The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 2: Contemporary Poetry<\/a>![\"\"](\"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=thesheivari-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0393977927\")
<\/i>, edited by Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair<\/p>\nI had not heard of Lorine Niedecker, until this past January, when I took the Norton Anthology out to Block Island with me, in the hopes that it would help me get back to reading again. Something big and varied, that wouldn’t require a ton of concentration. Flip through it from time to time, read the poems, read the intros … It did help me get back to reading. And it was fun to re-read things like “The Waste Land” and some of Pound’s Cantos, things I know well – but haven’t read in their entirety in a long time. And somehow, I came across Lorine Niedecker, who is anthologized. There is a brief introductory note for her – not a long one, since she lived in the same place her entire life – not many “events” to speak of – but her poems are incredible.<\/p>\n
\n![\"lorine.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/lorine.jpg\")
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\nI am so glad I encountered her. She was born in 1903 in Wisconsin and spent her whole life on Black Hawk Island. She lived with her parents, and took care of them when they became elderly. She went to college briefly. She had many jobs, some menial, some not. Somewhere along in here, she started writing poetry. In 1931, she read Louis Zukofsky’s “Objectivist” issue of Poetry<\/i> magazine, and traveled to New York to meet him. They ended up carrying on a long correspondence. The “Objectivists” wanted to create poems that were not sentimental, or ornamental – simple, clean, clear. Lorine Niedecker is a classic example of an Objectivist poet. Her poems have no “needless words”, they almost feel like haikus: miniature little sketches – and the way she used indentation and spaces makes them unmistakably hers.<\/p>\n
She was obviously a well-read curious intellectual woman, and her poems are not about the flowers, and the leaves, and her emotions. She wrote poems about Darwin, the Chinese poet Li Po, the North American explorers – and in this way, she is an heir of Ezra Pound, whose poems have a collage effect, full of references to existing material.<\/p>\n
While I was out on Block Island, I read all of her work anthologized – the first one being her long poem on Thomas Jefferson (bestill my heart) – and now I’m a fan forever. She’s also not for dummies. She expects people to be familiar with the events of his life (or Darwin’s life, or whoever), and the references come fast and furious. She doesn’t slow down for morons. There are footnotes in the Norton Anthology, and with Niedecker, at times, you really need them. But don’t let them slow you down. Keep going. Niedecker waits for no one.<\/p>\n
Niedecker uses quotes and fragments from the letters of Thomas Jefferson in order to create the poem (if you’ve read his letters, you’ll recognize a lot of this).<\/p>\n
I think it’s an extraordinary poem.<\/p>\n
\nThomas Jefferson<\/b><\/big><\/p>\n
I
\nMy wife is ill!
\nAnd I sit
\nwaiting
\nfor a quorum<\/p>\n
II
\nFast ride
\nhis horse collapsed
\nNow he saddled walked<\/p>\n
Borrowed a farmer’\u0080\u0099s
\nunbroken colt
\nTo Richmond<\/p>\n
Richmond How stop
\nArnold’s redcoats
\nthere<\/p>\n
III
\nElk Hill destroyed\u00e2\u0080\u0094
\nCornwallis
\ncarried off 30 slaves<\/p>\n
Jefferson:
\nWere it to give them freedom
\nhe\u00e2\u0080\u0099d have done right<\/p>\n
IV
\nLatin and Greek
\nmy tools
\nto understand
\nhumanity<\/p>\n
I rode horse
\naway from a monarch
\nto an enchanting
\nphilosophy<\/p>\n
V
\nThe South of France<\/p>\n
Roman temple
\n\u0080\u009csimple and sublime<\/p>\n
Maria Cosway
\nharpist
\non his mind<\/p>\n
white column
\nand arch<\/p>\n
VI
\nTo daughter Patsy: Read\u00e2\u0080\u0094
\nread Livy<\/p>\n
No person full of work
\nwas ever hysterical<\/p>\n
Know music, history
\ndancing<\/p>\n
(I calculate 14 to 1
\nin marriage
\nshe will draw
\na blockhead)<\/p>\n
Science also
\nPatsy<\/p>\n
VII
\nAgreed with Adams:
\nsend spermaceti oil to Portugal
\nfor their church candles<\/p>\n
(light enough to banish mysteries?:
\nthree are one and one is three
\nand yet the one not three
\nand the three not one)<\/p>\n
and send slat fish
\nU.S. salt fish preferred
\nabove all other<\/p>\n
VIII
\nJefferson of Patrick Henry
\nbackwoods fiddler statesman:<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u0080\u009cHe spoke as Homer wrote\u00e2\u0080\u009d
\nHenry eyed our minister at Paris\u00e2\u0080\u0094<\/p>\n
the Bill of Rights hassle\u00e2\u0080\u0094
\nhe remembers . . .<\/p>\n
in splendor and dissipation
\nhe thinks yet of bills of rights\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n
IX
\nTrue, French frills and lace
\nfor Jefferson, sword and belt<\/p>\n
but follow the Court to Fontainebleau
\nhe could not<\/p>\n
house rent would have left him
\nnothing to eat<\/p>\n
. . .<\/p>\n
He bowed to everyone he met
\nand talked with arms folded<\/p>\n
He could be trimmed
\nby a two-month migraine<\/p>\n
and yet
\nstand up<\/p>\n
X
\nDear Polly:
\nI said No no frost<\/p>\n
in Virginia\u00e2\u0080\u0094the strawberries
\nwere safe<\/p>\n
I’d have heard \u0080\u0094I’m in that kind
\nof correspondence<\/p>\n
with a young daughter
\nif they were not<\/p>\n
Now I must retract
\nI shrink from it<\/p>\n
XI
\nPolitical honors
\n\u00e2\u0080\u009csplendid torments\u00e2\u0080\u009d
\n\u00e2\u0080\u009cIf one could establish
\nan absolute power
\nof silence over oneself\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n
When I set out for Monticello
\n(my grandchildren
\nwill they know me?)<\/p>\n
How are my young
\nchestnut trees\u00e2\u0080\u0094<\/p>\n
XII
\nHamilton and the bankers
\nwould make my country Carthage<\/p>\n
I am abandoning the rich\u00e2\u0080\u0094
\ntheir dinner parties\u00e2\u0080\u0094<\/p>\n
I shall eat my simlins
\nwith the class of science<\/p>\n
or not at all
\nNext year the last of labors<\/p>\n
among conflicting parties
\nThen my family<\/p>\n
we shall sow our cabbages
\ntogether<\/p>\n
XIII
\nDelicious flower
\nof the acacia<\/p>\n
or rather<\/p>\n
Mimosa Nilotica
\nfrom Mr. Lomax<\/p>\n
XIV
\nPolly Jefferson, 8, had crossed
\nto father and sister in Paris<\/p>\n
by way of London\u00e2\u0080\u0094Abigail
\nembraced her\u00e2\u0080\u0094Adams said<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u0080\u009cin all my life I never saw
\nmore charming child\u00e2\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n
Death of Polly, 25,
\nMonticello<\/p>\n
XV
\nMy harpsichord
\nmy alabaster vase
\nand bridle bit
\nbound for Alexandria
\nVirginia<\/p>\n
The good sea weather
\nof retirement
\nThe drift and suck
\nand die-down of life
\nbut there is land<\/p>\n
XVI
\nThese were my passions:
\nMonticello and the villa-temples
\nI passed on to carpenters
\nbricklayers what I knew<\/p>\n
and to an Italian sculptor
\nhow to turn a volute
\non a pillar<\/p>\n
You may approach the campus rotunda
\nfrom lower to upper terrace
\nCicero had levels<\/p>\n
XVII
\nJohn Adams\u00e2\u0080\u0099 eyes
\ndimming
\nTom Jefferson\u00e2\u0080\u0099s rheumatism
\ncantering<\/p>\n
XVIII
\nAh soon must Monticello be lost
\nto debts
\nand Jefferson himself
\nto death<\/p>\n
XIX
\nMind leaving, let body leave
\nLet dome live, spherical dome
\nand colonnade<\/p>\n
Martha (Patsy) stay
\nThe Committee of Safety
\nmust be warned\u0080\u009d<\/p>\n
Stay youth\u00e2\u0080\u0094Anne and Ellen
\nall my books, the bantams
\nand the seeds of the senega root<\/p>\n
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Daily Book Excerpt: Poetry<\/p>\n