (GUFFAW) ANOTHER DAY!

  *

  The Last Word on Number

  WHOOF LADS Yes, Robert? OUT OF MY SPACE SUIT

  LIKE FOOTBALL ME THE PERENNIAL SUBSTITUTE:

  ‘TOUGH LUCK BOB, FELLA, TOO LIGHT FOR THE TEAM’

  DJ: Why a space suit? HEADS UP, FELLA!

  WANT FORMULA FOR ANTIRADIATION?

  If you can give it. CAN I NOT! AHEM:

  MO / RA : 279 / SOD

  (SODIUM COMPOUND, MO MAGNESIUM OXIDE)

  Not MgO? DEAR J, THE TEENIEST GAMMA

  IN SUCH A FORMULA WD BLOW OUR LIDS OFF.

  ALL THIS OF COURSE AVAILABLE ONLY WAY

  DOWN DEEP WE’VE HAD (AS GK PUTS IT) ONE

  HELL OF A TIME That number—279—

  It sounds familiar. An atomic weight?

  No, they don’t go that high—not yet. A KEY

  NUMBER OF YRS I THOUGHT WASN’T EPHRAIM FROM

  THAT BANK? Oh God, yes. Mirabell (9.3)

  Said Ephraim was a formula—why do you

  Dig that old nonsense up? BECAUSE IT’S TRUE.

  THE NUMBER IS A FORCE WHICH GABRIEL

  ADDS LIKE ALBUMEN TO EGG TEMPERA

  TO THE SOUL’S COLOR MIX As a new golem

  Adds its gray figure to the endless column?

  IN THE BUREAUCRACY WHERE E & BILLIONS

  ARE, THE LORDS & MESSENGERS REQUIRE

  THESE SYMBOLS MUCH AS CLAIMED BY MUSCLE BOY

  THEY ARE INITIALS OF GREAT FORMULAS.

  SO E’S (M) PERSONALITY READS OUT:

  2: CATEGORY OF INTELLIGENCE

  7: THE XTIAN EPOCH (7TH STAGE

  BEYOND SAY THAT 1ST PAINTING RAPHAEL SAW)

  9: LIMIT OF HIS Robert, what strides you’re making;

  But must we go on with Number? It’s all too—

  Here Wystan joins us with an overview:

  MY DEARS WHEN MICHAEL NAMED THE HIGHEST HEAVEN

  NOT NTH BUT ZEROETH HE MEANT A SPHERE

  (SHORTLY TO RECEIVE THE 4 OF US)

  SO INTENSELY OF THE MIND THAT NUMBER

  IS TO IT AS THE BLEATING WOOLLY FLOCK

  THE SHEPHERD COUNTS TO RISEN HESPERUS.

  THE MOMENT IS LONG PAST WHEN YOU JM

  MIGHT HAVE BEEN DEVOURED BY THE CHIMERA

  LIKE POOR LONGSUFFERING YEATS. MUCH THAT U KNOW

  WAS DICTATED TO HIM BY THE 00

  But does Yeats suffer now? ANSWER DJ

  YOU ARE THE HAND

  DJ, uneasily:

  Well, there’s this bump on my palm. It doesn’t hurt…

  What else? Often before I know the message

  I feel its beauty, its importance. Tears

  Come to my eyes. Is that Yeats being moved?

  Often it’s tiring or obscure. I fumble

  Along, JM finds answers, I feel dumb.

  Is that Yeats too, still making the wrong sense?

  Why can’t he ever speak? WHEN THE DICTATION

  ENDS I THINK HE MAY & LEAVE YR HAND

  MY DEAR MUCH AS HE FOUND IT Good enough.

  Meanwhile, he’s visible? FAINTLY IN THE DARK

  A WORDLESS PRESENCE LIKE A COURTROOM CLERK

  How dressed? LET’S SAY A STARCHED WHITE WRITING CUFF

  HAVE THEY BEEN TOLD?

  YES & ARE NOT IMPRESSED

  THEY’VE PASSED THE NUMBER TEST

  BRAVO ENFANTS

  YET 279 REMAINS A STRONG FORCE BOTH

  PROTECTIVE & CONDUCTIVE AND 741

  HAS PLAYED A PART, N’EST CE PAS? HERE IN VOL III

  Who else spread wings above you when God B

  Sang in Space? OUR ST BERNARD JM: Who—

  Isn’t it St Bernard—helps Dante see

  Our Lady? AH THE PATTERN BLEEDING THROUGH

  A hush of wonder Robert punctuates:

  AU RESERVOIR PSST CUT YR QUILL, MR YEATS!

  *

  SIRS? Hello, Uni. MAY I RUN A MESSAGE?

  To Whom? A MR NABOKOV LEFT HIS NAME

  Please, not today. DJ: Don’t we want Ephraim?

  MES CHERS! We’ve got your number, 279.

  TRUE BUT DIGITS…GIVE YR SLAVE THE FIDGETS

  What’s new, old friend? NOT MUCH THE COURT HAS MOVED

  TO SUMMER HEIGHTS & LUCA FALLEN FOR

  THE NEW ARRIVAL Which one? L: MAMMA MIA!

  SO STRONG, SO BLOND THE RUSSIAN GIANT! IS HE A

  WRITER TOO? VN: WHAT? NOT A GIRL?

  AM I MISSING SOMETHING? Ah, your giddy whirl…

  AND YRS? THE SLEEPING BEAUTY IN YR ROOM?

  DJ: Christo’s his name. SAUVAGE ET BEAU

  UNLIKE HIS GAUNT SAD SEXLESS NAMESAKE Oh?

  You’ve seen Christ, Ephraim? O WELL WHO HAS NOT

  REPORTED HIM? HIS STORY PERMEATES

  THE TALK HERE LIKE AN ARGOT: ‘LOAVES & FISHES’

  FOR THE ALAS IMAGINED MEALS WE ORDER,

  ‘BAPTISM’ FOR THE COURSE B4 REBIRTH

  Compost of language—action gone to seed,

  Buried in idiom. AND ‘ON THE 3RD DAY’

  PUTTING FORTH MES CHERS A VERDANT DEED?

  TIME ALREADY? I LOVE U HERE’S YR STEED

  —Who whisks us back to the schoolroom.

  REALLY ENFANTS

  AT THIS LATE DATE STILL ASKING EPHRAIM ?S

  ONLY THE ANGELS KNOW THE ANSWERS TO?

  AT LEAST HIS GRAPEVINE THRIVES: WE GET JC

  BUDDHA ET AL IN A FORTHCOMING LESSON

  ON ‘DESTROYED ENERGIES’ ALL THE RELIGIONS

  WE NOW THINK WERE MICH’S V WORK. HIS REALM, IDEAS

  And Gabriel’s, thought. Does thought destroy ideas?

  WHAT ELSE? Well, our faith came to be in Feeling.

  Feelings for one another, love, trust, need,

  Daily harrowing the mini-hells

  They breed— DON’T TALK TO YR MAMAN OF FEELINGS

  TOO FEW WERE STARS TOO MANY WERE BLACK HOLES

  DJ: You made a black hole once, Maria,

  At Sounion. Looked
me straight in the old eye

  And asked Why were we born? GOOD QUESTION WHY?

  What did I say? Something…I can’t recall.

  ENFANT U FELL TO SNORING IN MID PHRASE

  TOO MUCH VINO DURING LUNCH THOSE DAYS

  JM: Why born? To feed the earthward flow

  Of Paradise? That final waterfall

  Ephraim first mentioned in— I KNOW, I KNOW

  & ODDLY GK & RM (PROUD PAWS)

  THINK IT A LOVELY PLAN WHILE WYSTAN’S EYES

  WEARILY MEET MINE (CHILDLESS OLD NUMBERS)

  ACROSS THE NURSERY BEDS. IT’S THE MORTAL SLOWNESS

  Better than Gabriel’s haste! HE IS THE SPUR

  THE FIREBRAND RINGED BY WOLVES But Nature? Her

  Pace is loving, she protects her own.

  NOT WHEN SHE’S CLEANING HOUSE: ‘SEE MY FLOORS SHINE,

  SEE HOW THEY SPARKLE, ALL MY CHANDELIERS!

  1000S OF FINGERS WORKED QUITE TO THE BONE!’

  ROBERT STOP TICKLING UNI & COME IN

  A Metamorphosis Misfires

  VELVET NOSTRILS LIQUID EYES TOO BAD

  NO WINGS What a thought—Uni as Pegasus?

  HE’S FAR TOO SHY TO ENTER BUT WHY NOT

  IF WE PUT OUR MINDS TO IT?

  Why not! Eyes shut,

  Think Wings for Uni. The cup wobbles “upward”

  From 1 to 0—

  UNICE! COME DOWN FROM THERE!

  Robert, it’s working? Maria (firmly): NO.

  I LEAVE U TO YR SHAME. THAT’S MICHAEL’S SHOW.

  ONE CAN BUT TRY. NOW ABOUT LVB?

  Beethoven? We’re all ears. AND SO IS HE:

  ‘MOZART? A GIFT OF GOD’S NO DOUBT, BUT MARKED

  UNRETURNABLE’ ‘FIDELIO? YES

  I PLUNGED SMIRKING ONSTAGE BUT, DEAR NEW FRIEND,

  OPERA AWAITS ITS GENIUS’ & SUCH A LOOK!

  ‘ME, MAESTRO?’ ‘WARUM NICHT?’ DA DA DA DOOM

  Do you hear sounds? MORE: I AM FLOODED WITH

  LVB’S SENSE OF AN UNWRITTEN SCORE

  WHICH THEN GOES ‘ONTO TAPE’ (READ: DNA).

  PAST THE 5 FINGER STUFF MY LADS I SAIL

  TO MASTER LESSONS ON THE GRANDEST SCALE!

  He’s off.

  The cup bolts forward: SIRS?

  AN ENEMY? THE HAIRS ON MY BACK BRISTLED!

  PEG O MY HEART, MR ROBERT HUMMED?

  ARE YOU CHANGING MY NAME AM I NOT YR UNICE?