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Kenneth Rexroth: Greek Anthologist Gideon Nisbet 184 HIP SUBLIME BEAT WRITERS AND THE CLASSICAL TRADITION EDITED BY SHEILA MURNAGHAN AND RALPH M. ROSEN THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS COLUMBUS Copyright © 2018 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Murnaghan, Sheila, 1951– editor. | Rosen, Ralph Mark, editor. Title: Hip sublime : Beat writers and the classical tradition / edited by Sheila Murnaghan and Ralph M. Rosen. Other titles: Classical memories/modern identities. Description: Columbus : The Ohio State University Press, [2018] | Series: Classical memories/modern identities | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017052242 | ISBN 9780814213551 (cloth ; alk. paper) | ISBN 0814213553 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Beat generation. | Authors, American—20th century. | American literature—20th century—History and criticism. | Classical literature—Influence. Classification: LCC PS228.B6 H57 2018 | DDC 810.9/0054—dc23 Cover design by Christian Fuenfhausen Text design by Juliet Williams Type set in Adobe Minion Pro and Futura The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1992. For Alisdair Gibson CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii INTRODUCTION Stephen Dickey, Sheila Murnaghan, and Ralph M. Rosen 1 CHAPTER 1 Beats Visiting Hell: Katabasis in Beat Literature Stephen Dickey 15 CHAPTER 2 “Thalatta, Thalatta!”: Xenophon, Joyce, and Kerouac Christopher Gair 38 CHAPTER 3 “The Final Fix” and “The Transcendent Kingdom”: The Quest in the Early Work of William S. Burroughs Loni Reynolds 55 CHAPTER 4 The Invention of Sincerity: Allen Ginsberg and the Philology of the Margins Matthew Pfaff 73 CHAPTER 5 Radical Brothers-in-Arms: Gaius and Hank at the Racetrack Marguerite Johnson 97 CHAPTER 6 Riffingon Catullus: Robert Creeley’s Poetics of Adultery Nick Selby 116 CHAPTER 7 Sappho Comes to the Lower East Side: Ed Sanders, the Sixties Avant-Garde, and Fictions of Sappho Jennie Skerl 138 vi CONTENTS CHAPTER 8 Robert Duncan and Pindar’s Dance Victoria Moul 160 CHAPTER 9 Kenneth Rexroth: Greek Anthologist Gideon Nisbet 184 CHAPTER 10 Philip Whalen and the Classics: “A Walking Grove of Trees” Jane Falk 210 CHAPTER 11 Troubling Classical and Buddhist Traditions in Diane di Prima’s Loba Nancy M. Grace and Tony Trigilio 226 CHAPTER 12 Towards a Post-Beat Poetics: Charles Olson’s Localism and the Second Sophistic Richard Fletcher 252 AFTERWORD “Standing at a Juncture of Planes” Nancy M. Grace and Jennie Skerl 271 List of Contributors 277 Index 281 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS his volume, which brings together for the first time classicists and spe- cialists on writers of the Beat generation, is the result of several years Tof cross-disciplinary discussion and collaboration, and the editors are grateful to the many friends and colleagues who helped to make it possible. The project was originally the brainchild of Alisdair Gibson of the Univer- sity of St Andrews, and we are pleased to acknowledge our debt to his vision and inspiration by dedicating the volume to him. For various forms of sup- port, encouragement, and intellectual stimulation, we thank, in addition to our distinguished contributors, Kevin Batton, Netta Berlin, Renee Campbell, Michael Coyle, Cynthia Damon, Jim English, Al Filreis, William Lawlor, Jo Park, Bob Perelman, Jaap van der Bent, and Emily Wilson. Our work was generously funded by several Penn entities, the Department of Classical Stud- ies, the Dean’s Research Fund of the School of Arts and Sciences, the Provost’s University Research Fund, and the Center for Ancient Studies, and addition- ally by the School of Classics of the University of St Andrews. We are fortunate that, in our efforts to shape and frame the volume, we could draw on the expertise of Stephen Dickey, whose insights and deep knowledge enriched our introduction, and of Nancy Grace and Jennie Skerl, two leading Beat scholars whose splendid afterword considers our assorted essays from the perspective of Beat Studies. Throughout the process we have benefited from the advice and encouragement of our editors at The Ohio State University Press, Eugene O’Connor and Kristen Elias Rowley; from the sup- vii viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS port of the Series Editors, Paul Allen Miller and Richard H. Armstrong; and from the many valuable comments and suggestions of Dennis Trout and the press’s other referee. Credits Gregory Corso, excerpts from “In the Fleeting Hand of Time” from Gaso- line. Copyright ©1955 by Gregory Corso. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of City Lights Publishers, www .citylights .com. “Clown” by Gregory Corso, from THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF DEATH. Copyright ©1960 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Return” by Gregory Corso, from HERALD OF THE AUTOCHTHONIC SPIRIT. Copyright ©1973, 1975, 1981 by Gregory Corso. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Marriage” by Gregory Corso, from THE HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF DEATH. Copyright ©1960 by New Directions Publishing Corp. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Greece” by Gregory Corso, from LONG LIVE MAN. Copyright ©1962 by Gregory Corso. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Sailing thru the Straits . (#2)” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, from A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND. Copyright ©1958 by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “A Supermarket in California,” “Plutonian Ode” from COLLECTED POEMS 1947–1997. Copyright © by the Allen Ginsberg Trust. Reprinted by Per- mission of HarperCollins Publishers. “Malest Cornifici Tuo Catullo” from COLLECTED POEMS 1947–1997. Copyright © by the Allen Ginsberg Trust. Reprinted by Permission of HarperCollins Publishers. “what I have seen” from THE CONTINUAL CONDITION by Charles Bukowski. Copyright ©2009 by Linda Lee Bukowski. Reprinted by Per- mission of HarperCollins Publishers. “to the whore who took my poems” from BURNING IN WATER, DROWN- ING IN FLAME: SELECTED POEMS 1955–1973, by Charles Bukowski. Copyright ©1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1974 by Charles Bukowski. Reprinted by Permission of HarperCollins Publishers. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix “the love poems of Catullus” from SIFTING THROUGH THE MADNESS FOR THE WORD, THE LINE, THE WAY: NEW POEMS by Charles Bukowski and edited by John Martin. Copyright ©2003 by Linda Lee Bukowski. Reprinted by Permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Quotations from the works of Ed Sanders, reprinted by permission of the author. “red up and down” from LOVE IS A DOG FROM HELL: POEMS 1974–1977 by Charles Bukowski. Copyright ©1977 by Charles Bukowski. Reprinted by Permission of HarperCollins Publishers. Robert Creeley, “Stomping with Catullus,” “The Whip,” and “The Rain,” from The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley 1945–1975. Copyright ©1962, 1979 by Robert Creeley. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc., on behalf of the estate of Robert Creeley. “A Poem Beginning with a Line by Pindar” by Robert Duncan, from THE OPENING OF THE FIELD. Copyright ©1960 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Poetry, a Natural Thing” by Robert Duncan, from THE OPENING OF THE FIELD. Copyright ©1960 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Under Ground” by Robert Duncan, from THE OPENING OF THE FIELD. Copyright ©1960 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “An Interlude” by Robert Duncan, from THE OPENING OF THE FIELD. Copyright ©1960 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “The Question” by Robert Duncan, from THE OPENING OF THE FIELD. Copyright ©1960 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Such is the Sickness of Many a Good Thing” by Robert Duncan, from BENDING THE BOW. Copyright ©1968 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “At the Loom—Passages 2” by Robert Duncan, from BENDING THE BOW. Copyright ©1968 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “Bending the Bow” by Robert Duncan, from BENDING THE BOW. Copy- right ©1968 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Direc- tions Publishing Corp. “Let Him Drink from the Fountain” by Robert Duncan, from GROUND WORK: BEFORE THE WAR. Copyright ©1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1988 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. “A Set of Romantic Hymns” by Robert Duncan, from ROOTS AND BRANCHES. Copyright ©1964 by Robert Duncan. Reprinted by per- mission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Excerpts from “Duncan” from BOSS CUPID by Thom Gunn. Copyright ©2000 by Thom Gunn. Reprinted by Permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Poems from the Greek Anthology: Translated by Kenneth Rexroth. Copyright ©1962, 1999 by the University of Michigan. Reprinted by permission of the University of Michigan Press. “The Slop Barrel,” “Since You Ask Me,” “Treading More Water,” “Translation of a Lost Play by MM,” “Gradus ad Parnassum,” “To My Muse,” “M,” “Hymnus ad Patrem Sinensis,” “Sourdough Mountain Lookout,” “With Compliments to EH,” “The Education Continues Along,” “The Greeks,” “The Best of It,” “Minor Moralia,” “Scenes of Life at the Capital” by Philip Whalen. Reprinted by courtesy of
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