Barely
and widely (1958)
Commentary
Corman,
Cid. “Love—In These Words.” MAPS 5 (1973): 26-54 [comments on the entire book in
sequence].
Barely and widely
30
March 1956
161.5 “barely / twelve”: PZ would have turned
12 on 22 Oct. 1955; according to Scroggins this phrase is quoted from a review
of a PZ performance (Bio 292).
161.8 “widely / published / throughout
/ a long / career”: in the March 1956 issue of Poetry, LZ published the poem
“The Guests” (CSP 153-154), and the Contributors note remarks: “Louis Zukofsky is
known best for his work in the Objectivist movement, both as a poet and as a
leader. He has been widely published throughout a long career” (382).
#1
“This is after all vacation. All that”
19
June 1956
162.23 hautboys: oboes.
#2
“You who were made for this music”
19-21
June 1956
#3
“The green leaf that will outlast the winter”
1
Jan. 1957
#4
A Valentine
2
Feb. 1957
#5
The Heights
25-27
Feb. 1957/ Colorado Review (Spring 1958)
Title The Heights: Brooklyn Heights, the
area near the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge where the Zukofskys lived
almost continuously from 1942-1964 at addresses on Columbia Heights and Willow
Street, where they often had views of the harbor across to Manhattan.
#6
“Send regards to Ida the bitch”
8
May 1957
#7
Stratford-on-Avon
1
July-4 Aug. 1957/ Poetry (June 1958)
Title Stratford-on-Avon: Shakespeare’s
birthplace, a pilgrimage site and tourist trap in the southern Midlands of
England, which the Zukofskys visited during their summer 1957 trip to Europe
(see “4 Other Countries” below). Worth reading in relation to this poem is
Henry James’ long story, “The Birthplace” (1903), which is a send-up of the
commercialization of Shakespeare and particularly of Stratford-on-Avon; LZ
gives a page of quotations from this story in Bottom (99-100).
166.8 Anne Hathaway’s cottage at
Shottery:
the family home of Shakespeare’s wife is an Elizabethan farmhouse in the
village of Shottery, down the road from Stratford.
166.9 Mary Arden’s house: another Tudor
farmhouse, formerly the home of Shakespeare’s mother in Wilmcote.
166.27 No tall perch, Helena...: through 167.16
refers to and quotes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
166.28 Bard’s or Swan’s: both conventional
designations for Shakespeare, the latter from Ben Jonson’s “To the Memory of My
Beloved the Author, Mr. William Shakespeare” included in the First Folio:
Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appear,
And make those flights upon the banks of Thames,
That so did take Eliza and our James!
166.32 we, Hermia / Have with our neelds…: through 167.3 from
Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream III.ii, where Helena and Hermia accuse
each other of treachery:
Helena:
Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
Have you conspir’d, have you with these contriv’d
To bait me with this foul derision?
Is all the counsel that we two have shar’d,
The sister-vows, the hours that we have spent,
When we have chid the hasty-footed time
For parting us, O! is it all forgot?
All school-days’ friendship, childhood innocence?
We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
Have with our neelds [needles] created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key,
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition;
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.
And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
[…]
Hermia:
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
167.6 The course of true love never
did run smooth…: this and the next few lines from Shakespeare, A Midsummer
Night’s Dream I.i:
Lysander: Ay me! for aught that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,
The course of true love never did run smooth;
But, either it was different in blood,—
Hermia:
O cross! too high to be enthrall’d to low.
Lysander: Or else misgraffed in respect of years,—
Hermia:
O spite! too old to be engag’d to young.
Lysander: Or else it stood upon the choice of friends,—
Hermia:
O hell! to choose love by another’s eye.
Lysander: Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it,
Making it momentany as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say, ‘Behold!’
The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion.
Hermia:
If then true lovers have been ever cross’d,
It stands as an edict in destiny:
Then let us teach our trial patience,
Because it is a customary cross,
As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
Wishes and tears, poor fancy’s followers.
167.11 Until / Theseus judged…: from Shakespeare, A
Midsummer Night’s Dream IV.i, when Theseus and entourage discover the lovers asleep
in the woods:
Theseus: No doubt they rose up early to observe
The rite of May, and, hearing our intent,
Came here in grace of our solemnity.
But speak, Egeus, is not this the day
That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
Egeus:
It is, my lord.
Theseus: Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns. [Horns and shout
within. Lysander, Demetrius, Hermia, and Helena, wake and start up.]
Good morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past:
Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
166.20 the Birthplace: the house where
Shakespeare was born is located on Henley Street (see 166.10) in Stratford. As
LZ mentions, the gardens in back have been planted with various flowers and
trees mentioned in Shakespeare’s works.
166.21 Good Friend for Jesus sake forbeare: the epitaph on the
slab over Shakespeare’s grave inside the Holy Trinity Church in Stratford
reads:
Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare,
To dig the dust enclosed here.
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And cursed be he that moves my bones.
167.25 full-blown polychrome / bust: on the wall near Shakespeare’s
grave is a colored bust in relief showing him in the act of writing was put up
by his family.
167.29 Anne Hathaway’s burden—: this line appears to
refer to the common assumption that the Shakespeares had a difficult marriage,
in large part based on Shakespeare’s will, in which his wife is given the
“second-best bed,” although current scholarship generally does not accept this
negative interpretation. On the other hand, it may simply refer to the fact
that Anne Hathaway outlived her husband by some years, dying in 1623, by which
time the monument to Shakespeare with the above mentioned bust had been
erected.
167.30 the new Queen’s…: Queen Elizabeth II’s
coronation was in June 1953.
168.13 Can no longer / Live by thinking: from As You Like It V.ii.50, spoken by
Orlando in his impatience to publicly declare his love for Rosalind.
168.16 “That may not be bad / If it turns out well”: echoing Shakespeare’s All’s
Well that Ends Well.
#8
“This year”
22
Feb. 1958/ Poetry (June 1958)
168.7 Washington’s Birthday: 22 February.
168.12 Governors Island: island in New York
harbor near Brooklyn, to the east of the Statue of Liberty; until very recently
it was a military installation with various fortifications and not accessible
to the public.
168.11 Staten / Island: large island that
forms the western entrance to New York harbor.
#9
Ashtray
3
April 1958
#10
Another Ashtray
8
April 1958
#11
Head Lines
13
July/Aug. 1958
171.7 Krushchev / won’t debate /
satellites: Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) leader of the Soviet Union from
1953-1964 (see “A”-13.265.7-9 and 284.10f). The space race was initiated with
the launch of the first satellite, Sputnik 1, by the USSR on 4 Oct. 1957, which
was followed by Sputnik 2 on 3 Nov. 1957 and then countered by the US with Explorer
1 on 31 Jan. 1958.
#12
4 Other Countries
Summer
1957-1 Sept. 1958
Commentary
Corman,
Cid. “Meeting in Firenze.” Sagetrieb 1.1 (Spring 1982): 120-124.
This
poem is an account of the Zukofskys’ trip to Europe from late June to mid-Sept.
1957; the four countries are England, France, Italy and Switzerland.
171.1 Merry, La Belle / antichi, tilling—: this opening alludes
to the four countries visited and the three main languages of the Zukofskys’
European sojourn. Merry as in Merry Old England, La Belle, Fr. the beautiful, antichi, It. ancient or the
ancients, and tilling referring to the peaceful agricultural Switzerland—the
word appears twice on 196 (Scroggins Bio 283).
171.14 Tours: city in central France on the Loire River.
172.1 La Gloire in the black…:
172.6 Windermere: in the Lake District
of northern England near where William Wordsworth lived.
172.12 Angers: capital of Anjou province in France,
near the Loire River.
172.30 Poitiers: city in central France, where Eleanor
of Aquitaine had her court in the 12th century and center of
troubadour culture.
173.5 Arc de triomphe: in Paris.
173.7 madeleine memories: referring to Marcel
Proust’s Remembrance of Things Past, which is quoted at “A”-18.407.23-25.
173.8 Ouest: Fr. the West.
173.25 Cake Tower of / Babel / that is / Nice:
174.2 Lascaux: site of the most
famous caves containing Upper Paleolithic paintings located in the Dordogne
area of southern France.
174.4 Eyzies: another area in the
French Dordogne with numerous caves containing Paleolithic remains, including
paintings, but best known for the discovery of Cro-Magnon skeletons; apparently
LZ visited several of the caves (Davenport 110).
174.6 Périgueux: capital of the
Dordogne department in southwest France.
174.10 merde at St. Front: merde = Fr. shit. St.
Front is the main cathedral of Périgueux, which is based on a Byzantine design
and some believe copied from a Constantinople church, which perhaps explains
the mention of Istanbul at 174.12.
174.14 Tower / of Vésone: a Gallo-Roman
structure in the center of Périgueux originally the central part of a
temple.
174.31 arena’s ruin: Roman amphitheatre in
Périgueux, which is comparatively small.
175.3 Bertran de Born: (c.1140-1214),
Provencal noble and poet from the Périgueux area, famously appears in Dante’s Inferno (XXVIII.118-126) and
EP’s “Sestina: Altaforte.”
175.4 Girault de Borneil: (c.1162-c.1199),
troubadour poet, mentioned in Dante, Purgatorio XXVI.120 and De
Vulgari Eloquentia.
175.9 The vowels / abide / in
consonants…: LZ quotes this sentence in Bottom (421) and identifies it
as from the Book of Bahir, possibly the earliest work of medieval
Kabbalah.
176.14 St. Michael....: Mont-Saint-Michel,
the spectacular fortified Benedictine abbey on a small isle off the coast of
Normandy and subject of Henry Adams’ Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (1904, 1913). The
legend of the monastery’s founding is that St. Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, was
commanded to do so in a dream by the Archangel Michael, which he initially
ignored until Michael returned and bore a hole with his finger in the bishop’s
skull. LZ may be referring at 175.32f to the fact that the abbey was turned
into a prison during the French Revolution, which it remained for over half a
century.
176.24 Merveille: La Merveille (Fr. the marvel) is one of
the major structures on Mont-Saint-Michel facing out toward the Atlantic.
177.5 Master / Aristotle’s eternal /
whiteness of / a day: refers to a passage from Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I.6 (1096a-b): “And one
might ask the question, what in the world they mean by ‘a thing itself,’ if (as
is the case) in ‘man himself’ and in a particular man the account of man is one
and the same. For in so far as they are man, they will in no respect differ;
and if this is so, neither will ‘good itself’ and particular goods, in so far
as they are good. But again it will not be good any the more for being eternal,
since that which lasts long is no whiter than that which perishes in a day”
(trans. W.D. Ross); see 12.237.25; also qtd. Bottom 61, 335.
177.9 Benedictine / initial:
177.13 Pontorson: town on the Normandy coast of France
near Mont-Saint-Michel.
177.30 Perilous / Castle: Scottish border castle
of James Douglas.
178.21 Saint Cecelia: or Cecilia, patron
saint of music, whose legend is the subject of “The Second Nun’s Tale” in
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
178.30 Quimper: city in Brittany, France.
179.1 Bede’s tomb: the Venerable Bede
(673-735), author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People (731). Although
originally buried at the monastery at Jarrow, Northumbria where he spent most
of his life, he was later reburied in the Durham cathedral.
179.2 Chartres’ / two towers: the gothic cathedral
of Notre-Dame at Chartres, southwest of Paris, has two massive mismatched
towers.
179.6 Leoninus: or Léonin (fl.
1160-1180), French composer active in Paris.
179.8 Josquin: Josquin Després or
Desprez (c.1450-1521), Flemish composer.
179.26 Middle / Sea: Mediterranean < L. medius, middle + terra, land, and can refer to
any large body of water surrounded by land.
179.32 via Marsala 12: EP’s original address
in Rapallo, on the Italian Riviera, where LZ visited him in 1933. At the time
the Zukofskys made their 1957 trip, EP was still incarcerated in St.
Elizabeths.
180.3 Gino Pasterino: presumably a Rapallo
neighbor.
181.11 Nicollà Pisano’s / pulpit: (c.1220-1278) Italian
sculptor, one of whose major works is the design for the pulpit in Pisa’s
Baptistery, which depicts scenes from the life of Jesus and the Last Judgment.
182.14 Cimabue: (c.1230-1302?), Italian artist whose
major authenticated work is a mosaic in the apse of the Pisa Cathedral.
182.25 Duccio’s / chromatic story…: Duccio di Buoninsegna
(c.1255/60-1319), Sienese painter, whose most important work is the huge Maestà
for the high altar of the Cathedral but now in the Cathedral Museum in Siena,
which includes numerous panels depicting scenes from the life of Christ.
183.17 Museo / Opera del Duomo: the Duomo Cathedral
museum in Florence.
183.29 Chapel / in Santa Croce: a major church in
Florence, several of whose chapels have fresco’s by Giotto (1267-1337)
depicting the life of St. Francis.
184.1 Fra Angelico’s brother…: Fra Angelico
(c.1387-1455), Italian Renaissance painter and Dominican friar, who for many
years lived at the convent of San Marco, where he decorated the cells of the
friars and other walls with numerous frescos.
185.9 San Miniato: the church of San
Miniato al Monte, in the hills south of the Arno River offering a splendid view
of Florence.
185.14 Masaccio: (1401-1428?), Florentine painter, whose
most famous works are frescos in the Brancacci Chapel of the Santa Maria del
Carmine located on the south side of the Arno.
185.28 the Fall / Before / the Decline…: alluding to Edward
Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (see quotation at
186.18 and note at 187.12).
186.8 Forum: the Roman Forum; there
are several churches built on the site of the ruins, which were excavated in
the 19th century.
186.18 Henry / qualmishly / shy…: Henry Adams, whose The
Education of Henry Adams is being evoked here; from Chap. VI: Rome (1859-1860):
“Rome could not be
fitted into an orderly, middle-class, Bostonian, systematic scheme of
evolution. No law of progress applied to it. Not even time-sequences—the last
refuge of helpless historians—had value for it. The Forum no more led to the
Vatican than the Vatican to the Forum. Rienzi, Garibaldi, Tiberius Gracchus,
Aurelian might be mixed up in any relation of time, along with a thousand more,
and never lead to a sequence. The great word Evolution had not yet, in 1860,
made a new religion of history, but the old religion had preached the same
doctrine for a thousand years without finding in the entire history of Rome
anything but flat contradiction.
Of course both priests
and evolutionists bitterly denied this heresy, but what they affirmed or denied
in 1860 had very little importance indeed for 1960. Anarchy lost no ground
meanwhile. The problem became only the more fascinating. Probably it was more
vital in May, 1860, than it had been in October, 1764, when the idea of writing
the Decline and Fall of the city first started to the mind of Gibbon, ‘in the
close of the evening, as I sat musing in the Church of the Zoccolanti or
Franciscan Friars, while they were singing Vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, on
the ruins of the Capitol.’ Murray’s Handbook had the grace to quote this
passage from Gibbon’s Autobiography, which led Adams more than once to sit at
sunset on the steps of the Church of Santa Maria di Ara Coeli, curiously
wondering that not an inch had been gained by Gibbon, —or all the historians
since, —towards explaining the Fall. The mystery remained unsolved; the charm
remained intact. Two great experiments of western civilisation had left there
the chief monuments of their failure, and nothing proved that the city might
not still survive to express the failure of a third.
The young man had no
idea what he was doing. The thought of posing for a Gibbon never entered his
mind. He was a tourist, even to the depths of his sub-consciousness, and it was
well for him that he should be nothing else, for even the greatest of men
cannot sit with dignity, ‘in the close of evening, among the ruins of the
Capitol,’ unless they have something quite original to say about it. Tacitus
could do it; so could Michael Angelo; and so, at a pinch, could Gibbon, though
in figure hardly heroic; but, in sum, none of them could say very much more
than the tourist, who went on repeating to himself the eternal question:
—Why! Why!! Why!!!—as his neighbor, the blind beggar, might do, sitting next
him, on the church steps. No one ever had answered the question to the
satisfaction of any one else; yet every one who had either head or heart, felt
that sooner or later he must make up his mind what answer to accept. Substitute
the word America for the word Rome, and the question became personal.”
186.21 Chaim / (life): as LZ indicates, a
Heb. name meaning life.
186.26 Adam / (earth): the Heb. etymology of
Adam is contentious and most often taken to mean man or human, but of earth or
earth-born is another strong candidate. Evidently LZ is alluding to Henry
Adams’ anti-Semitism in this passage.
187.8 repeating / Like his neighbor…: see quotation at
186.18.
187.12 Ara Coeli / Altar of Heaven: the church of Santa
Maria d’Aracoeli stands on Capitol Hill in Rome overlooking the Forum and
Palatine. See quotation above at 186.18 where Henry Adams gives an account of
sitting on the steps of the church, which evokes the epiphanic moment when
Edward Gibbon conceived his great history; the Santa Maria d’Aracoeli is on the
site of the Temple of Jupiter, which supposedly is also the site where the
Sibyl of the Tiber announced the coming of Christ to Emperor Augustus.
Throughout The Education, Adams repeatedly mentions the Ara Coeli, or more precisely
this early visit on the steps, as an image of the protagonist contemplating the
ruins and ultimate incoherence of history.
187.17 column of / Trajan: located in the Roman
Forum.
187.22 Victoria / & Albert: major London museum
specializing in applied and decorative arts, which includes a full-scale
plaster copy of Trajan’s Column in two pieces.
188.5 Pantheon’s dome…: the great imitation
Greek temple in Rome. “Coffers” here refers to sunken square panels decorating
the interior of the temple’s dome.
188.18 Christians / in the catacombs…: catacombs of the
early Christians in Rome, which were often decorated with depictions of Christ
as the Good Shepherd (188.27); see “A”-12.185.23.
189.12 baths of Diocletian: largest of the public
bath complexes in Imperial Rome; part of the National Museum of Rome is now
housed in its remains. In Bottom LZ also indicates his appreciation of the
“Native Roman sculpture, tile, and wall-painting” (184) he saw at the Baths of
Diocetian and elsewhere in Rome.
189.17 Farnesina / stuccoes…: Roman wall stuccoes
depicting idyllic scenes, which were excavated from beneath the Renaissance
Villa Farnesina on the outskirts of Rome; the stuccoes are in the National
Museum of Rome.
189.24 Livia’s / Villa Ad Gallinas: located in northern
Rome, this villa belonged to Emperor Augustus’ consort Livia Drusilla. The
villa’s famous garden frescos, however, were moved to the National Museum of
Rome.
190.15 San Vitale: the major Byzantine church in Ravenna,
contains remarkable mosaics.
190.23 Galla Placidia: (c. 390-450) daughter
of Roman Emperor Theodorius I, wife of the Emperor Constantius and mother of
Emperor Valentinian III, but here the primary reference is to her famous
Byzantine-style mausoleum near San Vitale in Ravenna. LZ’s “the gold that
shines / in the dark” echoes EP’s “Gold fades in the gloom, / Under the
blue-black roof, Placidia’s” (Canto 20/98; see also Canto 11/51: “In the gloom,
the gold gathers the light against it”).
191.5 Bell Tower / in Venice…: on the central
square, Piazza San Marco, near the basilica (191.14).
192.13 Banda Municipale: It. municipal (music)
band.
192.14 Boccherini’s / “Menuetto”: Luigi Boccherini
(1743-1805), Italian composer and virtuoso cellist, best known for a minuet
from one of his string quartets.
192.31 Jesu Lavoratore…: It. Working Jesus.
Apparently this is the church, Gesu lavoratore, in Marghera, on the
mainland immediately opposite Venice.
193.1 The faded / fresco / in San Zeno / of Verona: San Zeno is the major
Romanesque church of Verona. The fresco is also mentioned in Bottom: “where the fresco
says, tho paint fades, there are leaves unclouded by thought” (184). The statue
of San Zeno (193.18f) is in the tympanum over the main doorway, whose doors are
decorated with square panels of bronze reliefs depicting biblical scenes, which
LZ here compares with Chinese (Han) style. This church and particularly its
doors was a favorite of EP and is mentioned frequently in the Cantos (e.g. 91/614).
193.28 Ghiberti’s gates: the doors of the
Baptistry in Florence created by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455), which were
dubbed by Michelangelo the “Gates of Paradise.”
194.1 Montecchio…: Montecchio Maggiore
is a town not far from Verona where the rival families depicted in
Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the “star-cross’d” lovers, each had castles.
194.15 Giulietta’s Tomb: located in a cloister
in Verona next to the church where Romeo and Juliet were married.
194.32 Adige: river flowing through Verona.
195.1 Roman theatre: the theatre, as opposed
to the Roman arena, is just across the Adige from the main center of the city.
195.6 Gens Valeria: L. family or clan of
Valeria.
195.8 Catullus: Gaius Valerius
Catullus (c.84-c.54 BC), Roman poet from Verona. LZ translated one of his poems
in 1939 (see CSP 88-89) and would shortly begin homophonically translating his
entire works with CZ.
195.9 Sirmio: Catullus owned a villa
at Sirmio on Lake Gardia near Verona, about which he wrote a famous poem (Carmina 31), quoted at 195.11.
Another of EP’s sacred places; see Cantos 76/458, 78/478.
195.11 o Lydiae lacus: L. o Lydian lake; from
Catullus, Carmina 31 about Sirmio.
195.27 Milano’s Sforzesco: the Castello
Sforzesco, the large fortress and residence of the Sforza Dukes of Milan.
According to Corman, the “One work of art / to a room” in the Castello museum
is Micheangelo’s Rondanini Pietá (“Love—In These Words” 52).
195.31 Luini: Bernardino Luini (1480-1532), Milanese
painter, follower of Leonardo da Vinci. LZ mentions Luini in “Poem beginning
‘The’,” echoing the artist’s appearance in EP’s “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley,” where
he appears as an exemplar of a refined but limited artist.
196.8 Pilatus: mountain overlooking
Lucerne, Switzerland.
196.20 Berne: capital of Switzerland built on the Aare
River, which retains an extensive medieval section.
198.12 Colorado’s Red Rocks: as LZ says, a natural
amphitheatre outside Denver created from two red sandstone monoliths called
Ship Rock and Creation Rock.
