The Iowa Review
Volume 17
Issue 1 Winter
Article 18
1987
Making Acquaintance: Second Hand Notes on
James Wright
Martin D. Lammon
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Lammon, Martin D.. "Making Acquaintance: Second Hand Notes on James Wright." The Iowa Review 17.1 (1987): 55-71. Web.
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Second Hand Notes
Making Acquaintance:
On
Martin
James Wright
D. Lammon
For if you could only listen,
I would tell you something,
Something human.
?James Wright
1.
IWAS
TWENTY-ONE
YEARS OLD
and a senior in college when
died. At Wittenberg
James Wright
University,
World
the
Second
ventured
War,
beyond
scarcely
the curriculum
Ohio,
it did, at the
and when
turned to
the syllabus generally
of some young faculty member,
Plath, Jarrell, Sexton, Roethke.
Berryman,
poets already dead: Lowell,
one knew where
to look, but it
some
was
if
There
encouragement
always
was
I knew
As an aspiring writer,
however,
peripheral and unsanctioned.
insistence
a little ofWright's work, although I knew little about theman, which
didn't much
concern me.
Itwas likely that Iwas the first atmy small school to hear ofWright's
an event whose
I could respect, but could not feel.
untimeliness
dying,
a man who had studied with
at Ken
But being acquainted with
Wright
career
an
to
make a
who had revoked
academic and literary
yon College,
more
I was the first to tell him of
tolerable living as a technical writer,
fact.
weeks
after
the
death, many
By his reaction?incredulous,
Wright's
had meant
nostalgic ?I sensed for the first time what Wright
despondent,
to many
people.
an
Years have elapsed now, and at every turn it seems that I encounter
ever
to
other tribute
James Wright.
every journal that
Nearly
published
his work
with
has devoted
poets,
me
an issue to
Wright's
accomplishments.
and older, who have either confessed
younger
influence
Wright's
his friends
watched
upon
them.
I have
read elegies
In the spring of 1981,
cry openly.
in
of Martins
hometown
begun
Wright's
first of these, where Robert Bly was at times vexed,
tion was
I have
talked
or reiterated
to
Wright,
an annual
to
I have
celebra
I attended
the
Ferry.
at times
It
distraught.
Dave Smith read from
too soon for him, this
public commemoration.
to his new edition of essays on
the introduction
The Pure Clear
Wright,
to
came
Martins
Word. Two years later, Donald Hall
Ferry, spoke pas
was
55
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quietly, and recalled how at his hospital bed Wright
sionately, eloquently,
over
final
unable to speak, he began a note
his
had handed
manuscripts;
. . . "Don,
"to eat ice cream from a tray."
I am dying," paused, finished,
2.
In the summer
of 1983,
I had
the opportunity
to examine
a handful
of
texts thatWright had used during his years atMacalester College (most of
the books had been acquired between 1960 and 1964). The Ohio Univer
the texts in 1980?paper
had purchased
Special Collections
had taught from, while others sug
many of which Wright
out
to
to uncover
set
I
private use?and
study them, hoping
sity Library's
backs mostly,
gested
useful
amore
information
for Peter
Stitt, Wright's
authorized
After
biographer.
an investment of many hours and a fistful of rolled nickels with which to
photocopy
summarize
pertinent
Wright's
a document
I began preparing
that would
pages,
a diverse
these books,
involvement
with
quite
group, ranging from the practical (Walter Allen's The English Novel) to
the idiosyncratic (Philip K. Hitti's The Arabs). I finished the summary,
mailed
it off to Stitt,
before
I could
return
then set aside the wprk.
a year would
Nearly
elapse
to this
study.
of the fullness ofWright's
I remain ignorant
life, but I have a sense now
the man, a teacher and critic aswell as a poet. These four
of James Wright
teen books represent only a small part of his life, but as I review the an
notations
and underlined
I find a
reread the sections indicated,
passages,
a
romantic
fallible and vulnerable:
and passionate,
is thoughtful
poet who
and a classicist, yet aman whose mind and heart do not insist perpetually
in order to effect an or
but must
upon extremes,
extremity
experience
dinary balance.
3.
are
not what
thinking about,
people
a
in
from
tattered
"The Teacher,"
underlines
copy of
they say," Wright
on
The Portable Sherwood Anderson. Kate Swift's advice to George Willard
"The
thing
becoming
promising
portrait
to learn is to know what
a writer
is a climactic
point in the evolution
and Sherwood
Anderson's
young
story-teller
inWinesburg,
Ohio. It is easy to imagine Wright
of George,
romantic
reading
the
self
the ad
vice, impelled by it to reach for his pen lying on the tablebeside his reading
the passage
chair, and marking
in his own work:
dent
56
in blue
ink, reinforcing
wisdom
clearly evi
In the Shreve High football stadium,
I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville,
And
gray
in the blast
faces of Negroes
furnace
And the ruptured night watchman ofWheeling
at Benwood,
Steel,
of Heroes.
Dreaming
All
the proud
Their women
fathers
cluck
are ashamed
to go home.
like starved pullets,
Dying for love.
from "Autumn
Begins
inMartins
Ferry, Ohio"
to a writer,
and Wright
seeks what
good advice
lie behind the faces of "Polacks, Negroes
and night watchmen,"
thoughts
of "proud fathers ashamed to go home." But it is equally
the confusion
to the student of literature,
at a time
good advice
especially
(the early six
a teacher was
more often interested in clear and im
when
becoming
ties)
Kate
Swift's words
are
than in a student's ability to recall facts and passages
aginative
thinking
in The Portable Sherwood Anderson
annotations
from a text. Wright's
sug
are
a
often
teacher's
suited
for
gests
preparation;
questions
they
easily
classroom
discussion,
designed
to make
a student
learn what
characters
are
In "Hands,"
extension Anderson)
the story of
thinking.
(and by
nervous
ever
notes "Fear
and
Biddlebaum,
Wing
Wright
frightened
is twisted?" Wright
and then asks, "Who
asks
homosexuality,"
to
a
in
order that they may understand
students
large question
ponder
in Anderson's
the grotesque
Ohio,
Winesburg,
in
it. Further evidence that Wright
themselves present
themselves
find
the
of
his
for
that they may
used the text
in the classroom
of characters' names,
is his underlining
sometimes
his
a
a
to
in
students
story, indicating
only presence
probable effort
help his
as
enter
exit
those
characters
and
life.
George Willard's
straight,
they
keep
4.
Itwould
theme
in the
be plausible to suggest thatWright,
too, was a participant
as its observer. Conflict
as well
and contrast,
of the grotesque,
especially
Wright's
character.
in large part the subjects of
comprise
the human
that define, rather than distract,
anomalies
poetry,
a
interest in "Who is twisted?" reflects his
As
teacher, Wright's
of
the mind
and
soul,
57
own
as a poet
preeminently
as well as his own twisted
interests
of others,
as a teacher,
Wright's
in conflict, both intellectually
tellect is an ideal description
nal. And
concerned
the twisted
with
both
experience,
preparation displays
and passionately motivated.
InWalter Allen's The EnglishNovel, Wright
/January 10,1962"
"Minneapolis
some
voice of the body,
by
sympathetic
"31? below zero." Then on two scraps
twenty years, Wright
carefully outlines
in
dutifully notes the acquisi
?then
below,
perhaps compelled
the day's temperature:
over
of paper, now yellowed
by
in
and
the
numbers
page
subjects
that Wright
may
passages
(evidence
even
remark
amind
A passionate
he includes
certain
cross-referencing
text
in
But when
the classroom).
Allen
have used the
nor
Eliot's
has
neither
wit,"
grace
prose
"George
Wright
text,
degree
the critic.
of Wright
tion?
and exter
internal
to some
natures
and simply
notes
someone
brush
way
Lawrence's
"nonsense,"
dismissing
away an insect. When
might
of characterization,
method
ters rather than using actions to define
mally and incisively: "L's method
character himself does not express
probing
Allen's
Allen
remarks
that
underlines
the
conclusion
the
discusses
D. H.
of his charac
the minds
for
notes, quite
Wright
of characterizing
the emotion which
emotions,
the
com
thru external gesture." Wright's
as a teacher's note, but also because much of his own
is intriguing
In "Autumn Begins
InMartins
the same method.
follows
Ferry,
writing
as
as
own
the
makes
clear
his
well
characters
character,
Ohio," Wright
an act of his own mind:
"I think of . . .
inhabit Martins
who
Ferry, by
. . . the
. . . ." Yet
gray faces of Negroes
ruptured night watchman
more
to
is
criticism
often passionate
Allen's
than for
response
Wright's
ment
of Thomas
mal. Allen writes
Hardy
(whose Jude
theObscure
is especially
of
interest toWright):
Yet
the true index
tragic novelist
have ultimately
to the Greek
Wright
yet his
Wright
stature
is that he is almost
and that when
to do so in relation
to
we
Shakespeare
consider
the only
him we
andWebster
and
dramatists.
it: "Yes: and
and writes below
and stars this passage,
man who
a
is
dreams
hero
great dreams!"
working-class
tragic
must apply his own life to what he reads, to what he creates: the
"ruptured
58
of Hardy's
literature
in our
underlines
night watchman"
is "Dreaming
of heroes."
In Allen's book, Wright
is primarily interested in Charlotte Bront?,
In The Great Tradition,
and Lawrence.
George Eliot, Hardy,
Thackeray,
a
F.
of
R.
book
is again interested
in
similar
Leavis,
scope, Wright
by
and Hardy,
but also in Henry
Bront?,
Eliot,
James and Jane Austen.
Although Wright
did not date his acquisition of the book, his comments
use of the two critical
suggest his contemporary
reasonably
I also find it significant
that Wright's
include such
preparations
as
as
some
to
want
as a
much
secondary materials;
might
perceive Wright
as
an
and sympathetic writer,
thinker,
instinctive,
spontaneous
insightful,
there is an academic side to him that we often choose not to consider. He
and interests
texts.
was,
of course,
a Ph.D.,
who
a teacher of literature,Wright
to know
what
response
is glaringly
to that criticism
a dissertation
wrote
on Charles Dickens.
As
obviously believed itwas his responsibility
to say about the literature,
even if his
a
is often personal and negative.
Such
response,
in the Leavis book. As The Great Tradition unfolds,
the criticism
had
apparent
becomes
increasingly
and finally incensed, with Leavis'
intolerant,
Wright
a
rises
remarks. Wright's
belligerence
suggesting
steadily, incrementally,
short duration,
yet a further indication of Wright's
reading of relatively
sense of discipline and responsibility, plodding through a book he surely
despised.
Early
on in his
text, Leavis
enlists
work.
deprecate
the aid of Henry James in order to
and thoughtful,
makes
the an
calm
Hardy's
Wright,
+ Leavis?
"the trouble is that James?
notation,
reject Hardy for what he
to what he is." On the next page,
is not, and pay no attention
Wright
to
A
reinforces
his observation,
In
Of
"Trilling
referring
Gathering
into
further
"Leavis's
for
the
cir
for
hatred
Fugitives"
insight
Bloomsbury
.
.
one
." Elsewhere,
Leavis claims that Jane Austen
cle
is
of four major
notes
and
Bronte's
later
Charlotte
for Austen
disdain
English novelists,
(in
had marked Bronte's
famous assessment disparaging
text, Wright
Leavis
Bronte's
calls
hint
response "significant,"
Austen).
surreptitiously
to which
it: cf.
ing at her ingenuousness,
Wright
replies: "oh, Goddamn
Allen's
Ordeal by Parenthesis, [in]Audit, I, 3 (Spring, I960)." Here Wright's
anger is tempered by his intellect, his passion both checked and supported
not
by his academic background.
(The article
only offers another instance
of Wright's
critical awareness,
but also helps to date his acquisition
of
same
?as most of
Leavis' text, probably of the
general period?1960-1964
the other
books
under
discussion.)
Wright's
irritation
mounts;
Leavis
59
in ways already suggested
..."
("Hardy's detriment,
on
"but not demonstrated");
Eliot,
George
quips,
us in these
seems to me, she is a
it
"For
Leavis comments
days,
vacuously,
one.
..."
and
and a suggestive
wholesome
author,
fortifying
peculiarly
again attacks Hardy
to which Wright
I be go to
and notes,
circles "wholesome"
"Well,
frustrated,
Wright,
occurs on the
hell!" Wright's
climactic
response
page of
concluding
in
"But what achievement
Leavis' chapter on Henry James. Leavis writes,
as a
serious art addressed to the adult
the art of fiction?fiction
completely
we
mind?can
recalling what
(more
against
as
to in
surpassing his?" Wright,
English
probably
about Bront?
and Hardy,
lashes out
had suggested
aw
"I must
than James, I believe):
say I'm getting
point
Leavis
Leavis
fully tired of being bullied by all the talk of James as the 'greatest novelist'
It is simply oneupmanship.
is both
Question-begging
emo
at first
Here isWright
sounding
bitterly
for the 'adult mind.'
dishonest
and confusing."
tional, even physically frustrated ("awfully tired of being bullied"), and
then intellectually controlled, incisive ("Question-begging is both dis
honest
know
and confusing").
We
should
know
this ambivalence
if we
are to
James Wright.
5.
Wright
prose
the teacher,
fiction.
Dickens,
the academic,
I mentioned
Earlier,
an author who
Smith's
(see Dave
discusses his great
to
special
Wright
in The Pure Clear Word,
remained
interview
seem very much
interested
doctoral
dissertation
Wright's
would
in
on
his life
throughout
in which Wright
on the influence of prose upon his
for prose;
is a poetry that is consecutive
says: "What I hope to write
poetry, Wright
and clear"). In a copy of Dickens'
Oliver Twist, that Wright
acquired in
a text that
annotations
formalistic
suggest
February of 1962, copious,
one
in
the novel, however,
annotation
significant
Wright
taught. Early
fondness
reveals Wright's
his
with Dickens'
prose as it influences
relationship
a crowd pursues Oliver
In a scene where
him for the
poetry.
(mistaking
real culprit,
the Artful
remarks
thief," Wright
on the cry
'Stop Thief!'"
observation:
60
and cries out,
"Stop
intermittently,
Dodger),
the passage and notes above it, "D's prose poem
An excerpt from the passage supports Wright's
"Stop thief! Stop thief!" There is a magic
tradesman
his wagon;
. . .
his tray; the baker his basket.
Away
down
the but
they run,
helter-skelter,
tearing,
yelling,
slap-dash:
as
turn
the passengers
the
corners,
they
and astonishing
the fowls: and streets, squares,
pell-mell,
down
knocking
the dogs,
re-echo with
Although
and the car-man
leaves his counter,
cher throws
in the sound. The
screaming,
rousing up
and courts,
the sound.
certainly
Wright
was
aware
of prose
poems
(no doubt
in
fluenced by Robert Bly), it is interesting that he does not have such a
poem
as he
preferred
(or "prose pieces"
terview) until much
is often
however,
to call them?cf.
Dave
Smith's
in
later in his published work. A prose quality,
evident
in poems
from
The Branch Will
(Wright's third book, published in 1963, on which
Not
Break
I have reliedmost
to
often here, as it is contemporary
Wright's
reading most of the texts I
am
The beginning
of "Stages on a Journey Westward"
offers
discussing).
a
good example:
I began inOhio.
I still dream of home.
enormous
Near Mansfield,
dobbins enter dark barns in autumn,
can be
can munch
little apples,
lazy, where
they
they
Or sleep long.
Where
Later,
in a piece
such as "The Secret of Light (from To A Blossoming Pear
uses prose more
to
openly. But here he realizes his "hope
that is consecutive
and clear." The cohesion of the passage
Tree), Wright
a poetry
write
derives in part from
equally
prosy
its prose effects: the short, flat, prose
but more
langorous
longer lines.
sentences;
the
6.
The
one hardbound
text in this collection
isOscar Williams'
thology, A Little Treasury ofModern Poetry.Wright
tions,
the first, on the inside front
2414 Como
Ave.
an
in blue
ink: "James A. Wright/
1958." Wright,
14, Minn./Sept.,
cover,
S.E./Minneapolis
infamous
includes two inscrip
however, acquired the book much earlier than this. On the first blank
page,
amuch
younger Wright
recorded,
in pencil:
"Pvt. James A. Wright
61
152 392 00." Below, inblue ink, probably added at the time of the later in
to
it from the original acquistion,
is the date,
scription in order
distinguish
in parenthesis:
would
have
used
the
then,
"(1946)." Wright
anthology,
forces there; he would
while
stationed in Japan as part of the occupational
numerous
marked
have been 19 or 20. In the table of contents, Wright
poems (in pencil),
he admired. The
and all indications
are that these were
is extensive
list of poets
and eclectic,
poems
ranging
and poets
from the
familiar
Eliot, Frost, Auden, Crane, Yeats,
Hardy,
(Hopkins, Housman,
to the less durable
and Stevens)
Alex Comfort,
Gene
(Isaac Rosenberg,
no
all of whom,
doubt appealed
and John Betjeman),
however,
Derwood,
to the younger Wright.
This appeal, more often than not, is sentimental.
notes with
A good example is George Barker's "Epistle I," which Wright
a
stanza.
and
"marvelous"
beside
the
final
checkmark,
stamps
prominent
Here are the first and last stanzas of the poem:
a monster
I go
of mourning
wherever
Meeting
me
crosses
at
Who
and evening also,
morning
are you miserable
I ask and he murmurs
For whom
I am miserable
man:
for innumerable
for him
at tin stars;
gazing
through Woolworth's
Imourn
the maternal
future tense, Time's mother,
also her,
Who
has him in her lap, and Imourn
scars.
Time whose
dial face flashes with
Who
wanders
* * *
So close over
the chapter
of my
birth,
Blessed by distress, baptized by dearth.
I swung myself
How
from
the tree's bough
Demonstrating death inmy gay play:
the germ of the sperm of this ghost like a worm
from the cold comfort of never enough.
How
I caught
How by being miserable for myself I began,
And
now
Sentiment
62
for the mass
need not be romantic,
The
ending.
the reader's
am miserable
romance
of man.
need not be fitted with
a
happy
and
of
the
Barker's
poem appeal to
images
rhymes
language,
must
and
have impelled Private Wright's
sentimentality
sym
can be honest,
which Wright
however,
pathy. Sentiments
recognized.
His prosy style mentioned
above is one way he made effective poems out
as Barker's.
verse as
In another
of sentiment, while
avoiding
heavy-handed
poem ("For the One Who Would
Delmore
poem
Take Man's Life in His Hands," by
demonstrates
Schwartz), Wright
a debt to Yeats, but
is derivative, with
a keener
lyrically
eye and ear. The
it is fine:
sit on bayonets,
Nor can you eat among the dead.
When
all are killed, you are alone,
cannot
You
A vacuum
comes where
hate has fed.
(The underlining isWright's.) Again, PrivateWright
encounters a poem
awell
to his sentiment,
but here he better recognizes
appeal
crafted line, more
subtle in its sounds and syntax. In 1946 Japan, Wright
. . .where
the "vacuum
confronted
head-on
hate has fed," a vacuum
that would
Wright would find throughout his adult life andwould
try to fill.
7.
sentiment
The
in Barker's
for myself
ing miserable
not diminish
man"?did
that appealed toWright?"How
by be
now am miserable
I began,/And
for the mass of
over fifteen years; rather, it was refined. Social
poem
or
level than "political
involvement"
personal
is at the heart of much ofWright's
y
thinking. Ortega
must have
Masses
it
the
reflects
this
and
thinking,
of
at a more
responsibility
"good citizenship"
Gasset's The Revolt
influenced Wright's
are made available
own work.
Again
to us here
by Wright's
of honesty
the peculiar ambiguities
in the text. Coming
annotations
a
in Allen's The
background, Wright
working-class
(commenting
not surprise us when
notes that Hardy's
he
hero is a
does
English Novel)
man who
In The Revolt
dreams great dreams!"
"working-class
of the
from
man" inmind as
has this same "working-class
Masses, Wright
presumably
he studies Ortega
and notes beside the
y Gasset's notion of "select man,"
text (which he underlines), "The Noble Life described":
This is life lived as a discipline?the noble life.Nobility is defined by
on
not by
us?by
obligations,
rights. Noblesse
as
one
man
to order
"to live
likes is plebian; the noble
aspires
the demands
Oblige,
itmakes
and law (Goethe)."
63
finds a definition
Here, Wright
the ascent
Wright,
by
himself made.
Wright
for the poet's endeavor, characterized,
for
ascent
of the "working-class
is
which
the
man,"
is particularly
The passage from Goethe
interesting
poem in The BranchWill Not Break,
when readbeside lines fromWright's
"Three
Once
Stanzas
from Goethe":
a
now
despised,
despiser,
He kills his own life,
The
The
The
secret.
precious
self-seeker finds nothing.
is nearly
sentiment
Goethe's
the same as we
trace it from
Barker's
to
poem,
statement
and,
quoted by Ortega y Gasset and noted by Wright,
to
to the
see
of
sentiment
the
We
line.
finally,
Wright's
application
poetic
a
man who
of
the mingling
and classically motivated
is able
romantically
a
man
to balance his
and
whose
sentiment,
poetry
experience
conflicting
has matured
The
conflict
as he has matured.
inWright,
that makes
imperfection
human. Certainly
we
if perhaps
well-known,
at
mock
William
Duffy's
is not perfectly resolved, and it is this
to us,
valuable
especially
especially
however,
his poetry
can discover
this conflict
a too often
remarked
in the poetry,
poem as "Lying
in such a
in a Ham
now
Wright's
"I have wasted my life," ismade clearer in light
conclusion,
unforgettable
Gasset's
of Ortega
definitions
of "Mass Man"
and "Select Man,"
y
Farm
in Pine
Island, Minnesota."
underlined byWright:
man we are now
accustoms
[Mass Man]: But the
analyzing
not to
own to any
authority outside him. He
appeal from his
fied with himself exactly as he is. Ingenuously,
without
any
as the most natural
in
the
he
will
vain,
world,
being
thing
himself
is satis
need of
tend
to
consider and affirm as good everything he findswithin himself: opin
ions,
appetites,
preferences,
tastes.
the excellent man is
the select man,
[Select Man]: On the contrary
to
to some standard
urged by interior necessity,
appeal from himself
service he freely accepts.
superior to himself, whose
beyond himself,
64
to some
"to appeal from himself
is constantly
divided, wanting
Wright
even as he tends "to consider and affirm as
standard beyond himself,"
good
everything he findswithin himself." It is this conflict that surely prompts
Wright, as he indulges in his idle observations from the hammock at
William
two pines,"
to conclude,
"I have wasted my life." But these
"A field of sunlight between
bronze
butterfly,"
("the
to
of last year's horses"), which Wright
brings
"droppings
Duffy's
same observations
farm,
life by his (ingenuous?) participation in them, become a touchstone for
own
Wright's
wasted
aspirations.
sense of
the conflict, despite Wright's
Despite
a
in this hammock
includes
vitality beneath the
life, his experience
seeming laziness. In The Revolt of theMasses, Wright
to this experience,
scribbling
ticularly pertinent
"Vitalism
+the
alternative
stars a passage par
beside
the passage,
to pessimism":
...
in
in pure vitality,
the reality of history lies in biological
power,
what there is inman of cosmic energy, not identical with, but related
the beast, causes
to, the energy, which
agitates the sea, fecundates
the tree to flower and the star to shine.
"I have wasted my life," is the pessimism
conclusion,
against
Wright's
over
that can never be completely
his poetry labors, a pessimism
which
must
come
in the
the
but
that
its terminal position
poet
poem),
(thus
to pessimism,"
to check. "Vitalism + the alternative
strive
then, is
always
his
balances
which
the compromise
natures; it is the
conflicting
Wright
by
sense of failure,
vital energy that compels the poet, despite his encroaching
to make his poem,
that "causes the tree to flower and the star to shine."
8.
I suppose,
I have been seeking
and what,
just remarked,
to make
is
that
the force
these speculations,
compels the poet
throughout
his poem. Of course, no one may ascribe a single name to this force, just as
to iden
images
Ortega y Gasset could not, instead reaching for generative
What
I have
is very often sexual,
for James Wright,
tify "pure vitality." This vitality,
a
not
sense, but in a procreative, mythic,
integrative
simply in passionate
sense. The
is sexual, but its influence extends beyond
power"
"biological
the
the sea . . . causes...
simple sexual attraction and appetite (it "agitates
star to
shine.").
At
the same
time,
however
(again,
ambivalence),
the
65
is precisely
sexual attraction and appetite (it "fecundates
the beast,
interest in these matters
is evident in
the tree to flower"). Wright's
text from his Min
his poetry,
and is again complemented
by yet another
power
causes
nesota
years.
InNovember of 1962,Wright
a book
acquiredTheMeaning of theCreativeAct,
in 1914 by Nicolas Berdyaev. Wright's
origin, written
further his wide
range of literary interests, remarking
to say on Jakob Boehme,
Franz von Baader,
especially what Berdyaev has
F. Spiegelberg's
Practices of India, Nietzsche,
Freud, and Dante.
Spiritual
of the text, page references, presumably
records, at the beginning
Wright
notes
of Russian
even
indicate
and expresses his particular
interests in the
investigations,
text:
of androgynous
between
union,
"p. 202: clearest
explanation
on
men + women
in love"; "good
Nietzsche:
pp. 86-87.
p. 178: Franz
for his
future
von Baader
Franz
on married
love. Very
von
fine";
"Consult
library for anything by
on J. Boehme."
In Ber
any commentaries
Baader?especially
two
from
and Sex: Male
passages
dyaev's text,
chapter eight, "Creativity
are
un
and Female: Race and Personality,"
especially interesting. Wright
annotates
derlines
and
the first, which
focuses upon the ideas of Jakob
Boehme:
and Sophia is very pro
Jakob Boehme's
teaching of the androgyne
or
are
a
a
found. "You
maiden?but
Adam was both in one
youth
lost the virgin and in his lust he re
person. Out of his lust Adam
the woman.
ceived
should desire
with
great
But
to enter
the virgin
still awaits him, and if he only
into a new birth, she would
receive him again,
honour."
a
question mark after the quote, and notes at the bottom of
Wright
places
can be
the page, "Would
she, really? (Iwonder.)?"
uncertainty
Wright's
traced to his ambivalent
and sexual
nature, for he finds both androgyny
distinction equally prevalent. Two poems in The BranchWill Not Break
express
this dual prevalence:
a slender woman
lifts up the lovely shadow
now
of her face, and
she steps into the air, now she is gone
into the air.
Wholly,
I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breathe
Between
66
trees,
Or move.
I listen.
leans back
The wheat
toward
its own
darkness,
I lean toward mine.
And
from
"Beginning"
She gropes for
to
past backward,
the pillows of the sea.
The
to learn
she is going
it is that animals
Now
How
save time:
Can
a
season
They
sleep whole
and snow,
Of lamentation
Without
to weep.
bothering
from "American Wedding"
While
"Beginning"
would
somewhat
contradict
Boehme,
a
suggesting
between
and male
female
natures,
separateness
prototypical
its
the
union
of
"American Wedding,"
male
and
female
title, suggests
by
essences in the single pronoun,
"she." The "virgin" does not await man,
to "receive him again, with great honour,"
for she does not exist on earth,
distinct
or if she appears, "now she is
gone/Wholly,
hand, "Out of his lust" man did not lose
into the air." On
the virgin
and
the other
receive
the
but retained both:
woman,
"She gropes for/The
to/The
past backwards,
are at once
and
images
mystical
physical?again,
to find a balance between
natures?but
always
conflicting
of the sea." The
pillows
effort
Wright's
they are timeless (mythic), governed by a "history [that] lies in biological
a
Ortega y Gasset noted, rather than by
chronological
awhole
lamentation
and
season/Of
snow,/Without
sleep
as
power,"
"They
ing to
weep."
generally
Christian
is born
Christian
Boehme's
from
Christian
mysticism,
fundamentally
traditional Christian
philosophy,
divergent
sense of linear time: man
again. Wright
perspective,
although
retains the
falls from grace, is redeemed
in conflict over Boehme's
is no doubt
although
he
finds
much
value
history:
bother
by Christ,
generally
in Boehme's
mysticism.
67
to focus upon Boehme's
second passage of interest continues
in the "eternal Virgin."
the passage:
underlines
Again, Wright
The
terest
"But
the wisdom
of God
she is immaculate
Boehme's
doctrine
mystic
is the eternal Virgin,
rather than woman:
and stands as an image of God
and virtue
purity
to the
Trinity."
and likeness
as
of man
androgynous makes understand
never knew a
the absolute and perfect Man,
life did not realize the sacrament of marriage.
able why Jesus Christ,
woman
and in his own
note the resemblance
of "Jesus Christ,
(The reader may
to
y Gasset's "Select Man.") Here
Ortega
perfect Man,"
more
in conflict over Boehme's
conclusions.
Expressing
uncertainty,
in
notes:
Wright
"And
. . .Dante's
yet
the absolute
and
is
again Wright
his
earlier
fully
Beatrice
is not
only
'purity and virtue.' She's also (perhaps first of all)Dante's beloved. Still
. . .Boehme
was
a lover,
a husband,
+ a father?devoted
+ kind.
Ponder
this." Indeed,Wright must have pondered this carefully (ashe had the ap
for very often is the fe
parent paradox of "Mass Man" and "Select Man"),
in his poetry an image of "immaculate
male presence
purity and virtue,"
a sensual man also, could not have such a rarefied presence
and yet Wright,
inhabiting his poetry, his life. Perhaps his pondering contributed to his
making
poem
of the poem, "A Blessing,"
also from The Branch Will Not Break, a
that brings together both the sensuous and immaculate woman
(but
expresses these qualities
an Indian
pony):
Iwould
For
like to hold
she has walked
in ametaphoric?but
the slenderer
over
one
no less beautiful?creature:
in my
arms,
to me
And nuzzled my left hand.
She is black andwhite,
on her forehead,
the light breeze moves me to caress her
is delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist.
Her mane
And
That
falls wild
long
Suddenly I realize
That if I stepped out of my body Iwould break
Into blossom.
68
ear
In these
pressed
is able to synthesize
lines Wright
in relation to Boehme's
philosophy.
he has ex
all the uncertainties
There
is passion
("Her
mane
fallswild on her forehead") and there is purity ("her long ear/ ...
is
delicate as the skin over a girl's wrist");
she is "black and white,"
and her
man:
out of
I
redeems
both
the
sensual
and
"if
presence
spiritual
stepped
my body Iwould break/Into blossom."
9.
It is impossible to sayhow much Wright was affected by these texts; it is
to say that the texts, and
comments
in them, are reflec
Wright's
possible
as evidenced
in his poetry. Wright's
tive of his general thinking,
interests,
are
texts
in
like those of any thoughtful
various.
Other
this
collec
person,
tion include a chapbook of poems by Dannie Abse, which he inscribed to
Wright ("To JamesWright/with
good wishes./Dannie Abse /Dec 12th
'63");The Complete Short Stories ofMark Twain; Tobias Smollett, amono
and amodern
graph by Laurence Brander;
history of Russia,
by Bernard
was aman of conflict, of ambivalent nature, of
Pares. Wright
passionate
evident in his poetry, but less likely to be embellished
intellect?qualities
when
in these
examined
texts
closer
to the patient,
private,
quotidian
efforts of a life. The poetry ispublic, andwe the public have a right to read
to preserve
But we also have a responsibility
the poetry variously.
the
man
us
human character of the
who gave
poems of such utterly human
and personal dimensions.
And if a younger generation
of poets remembers
the fallible, perturbable,
sentimental,
James Wright
tender,
passionate,
and intellectual man,
then we shall better preserve and respect his poetry.
was as
as to succeed. In
Seeking enlightenment,
Wright
likely to fail
June of 1963, Wright
an
bought
apparently
interesting
book,
The Practice
of thePresence ofGod, by Brother Lawrence (1611-1691), first published in
1692.
The
would
book
did not examine
Wright
seem
But it would
also seem that
impressive.
the book very carefully.
Inside the book's covers
he found the kind of historical testimony reprinted for zealous Christians
to have
anxious
piety
and
their faiths affirmed by ancient visions and acts of extreme
few remarks are incredulous:
Wright's
"p. 14:
self-sacrifice.
What? What? Who/is
an odd
Brother
statement:
Lawrence's
Lawrence's
homily
thisman?" Beside his inscription,Wright
"James
A. Wright/Minneapolis
kitchen,
indeed.)." Wright's
on
finding peace in the noisy
remark
kitchen
added
than/
(stranger
refers to brother
where
he was
69
as a young
was
but what
than this is beyond
"stranger"
had in mind Minneapolis
itself, a
speculation.
Perhaps Wright
a
of
and
touched
great beauty
city
diversity,
everywhere
place
by human
to
to
nature.
In
connected
the
weather,
industry, yet ineluctably
February
employed
reasonable
of 1963,Wright
man;
acquired The Arabs, by Philip K. Hitti,
the same enlightenment
he would
later hope
a note
to
book. Wright
adds
his inscription
seeking perhaps
to find in Brother
to himself
Lawrence's
that reveals
aman
deeply affected by place and climate: "This dark drizzling/ evening Imust
the great
copy/out
lines on/light
from
the Koran."
year before, in his copy of Oliver Twist, thatWright
him
reminding
. . . "Last Sun. before Mar.
12 will
It had
only
been
a
had placed a note
be christening
day for
Mary Bly. Have the poem printed before then." The date (1962) and the
subject of the poem
suggest
refers to "Mary Bly," which
that the message
appears in The BranchWill Not Break. The first lines of that poem are
of Wright's
prescient
strangely
I sit here,
doing
nothing,
note
in The Arabs:
alone, worn
out
by
long winter.
I feel the light breath of the newborn child.
feels the cold,
Wright
us are.
Ordinary
notes,
the same way all of
by "long winter,"
it
is
but
the ordinary man I sought
admittedly,
is depressed
out.
10.
In the winter
passages
of 1960, Wright
the act of writing,
on
on
a collection
of
bought Writers
Writing,
culled from
the commentaries
of many
past and present, compiled
an exclamation
tion, Wright
places
writers,
"A creator
We,
In Allen's
Allen.
introduc
by Walter
a
sentence:
beside
point
single, simple
is never
however,
a
really safe till he is dead." It is clich?, and it is true.
more or less of a poet who
must avoid
making
struggled all
his life to be only human. Ibegan my notes with linesfrom the first stanza
of the title poem fromWright's last book published in his lifetime, To A
Blossoming
human,"
poem
70
Pear
Tree. Wright
tell" the Pear Tree "Something
"would
to be human. The
it means
tell us, finally, what
as he would
concludes,
Young
tree, unburdened
By anything
but your beautiful
natural
blossoms
And dew, the dark
Blood inmy body drags me
Down
with
my
brother.
71