WCW
Famous William Carlos Williams excerpt:
"Of asphodel, that greeny flower,
I come, my sweet,
to sing to you!
My heart rouses
thinking to bring you news
of something
that concerns you
and concerns many men. Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
despised poems.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
Hear me out
for I too am concerned
and every man
who wants to die at peace in his bed
besides."
I've read this poem in its entirety a few times, and I'm still not sure I completely understand what these few lines mean. WCW's use of the word "news" is interesting, and reminds me of how some evangelist Christians refer to Jesus's teachings as "the Good News." In what way are poems concerned with the news? Do poems need to tangle directly with current events, current political happenings in the world, etc., in order to fulfill their purpose of "bringing the news" to mankind? Or is it sufficient for a poem to be stylistically original and to speak truths that have never been spoken before?
To what extent does a poem need to grapple with current political realities in order to "matter"? If "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower" had dealt only with personal matters, such as the love between WCW and Flossie, and hadn't try to relate them to political matters, such as the atomic bomb and "the electric chair of the Rosenbergs," would that have made it a lesser poem?
Why, exactly, is it "difficult to get the news from poems"? Is it difficult for writers, for readers, or for both? At whose feet does the blame lie?
What does poetry bring to the table that other media do not? "Beauty" is an answer that I can understand, but I just don't understand how novelty fits in here. What does it mean to say that poetry's significance lies in the fact that poetry brings us "the new"?
I used to believe that the pre-pre-pre-pre-preantepenultimate line meant that poetry deprivation is fatal. Now that I reread this handful of lines, however, I realize that they read "Men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there," rather than "Men die, miserably, every day for lack of what is found there." Poetry, then, bridges the difference between "dying miserably" and "dying at peace in one's bed"; it does *not* bridge the difference between "dying miserably" and "not dying at all." Even poetry can't help us escape our own mortality. I don't know if I'm disappointed by that. Enabling people to die peacefully in their beds just seems like a much more modest aspiration than saving their lives or otherwise transcending death.
"Of asphodel, that greeny flower,
I come, my sweet,
to sing to you!
My heart rouses
thinking to bring you news
of something
that concerns you
and concerns many men. Look at
what passes for the new.
You will not find it there but in
despised poems.
It is difficult
to get the news from poems
yet men die miserably every day
for lack
of what is found there.
Hear me out
for I too am concerned
and every man
who wants to die at peace in his bed
besides."
I've read this poem in its entirety a few times, and I'm still not sure I completely understand what these few lines mean. WCW's use of the word "news" is interesting, and reminds me of how some evangelist Christians refer to Jesus's teachings as "the Good News." In what way are poems concerned with the news? Do poems need to tangle directly with current events, current political happenings in the world, etc., in order to fulfill their purpose of "bringing the news" to mankind? Or is it sufficient for a poem to be stylistically original and to speak truths that have never been spoken before?
To what extent does a poem need to grapple with current political realities in order to "matter"? If "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower" had dealt only with personal matters, such as the love between WCW and Flossie, and hadn't try to relate them to political matters, such as the atomic bomb and "the electric chair of the Rosenbergs," would that have made it a lesser poem?
Why, exactly, is it "difficult to get the news from poems"? Is it difficult for writers, for readers, or for both? At whose feet does the blame lie?
What does poetry bring to the table that other media do not? "Beauty" is an answer that I can understand, but I just don't understand how novelty fits in here. What does it mean to say that poetry's significance lies in the fact that poetry brings us "the new"?
I used to believe that the pre-pre-pre-pre-preantepenultimate line meant that poetry deprivation is fatal. Now that I reread this handful of lines, however, I realize that they read "Men die miserably every day for lack of what is found there," rather than "Men die, miserably, every day for lack of what is found there." Poetry, then, bridges the difference between "dying miserably" and "dying at peace in one's bed"; it does *not* bridge the difference between "dying miserably" and "not dying at all." Even poetry can't help us escape our own mortality. I don't know if I'm disappointed by that. Enabling people to die peacefully in their beds just seems like a much more modest aspiration than saving their lives or otherwise transcending death.