A MIND APART

Poems of Melancholy. Madness, and Addiction

Edited by MARK S. BAUER

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 2009 CONTENTS

Preface xxiii Introduction 1 Poems 33

Thomas Hoccleve (c. 1368/g-c. 1426) 33 from "The Complaint of Hoccleve: Hoccleve Remembers His Madness" 33 from "Anxious Thought" 38

Charles d'Orleans (1394-1465) 40 I am Forsaken 40 Farewell this World 40

William Dunbar (1460-1520) 42 In Winter 42

Alexander Barclay (1475-1552) 44 from "The Ship of Fools—Of Glotons and Dronkards" 44

Anonymous (published 1500) 45 A Song of Ale 45 Petition to Have Her Leave to Die 47 x Contents

Fulke Greville (1554-1628) 48 from "Despair" 48

Thomas Lodge (1557-1625) 52 Melancholy 52

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) 53 Sonnet 129 53

Sir Henry Wo tton (is68-i63g) 54 Upon the Death of Sir Albert Morton's Wife 54 A Hymn to My God in a Night of My Late Sickness 54

Sir John Davies (1569-1618) 55 Affliction 55

Robert Burton (1577-1640) 57 The Author's Abstract of Melancholy 57

John Fletcher (1579-1625) and/or Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) 60 Melancholy 60

Lady Mary Wroth (1586-c. 1652) 61 "Sonnet XIX" from The Countess of Montgomery's Urania 61 "Sonnet VI" from Pamphilia to Amphilanthus 61

Robert Herrick (1591-1674) 63 The Mad Maid's Song 63

George Herbert (1593-1633) 64 Affliction (I) 64 Affliction (IV) 66 The Collar 67

John Milton (1608-1674) 69 from "Samson Agonistes" 69 "Methought I saw my late espoused Saint" 70 Contents xi

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) 71 Upon Some Distemper of the Body 71

Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1624-1674) 72 A Discourse on Melancholy 72

Thomas Traherne (1636-1674) 73 Solitude 73

James Carkesse (published 1679) 77 On the Doctors' Telling Him that till He Left off Making Verses He Was Not Fit to be Discharged 77

Anonymous (published 1658) 78 On Melancholy 78

Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (1661-1720) 80 The Spleen: A Pindaric Poem 80

Edward Ward (1667-1731) 84 The Extravagant Drunkard's Wish 84

Isaac Watts (1674-1748) 85 The Hurry of the Spirits, in a Fever and Nervous Disorders 85

Edward Young (1683-1765) 87 from "Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality: Night I" 87

William Harrison (1685-1713) 89 In Praise of Laudanum 89

Mary Barber (1685-1755) 90 On seeing an Officer's Widow distracted, who had been driven to Despair by a long and fruitless Solicitation for the Arrears of her Pension 90

Anonymous (published 1692) 91 Loving Mad Tom 91 xii Contents

Matthew Green (1696-1737) 93 from "The Spleen. An Epistle to Mr. C-— J " 93

William Collins (1721-1759) 97 Ode to Fear 97

Thomas Mozeen (published 1768) 100 The Bedlamite 100

Christopher Smart (1722-1771) 102 Hymn to the Supreme Being, on Recovery from a Dangerous Fit of Illness 102 from "Jubilate Agno," Fragment B 106

Thomas Warton (1728-1790) 112 from "The Pleasures of Melancholy" 112

William Cowper (1731-1800) 114 Lines Written During a Period of Insanity 114 The Shrubbery, Written in a Time of Affliction 115

Anonymous (published 1733) 116 A Receipt to Cure a Loves Fit 116

Robert Fergusson (1750-1774) 117 Ode to Disappointment 117

Anonymous (published 1751) 119 Strip Me Naked, or Royal Gin for Ever. A Picture 119

Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770) 120 Sunday, A Fragment 120

John Codrington Bampfylde (1754-1796) 122 On a Frightful Dream 122

William Blake (1757-1827) 123 "My Spectre around me night and day" 123 Contents xiii

To Mr. Butts, Gr. Marlborough St. London; from Letters, A Selection 125 Mary 125 Mad Song 127

Robert Bloomfield (1766-1823) 129 from "The Farmer's Boy" 129

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) 131 The Suicide's Argument 131 The Pains of Sleep 131 from "Dejection: An Ode" 133

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) 136 from "The Lament of Tasso" 136

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) 138 Stanzas Written in Dejection Near Naples 138

John Clare (1793-1864) 140 I Am 140 Sonnet: I Am 140 The Ruins of Despair 141 To Melancholy 143 Song 143

John Keats (1795-1821) 145 Ode on Melancholy 145

Anonymous ("Orestes") (published 1796) 146 A Sonnet to Opium; Celebrating its Virtues. Written at the Side of Julia, when the Author was Inspired with a Dose of Laudanum, more than Sufficient for two moderate Turks 146

Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839) 147 "I welcome thee back again, Spirit of Song!" 147 xiv Contents

Popular Songs 149 from American Mock-Bird (published 1801) 149 The Mad Lover 149 Crazy Paul 150 from Temple of Harmony (published 1801) 151 Song 151 from Choice Collection of Admired Songs (published 1805) 153 Crazy Jane 153 The Death of Crazy Jane 154 from Boston Musical Miscellany (published 1815) 155 Nancy and Gin 155 from Songster's Companion (published 1815) 156 Mary Le More 156 Away with Melancholy 157 from Songs for Ladies (published 1825) 158 The Frantic Maid 158 from The Muse, or The Flowers of Poetry (published 1827) 159 Soliloquy on Smoking 159

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) 160 Grief 160

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) 161 from "In Memoriam" 161

Matthew Arnold (1822-18 88) 164 from "Empedocles on Etna" 164

Sydney Dobell (1824-1874) 168 from "Balder. Part the First," Scenes XIII and XIV 168

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) 171 #126 171 #410 171 #435 172 #670 172 #1062 173 Contents xv

Henry Kendall (1839-1882) 174 Outre Mer 174

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) 176 Just the Same 176 The Wound 176 In Tenebris II 177 Mad Judy 177

Robert Bridges (1844-1930) 179 Melancholia 179

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) 180 "No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief" 180 Carrion Comfort 180 "I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day" 181

A. Mary F. Robinson (1857-1944) 182 Neurasthenia 182

Ernest Dowson (1867-1900) 183 To One in Bedlam 183 Spleen 183

Edward Thomas (1878-1917) 185 Melancholy 185 Rain 185

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967) 187 Repression of War Experience 187 Haunted 188

Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) 190 Strange Hells 190 The Shame 190 To God 191 An Appeal for Death 192 For Mercy of Death 193 xvi Contents

Wilfred Owen (1893-1918) 194 Mental Cases 194

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) 195 Sorrow 195 "I know a hundred ways to die" 195 Menses 196

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) 198 Resume 198

Louise Bogan (1897-1970) 199 Evening in the Sanitarium 199

Hart Crane (1899-1932) 201 The Idiot 201

(John Orley) Allen Tate (i8gg-i979) 202 Ode to Fear 202

Anonymous (published 1930) 203 from "Thoughts Suggested on a Thanksgiving Day Passed at the State Lunatic Asylum, Worcester, Mass., by a Patient" 203 from Poetry of the Insane (Charles Mayos, editor; published 1930) 206 Awakening 206 The Snow 206 The Cure 208

Richard David Comstock (published 1930) 209 Always Like This 209

Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006) 210 The Portrait 210

Theodore Roethke (igo8-ig63) 211 In a Dark Time 211 Contents xvii

Her Longing 212 Lines Upon Leaving a Sanitarium 212

Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979) 214 Visits to Saint Elizabeths 214

J. V. (James Vincent) Cunningham (1911-1985) 217 from Interview with Doctor Drink 217

Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966) 218 from "The Studies of Narcissus" 218 from Genesis, Book II 220

John Berryman (1914-1972) 222 Dreamsongs 172 222

Randall Jarrell (1914-1965) 223 In the Ward: The Sacred Wood 223

Weldon Kees (1914-1955) 225 from "The Fall of the Magicians" 225 The Clinic 226

Dylan Thomas (1914-1953) 227 Out of the Sighs 227

Robert Lowell (1917-1977) 228 Visitors 228 Waking in the Blue 229 Home After Three Months Away 231 Unwanted 232

Robert Edward Duncan (1919-1988) 236 Songs of An Other 236

Howard Nemerov (1920-1991) 238 To D , Dead by Her Own Hand 238 xviii Contents

Hayden Carruth (1921-) 239 from "The Asylum" 239 Lines Written in an Asylum 242 from "Ontological Episode of the Asylum" 243

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) 245 Neurotics 245

Anthony Hecht (1923-2004) 246 A Deep Breath at Dawn 246 Despair 248

Richard Hugo (1923-1982) 249 In Your War Dream 249 Cape Nothing 249 Letter to Logan from Milltown 250

James Schuyler (1923-1991) 252 The Payne Whitney Poems: What 252 The Payne Whitney Poems: Pastime 252 The Payne Whitney Poems: The Night 253

Donald Justice (1925-2004) 255 Counting the Mad 255 The Man Closing Up 255

Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997) 259 from "Howl" 259

Robert Bly(ig26-) 262 Depression 262

Wiley Clements (1928-) 263 Military Journalist 263

Anne Sexton (1928-1974) 264 from "The Double Image" 264 Contents XIX

The Addict 265 Ringing the Bells 267

Carl Wolfe Solomon (1928-) 269 Anti-Totalitarian Manifesto for Evergreen Review 269

Ned 0'Gorman (1929-) 270 Peace, After Long Madness 270

Stuart Z. Perkoff (1930-1974) 271 from "The Venice Poems, I" 271 Junk Nursery Rhymes 275

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) 277 Elm 277 Street Song 278 from The Journal of Saint Dympna (Earl "Pete" Nurmi, editor; published 1979) 280 Lee Merrill 280 Medication 280 Mary Coleman 282 "The ghost behemians of Meridel LeSueur" 282 John Appling Sours 283 Institute at Christmas 283

Lucille Clifton (1936-) 285 shapeshifter poems 285

Jim Harrison (1937-) 287 Noon 287 Sequence I 287

Les Murray (1938-) 289 from Fredy Neptune, Book I 289

Sharon Olds (1942-) 291 Satan Says 291 xx Contents

Timothy Dekin (1943-2001) 293 Melancholy 293

Quincy Troupe (1943-) 294 River Town Packin House Blues 294

Thomas P. Beresford (1946-) 298 Edith in Ann Arbor 298

R. L. Barth (1947-) 299 Epigraph from Deeply Dug In 299

Jane Kenyon (1947-1995) 300 Having it Out with Melancholy 300

Yusef Komunyakaa (1947-) 304 Losses 304

Joseph Salemi (1948-) 305 Sicilian Beachhead 305

Aimee Grunberger (1951-1995) 306 The Administration of Veterans 306

Jimmy Santiago Baca (1952-) 308 This Dark Side 308

Mark Jarman (1952-) 310 Questions for Ecclesiastes 310 from "Transfiguration" 312

Franz Wright (1953-) 314 Voice 314 Rorschach Test 315 Certain Tall Buildings 317 Thanks Prayer at the Cove 318

David Baker (1954-) 320 Hyper 320 Melancholy Man 323 Contents xxi

Michael Lauchlan (1954-) 325 What You Hadn't 325

Joe Bolton (1961-1990) 326 Laguna Beach Breakdown 326 A Couple of Suicide Cases 326

Kelly Ann Malone (1963-) 328 Devices on Standby 328

Brian Turner (1967-) 330 Eulogy 330

Kevin Young (1970-) 331 Coke® (The Real Thing) 331 from In the Realms of the Unreal: "Insane" Writings (John G. H. Oakes, editor; published 1991) 334 Nicol 334 By My Own Hand 334 Richard Beard 335 The Queen's Foreboding 335

Jeff Holt (1971-) 337 Imbalance 337 The Patient 337

Ricky Cantor (1985-) 339 E 9th Street 339

Coda 340 Anne Stevenson (1933-) 340 Letter to Sylvia Plath 340

Biographical Notes on the Poets 345 Credits 389 Index of Poets 395 Index of Titles 397 Index of First Lines 400