University of Alkrta

New York Poets at Harvard:

A Critical Edition of the Edy Harvard Advocate Writings of ,Kemeth Koch, and Frank O'Hara (194% 195 1)

by Michael John Londry 0

A thesis submitted to 1the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Am.

Department of Engiish

Edmonton, Alberta Spring 1997 Nationai Liirary 6ibli~)thèquenationale 1+1 OfCrnada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliogaphic Sennnnces senrices bibliographiques 395 WelIingbn Strciet 395, rue Wdlingbn OüawaON KlAONI OaawaON KtAON4 Canada canada

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MA. thesis titlt: New York PatJ at HwadA Cntical Edition of the Early mard Advocate Writings of John Ashbery, Kenaeth Koch, and FrmL O'Hara (1947- 1951)

Author: Micbael John Londry, Department of hglish, University of Alberta, Edmonton. Alberta, Canada.

Description of thesir This critical edition thesis seeb to collect al1 the writings that were published by the poets John Ashbery, Kameth Koch, and Fraok O'Hara in the studeat-run journal during their early careers. The writings are textuaily and ctitically annotated, and an introduction to the texts provides critical commentary as well as historical and biographicai context. Two short chronologies (one pnmarily biopphical and the derbibliographical) provide further cmtcxtualization. Two substantial interviews regardhg these poets' Harvard years and early literary development-one with Ashbery and one with Koch-are printed in full as appendices. Reface

"Juveailia,whetber mitten within earshot of the or in Kaasas City. Kansas, is likely to be just that,' says W11lia.mVan O'Co~morin his dismissive nview of The Harvani Advoaite Aatb010~a volume edited by in 1950.x Wbat Van

O'Connor literally says is "juveniliaare juveniliau-but what he implies is thaî ndy alwaysjuveniüa are simply juvenile, are childish, are immature and thmfm. somehow. of Iittle interest Such a negative view of authon' eady writings has been rcmnrLably widespread. Listen to Robert Chaprnan gmdgingly introducing Saae Austen's first volume of juvenilia in 1933; more than dismissive, Chaprnan here seems a hair's-breadth from tossing the young Austen onto the tash heap: It will always be disputed whether such effusions as these ought to be published; and it may be that we have enough alnady of Jane Austen's early scraps. The author of the MEM01R thought a very brief specimen suffcient. But perhaps the question is hardly worth discussion. For if such manuscripts fmd theu way into ptübmries, iheir publication cm hardly be prevented. Tbe only sure way to prevent it is the way of destruction. which no one dare take. (Chapman, "Refaceu ix)

It is fiaing tbat times have changed. Several valuable )larvard Advocate anthologies have beeo printed since Hall's 1950 collection, and large portions of Jane Austen's often fascinatingjuveniiia have been pub tished in ment decades-in forms ranging from coffee- table facsimile editions to various heavily-annotated scholarly treatments. As soon as one becomes intmsted in p~ocessin addition to product9 one is undentandably drawn to an author's early worl-even if written at a very young age or if plaidy immature. Almast by definition, a scholar of any author's development WUneed to dip back at least as far es the clearly immature work-if such is available-in order to make as full as possible an accounting of the artist's kcoming. Imagine if biographers wmto take a view toward lives similar to that which Van O'Connor and Chapman pnsume for Ii terature. Chapters about childhood and adolescence would be vey short. or never

- William Van OTo~or.'WC ~ap~~ew'pocay 178.4 (~uîy1951): 241-24- wriuen; eariy events of questionable mahmty-thieving. excessive drinting, extra-marital affairs-would be mastly ignored as well. This is absmd. The pmject of biography would be utterly compmised if one were discourageci fmrn writiag about youth and the occasional dark patch. The study of juvenilia2-even if the pieces srr immature, evm of horrendous quaiity-is essential to any robust understanding of literary histoy, literary biography, and of artistic pracess itwlf. No artist arrives in the wddfuliy formed. fully comptent Evea Mo- required sevexai months. And exactly what happened in those rnonths we should be dying to icnow. Studying the early work of ariists is of course especidly intercsting when they have eventuail y matwed iato genuinely signüicant and innovative figures. Such is the case with

îbe pets John Ashbery, , and Ftauk OWara, who have often been gathered by critics under the terni " of Poets." Whether or not one accepts this sometimes contested label, these thee poets-individually and together-are among the most prominent American poets in the latter hdfof the twentieth century. While Kemetb

Koch's third Selected Pbems was pubiished by hupf in 1994, a testament to the wide readership of his own verse, it may be that his influence as a teacha of poetry is at least as broad. For many years he has taught modem poetiy as well as creative writing workshops at , and his books on the subject bave had a wide audience as well: Koch's impact in pedagogical &les has ban lasting, profound, and salutary. He revolutionized the teaching of poetry to childmn (in Wishes, Lies, and Dreams and Rose, Where Did You Get Thrrr Red?) and then did the same with elderiy nursing home residents (in I Nmer Told Anybody). (Lehan, "Dr.Funw 53) Several works on Eiank O'Hara have bcen puMished recently. includiug Elledge's eclectic anthology of essays, O'Hm: To & Truc to a City (1990). and Gooch's lengthy and somewhat coatroversial biography, A Citv Poet: The Life and Times of Frank OWara

( 1993). O'Hafa's Collected Pœms has been issued in a revised paperback format, and

* By njuvcnitianI mcan not medy "childhoodwritingsn but mmperaily "dywoka A cdlwpe of mine once rnentioned to me that Lord Byron used the term "juvenilianto derto any art produced before the age of thirty. bath his life and wiitiag seem to be receiving more attention today than ever More. Regard for John Ashkry, too, remains extremely mg.Hatold Bloan-a champion of Ashbery's work for decades now-stiii nfers to him as "our -test living poet" (Shoptaw, back cover). And the words of John Tranter, fram a 1986 issue of the

AustraIianjournal SçLipoi are as applicable today as they were ten years ago: "Asôberyk reputation at the present is immense. He is widcly regardeci as the fmest ptat work in the

Engiïsh laquage today" (93). And the work of aU thepoets continues to k cmsistently and heaviiy anthologized. Perbaps equally sfnking, the iufiueoce of the New York Schwl amng avant-garde wnting in the (as well as elsewhm in the En@&-speaking world) is by DOW demonstrably vast fiom 1939 (the year two of the youngest "second-generatioa"New York School poets-Tony Towle and -were born), fifty-five poets have been bom whom Paul Hoover includes in his recent Posmodem : A Norton

-hthology (1994). Of those f&ty-five poets, at least thirty3 have either (1) admitted to being strmgIy influenced by or (2) ken~eno~~ly compared to one or more of the New

York School pets. if Hoover's anthology is at al1 rrpesentative, it would appear that over balf of the most acclaimed avant-garde pets writing in the United States today have ken touched by the New York Schwl. It can be argued that the pais of the New York Schwl now clearly rival-if not surpass-the Beau and the Black Mountain pets in the breadth of their Li terary influence. Despite this extensive evidence of critical attention and literary influence, the eady years of ther pats-excepting those of O'Hara, trrated in City Pcet (1993)-have ken tiïl now ody cursody discussed. This thesis airns to facilitaie and e~chderstanding of the

My list includes the fdlowing pocîs, given hmin appoùmatc order of birth: . James Schuyler, Keuward EImslie, , Ted Bemgan, Jaseph Ceravdo, Tmy Towle, Bi11 Berbon, Tom Clark, Chades North, Rm Padgetî, Am Lauterbch, Tom Mandel, Maureen Owea Paul Violi, Magorie Wetisb, , Alice Notiey, Beniadene Mayer, Andrci Codrescu, Paul Hoover, Ron SiIliman, David Sbapiro, David kâman, Eilecn Myles, Charfes Bernstein, John Yau, An Lange, David Trinidad, and Jim can0i.L eady pnid of these poets' dcvelopmeat: most @cuiariy the Harvard years, which appear to be ammg tbek most formative. I intend my tide "NewYak Pats at Harvardwto di attention to several central issues. First, there is the obvious fact of geograpby. Ai1 thepœts compIeted their undergraduate degrrts in hglisb Literature at Harvard Coliege-and at roiighly the same time-and aU three petswould later corne to live in New York for the majority dtheir post-collegiate y-. Second, the phrase "New York pets"is one that has at times been used by critics as an abbreviation of "the New York School pets"and my use of the former phrase might be taken to imply that I subscribe to the view that Ashbery, Koch, and OWara (with possible others) form a kind of literary "schwl"or group. And 1 do in fact me= to imply that. It seerns to me that the afTlities and munial influence between these thefigures (and

Iater others) are striking enough to justify derring to them as a group, even loosely justifying the term "school." Though by "schooln1 mean to imply w formal grouping, no official manifesto. no strict criteria for nmembership,wbut something more akin to sbong interconnections as close fnends and close podc coiieagues.

Third, the title 'New York Poe& at Harvardn might be îaken to imply a sort of merginp of the fvst two msonances: in other words, it may k &en to imply that Ashbery, Koch, and O'Hara not only form a lit- puping in ptromtxt, but al= that-in several simcant senses-at least the "seeds" of their becoming a group existed even while they were at Harvard. In other words, the title might be tqi$t to imply that at Harvard these writers were -y the "New York poets%"at least embryonidy so. And 1do in fact mean to imply tbis as well. It seems to me that the afflties and mutual Muences tbat were present between these poas during their Harvard years were kcy to their eventually becorning a coherent literary grow, and a litemy pupthat would understandably feel especidly at home in the avant-garde art worid of Manhattan. Now. the second haIf of the thess titie. The first step in facilitating the study of the eady developmeat of the New York Schoot pets is to make essential prllnary texts and information available in a retiable and easily-accessed form, and this is pneisely the aim of the dtical edition. 1bave chosen to coilect and ditThe Harvard Adv- writings of

these three ptsbecause (1) the Adv- was overwhelmingiy their main venue for publication during their fiarvard yuus; (2) the poems tbey published in otha magazines at the tirne are gedlymuch more readiîy available than thebdvocate Wntings (poems by Ashbery and Koch appear in, for instance, 1WOs isues ofjbetry and Ouvterlv Review of Literatunz. which many university libmies carry); (3) the mejonty of the pieces these poets published in the Advocate have never ken reprinted in any form; and (4) a (nearly) complete nm of Advocate issues fmm the forties and eady fifties seems to be available nowhere other than kardUniversity Archives, and had never been microfimed till I ordered my own copies in the summer of 1995. Put briefly. The Harvard Advocate from

1W7 to 1951 contaios many principal juvenilia of these three poets, important eaily materials that have been mostly ipored for half a cenhvy. In addition to J'he Harvard Advocate texts themselves, I have added as appendices two interviews I coaducted in March, 19%: one with John Ashbery and one with Keaneth Koch. (Frank O'Hara. the third poet, died in 1966.) Tùese inte~ewsconcentrate on petic beginnings, matespecially the Harvard days. 1treat these interviews somewhat as

I treat the Advocate texts, as primary documents that @y speak for themselves, but which 1 frame, allude to. and quote from, in the inboductory sections of this thesis. Since, to my knowledge, no othet interviews of these poets bave focussed DpccificaIIy on their eady years. 1 have tbought it worthwhile to ioclude the edited hanscripts of the interviews, whole. as appendices.

la t&e textual notes and critical annotations to the texts, as well as in the two chronologies (one chiefi y biographical and the otha chiefiy bibliograpbical), 1 provide a schematic contextuaiization that 1hop will orient the reader and help make clear the role of The Harvard Advocate writings in the eariy amas of these three pets. In a necessarily sketchy introduction. 1provide bndaîticai commentary on the )4dvocate texts, and alsa attempt to provide fivthcr contenhialization by giving the readers some seme of where the poets came fmm, how they got to Harvard, and how they met and began to influence each aber at Harvard as weii as in the y- immediately following. I do not pretead that this thesis provides adequate biogrephical or criticai treatment of the eariy hes and Iiterary careers of Ashkry, Koch, and O'Hd Instead, 1 have regarded my task as in many ways archival. 1am atternptiag to make available key texts. sources, and rhemas of information that should allow the eady cateers of these thne poea to be studied in a way they couid not easily have kenstudied before. With my short introduction, too, I mothope for comprebensiveness; 1 can hope only to begin to excite interest in ibis pivotal pendin the Iives of these theinnovative writers.

%r discussions of Frank 0Wararsearly carcer. sec cspcciaily Berkson and Mueur, cds.. to QBxz mledge, ad-.b&LEiam Rldmaa, W~LGooch. Cmeand andoff, loTT, For treatrnents of Ashbery's early work sce eswally Pilling, aSemet Sorœrym;Shapiro, John m,and Shopcaw, On theue Ou& Little seems to have been written abwt Kcanetb Koch's earliest career, but Micbaei Adams's amcfe in tbe is a gcmd agood start,andvid Lem's'Dr. Funamakes further beadway, Acknowledgements

Wïthoutthe genmus help of mamy individuals and institutions, this thesis wwld not have beea possible. 1 must fust thank John Asbbery, Kenneth Koch, and Maureen GranvilleSmith (Frank O'Hara's dvingsister and executnx of his estate) for their permission to coilect these poets' -ad Advoca~writings in the thesis. In eariy March 1996 in New York, both John Ashbay and Kenneth Koch kindly allowed me to interview them regdngtheir)iarvani days. Upmy rctum to the University of Alberta, 1 made transcn0ptsof the conversations and sought to mise them into readable foms. Rofessors Ashbery and Koch promptly approved these revised texts for inclusion in thk thesis, questiog only a very few further revitions and deletions. John Ashbery aiiowed me to make use of bis poetry manuscripts. résumés, and other personal materials of the John Ashbery Wpers at the Houghtm Library, Haward

University. When 1 consulteci the Papea at Houghton in August 1995 and Febiuary- March 1996, they had not yet km catalogued, ody sorted. From the Curator of Manuscripts. kslie Moms, 1 gather that the Houghtoii staff began only this summer

(summer 19%) to catalogue t&e Ashbery Papers. The reader may thus want to note that my method of refemng to the Ashbery Wpers in this thesis might mi be in keeping with the catalogue changes that may still be undeiway. 1have Leslie Moms, Elizabeth Failsey, Thomas Amos, and the other stafl'at dw Houghton to thank for their kindness during my visits. And 1thk Leslie MOrns for confi~rmingthat I have the pennissio~of the to quote fmm the John Ashbery Wpm in this thesis. Kenneth Koch allowed me to malce use of bis poetry manuscrip

-nt acquisition. they were for the most pat imsortcd. and it was not always casy or even possible to detemine which fdes or boxes containcd matcriais fmm Koch's karddays. While at the Berg Coilection. I food no manuscript vedans of the poerns that Koch pubtished in The Harvaid Advocate, but it may k that these, if extant, will annc to Iight as the Berg's sorthg gets undervay. I have Rodney Pbillips and Philip Miiito to tbanL for their kindness during my Mtto the Collection, and 1thad Rodney Phillips for dirming that 1have the Collection's pennissim to quote fmm the Koch Papm in tbis thesis. 1 thank Maureen Grsrnviile-Smith for our conespondenceand tekphone exchanges, as well as for permitting me to use her brother's jfarvard Advocate pieces in this thesis.

Because of lirnited reseatch funds 1 was not able to consult the O'Hara materials at the University of Storrs, Connecticut, nor was 1able to consult the very suôstantiaî Frank O'Ham atcbive in pnvate hmds in Connecticut. The private Frank O'Hara archive apparendy has considerable material that relates to Fra& O'Hara's Harvard days, though much of this has already been published and masterfully motated by Donald Allen in his posthumous editions of Frank O'Hds writing: me Collecteci Poems of Frank O'Hara (1971; revised 1995). mvWnting (lmï), and pœms Retrieved (lm.

It appears that Archives at Pusey Library, Harvard University, is the only institution in the world tbat has a (neariy) complete nin of ne Harvard Advocate for the years in which Ashbery. Koch. and OWim pubüshed there as students (1 947-lgSl).* I have especially to thanL the Assistant Cunitor, Patrice Donoghue. for her kindness du~gmy visits to the Harvard Archives in Auyst 1995 and Febmary-March 1996, and for her generosity in hdingseverai qdesover the telephone. Harvard Advocae issues fmm the years 1947 to 1951 had never before been mimfiimed, and 1 am

Tbe Harvard University Archives is misshg issue Numk2 of' Vdume 143 (likcly publirhcd in November 1950) fmm this period. Tàe vat bouse- 31 South Street, Cambridge-has a copy of this issuc, and hdr Clay Mitchell bas icindly diedfor me that no writings amibuteci to Ashbery, Koch, or O'Hara appear in it. gratef' ta Patrice Domghue at H&vard University Archives and Carmelia Napoleone at the Photographie Department of the Harvard University Li'braiy for heiping to arrange that a positive mimfdm copy ofdissues fmm 1W7 to 1951 k made for me. The negative microflim copy is now kept among the holdings of the Harvard University Library. I have Patrice Donoghue to tbanL faconfirming that 1bave the permission of the Harvard

University Archives ta quote from various materiais of the Archives in my tbesis

For their genemus correspondence and permission to quote nwi their replies to my Harvard-related queries, I have ta thank Henry Abelove (Harvard Class of '66). of the

Department of English, Wesleyan University, Middletowa, Comecticut; J~oeDailett (Harvard Class of 'SI),of Ithaca, New York; and Donald Hall (Harvard Ciass of 'SI), of Eagle Pond Fami, Danbury, New Haven. 1 have also to thank Clay Mitchell, the present hblisher of neHarvard Advocate for his assurance that I have The Harvard Advocate's permission to make use of The Harvard

Advocate matenah. For various souod advice 1 also thank Richard Fyffe. Curator of Manuscript Collections. Special Collections Library, University of Connecticut at Stom. 1 am grateful to Peter Carini and Patricia Albright of the Department of Archives and Special

Collections at Mount Holyoke Coilege, South Hadley, Massachusetîs, for aleiting me to the Koch materials among the Glascock Poetry Rize Archives, and for granting me permission to quote from these materials in my thesis I thank the staff at Irving House, Cambridge, and Harvard Student Agencies, Cambridge, for their assistana. In Edmonton, the refmnce staH at the University of Aiberta libmies and the Edmonton Public Library, Cenienaial Bmch, wem aiso of much help. 1 am dm grateful to John Charles and Jeannine Green of the Bruce Peel Special Collections Li brary at the University of Alberta for their consistent genemsity over the past several years. I also thank the supervisor of my Mastef s thesis work, Professor Douglas Barbour, and my first reader, Profesor Juliet McMaster, both of' the Department of English, University of Alberta, for unflaggiug encouragement, patience, and suppon. Fmaiiy I t&ankthe Department of Eagiïsb and the Factiity of Graduate Studies and

Research at the UaivcrSity of Alberta for helping to fmance my rcsearch trip ta Harvard and New York with two genm>us mlgmnts: a May Louise brie Graduate SNdent Award and a Sarah Nettie Christie Travel Award. Tabk of Contents

Introduction 1 The Texts fmThe Harvard Advocate

Note on the Texts Works Consulteci 82 Appendix A: Chmnological Checklist of AU Publication in Periodicals of Ashbery, Koch, and O'Hara to 1953 91 Appendix B: Interview with John Ashkry 95

Appendix C: htewiew with Kenneth Koch 103 Brief Chronology of the Early Careers of John Ashbery, Frank OtHara, and Kemeth Koch

-1925 Jay Kenneth Koch is born February 27,1925, in Cincinnati, Ohio, son of Stuart J. and Lillian Amy (née Loth) Koch. Lives most of early üfe in Cincinnati.

-1926. Francis Russel O'Eara is born Mmh2'7,1925, in Baltimore, Maryland, son of Katherine Bderick OWara and Russell J. O'Hara.

-1927. John Lawrence Ashbery is born in Rochester, New York, July 28, LW,son of Chester Frederick and Heien Lawrence Ashbeq. Lives much of eady life in the nearby town of Sodus, New York. -1927. The O'Hara family moves to Grafton, Massachusetts. Fraak O'Han iives much of his early life in Massachusetts.

-1933-40. Frank O'Hara attends St- Joha's School in Worcester, Massachusetts. Studies piano and harmony with private teachers in Worcester. 1938 -1938. John Ashkry begins snidying painting at Memonal Art Gallery in Rochester. 1940 -1WO-44. FrPnL O'Hnra attends St. bhn's High Schod, Worcester.

- 1941. John Aslikry wins a locai Quiz-Kid contest, then appears on the nationai radio pmg-0 -1941-44. Frank O'Hua studies piano at the New England Conservatory, Boston.

- 1943-1945. Job Asbbery spends bis final two yeam of High School at Deerfield Academy, a preparatory school in Deerfreld, Massachusetts. At Dedeid he snidies Latin, French, English, Algebra, Painting, and othet subjects. Takes the part of 'Miss hWin Dedeld's production of the play The Man Who Came to Dinneru by Mors Hart and George Kairfman; penomi~the role of "MPrihn Brewster" in the play "ARenicand Old Lacen by Joseph Kesselring: also wodrs on the sceimy for the school's production of "H.M.S Pinafore." -January-Aprii 1943 (Spring Terni). Ke~ethKoch attcnâs the University of Cincinnati. majoring in Eagüsh literatun?, and is awerded the Straus Poeûy RUe for that year. -.June lW3-January 1946. Kenmeth Koch W dafted into the U.S. Amy. Serves as rifiemen in the %th Infmtry Division, stationcd mdyon islaads in the Pacifi~c.

-194446. Frank 0'- disis in the U.S. Navy and serves as sanaman third ciass on the destroyer USS J+Jîchdas.Stationed in the States of Virginia and California in the U.S ., and also in the South Pacifïc.

-194549. John Ashbery studies at Harvard University, majoring in Eaglish, with art history as a minor. Member of the at Harvard,

-Surnmer 1946-Spring 1948. Kenneth Koch studies at Harvard University, msjoring in English Iiterature. -1 W65O. Frank O'Hara studies at Harvard University. Majors initialiy in music, then changes the major to EngIish.

- 1947. The &mard Advoute mturns to pubtishing after a four-year interruption. The provisional board holds a cornpetition in the spring of 1W7 to elect new bard members. -April 1947 (Vol. Qwr, No. 1) is the first issue of -vard Advoeate since the w ar-time shutdown. -194743. in the April28,1947 (Vol. CXXX. No. 2) issue of -ardAdvocate3 Kenmth Koch is listed as among the "Literary Associates" on the Advocate boerd He remains so listed until the spiing of 1WB -Autumn 1947. John Ashbety and Kemneth Koch meet mund this theor süghtïy earlier. -194749. In the December LW7 (Vol. (SMW, No3) issue of The Harvard Advocaie, John Ashkry is listed fot the fmt time as among the "Litemry Associates." He nmains so listed untii the autuma of 1949. -Spring 1948 Keniea Koch is awarded the Lloyd McKim Gmison Rize. His poem. or short dramatic dialogue. "htr'actefor a Ficalr Showwis printcd in ne Hmard Advocate on tbis occasion. -Spring 194S John lSIhkry is awardd the only Honorable Mention for the Lloyd McKim Garrison Rize competiticm d 1WS. His poem "Songfrom a Play" is printed in Tb-k Tb-k on this occasion. -ApnllW8. Keuetb Koch nads his poctry at Mount Holyoke Coilege. South Hadley, Massachusetts, and is the= pmnounced cctwinner of the Kathryn Irene Glascock Mernorial Poetry Rize. -June 1948. Keaneth Koch graduates Cum Laude frwi Harvard University, A.B.

-Spring L949. Job Ashkty and FhiL O'Hua meet for the kttirne. - 1949. John Ashbery is elected Class ktfor the Class of '49. Completes his BA. (Honors) degne in English Literatwe (with a minor in att history). Honors thesis: 'Tûe Poetic Medium of W.H. Audea." Graduates Cum Laude in spring of 1949. -Autumu 1W9. John Ashbery begins graduate studies at Columbia University.

-19Sû-51. Kemeth Koch travels to France on a Fdbright Fellowship. -Spring 1950. Frank O'BPn graduates fmm bardUniversity with a B.A. in English Li terature. -Sumer 1950. Frank O'Hara works as a stage apprentice at the Brattie Theatre. Cambridge, Massachusetts. -Autumn 1950. Frank O'Hara begins graduate studies at the University of Michigan, Am Arbor. One of his &hg teachers at Harvard, John Ciardi, had ncommended O'Hara undertake his MA. at the U of Michigan. saying that O'Hara was sure to win the Hopwood Award, as Cidbif bad done sorne years eariier.

-Septemkr 195 1-April1952. Kenneth Koch holds a teaching assistantship at the University of California at Berkeley. -195 1. Fruilr O'Hara graduates with an M.A. in 1951. Rcçeives the Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Award in Creative Writing fmm the University d Michigan for "A Byzantine Place,"his manuscript of pams, and a verse play Trvi I . The judgcs are Karl Shspim, Louis Untumeyer. and Rtrr Vi-k. OT&r g;s?;! TV!, a Noh Play and om Red- are proctuced by the Pocts' Theatre. of which he is a fouadhg memkmposes the incideatnl music for John Ashky's masque Eve- which is dso produced this year by the Poets' Theatrc. -Au- 1951. Ftank O'Hara moves kt0 an aparbnent in Manhattan. WaLs briefly as private secretary to Cecil Beatcm. Works at the fiwt desk of the Museum of Modem Art. -195 i. Job Ashber graduates with an MA.degrec in Euglish fiterature fmm Columbia University. #il esis: "Three Novels of Heury Green." -1951-54. John Ashkry wohp at MordUniversity Press as advertisiag copywriter. AIso wiitcs and publishes the house organ, Qnc Fourteen.

-1952. Fr& O'&iuats fust collection of poems, a chapbook entided A Citv Winter, and Other Poems, is published (New YorL: Editions of the ). -1952. Kenneth K=h, retumed fmm California and Frima. gets to know Fnnk 0'- wdl in person, though he had been fdarwith OHaia (and bis writings) previously from correspondence and from OWads Adv~cafe-publishedwork. -1952. Job Ashkry wins the YMHA "Discovery"prize (CO-winnersare Harvey Shapim and Gary Burr). -May 14,1952. John Asbkry, Frank OWHara,Barbara Guest, James Schuyler, and (Chaimian), conduct a panel discussion billeci as TheNew Poe&" ai The Club (a venue for public discussion on art, which was founded in New York by the Abstract Expressionists in 1949).

-- 1953. Kenmeth Koch graduates Mth an MA. in English litetanire from Columbia University. His fint collection of poems, a chapbook entitled PoemsS is published (New York: Editioas of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery). -1953. John Ashkry' s fmt collection of poems, a chapbook entitled Turandot and Other Poems, is published (New York: Editions of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery). -1953. a sequence of prose poems by Frank O'EWa, is published by the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in conjunaion with an exhibition of Grace Hartigan's paintings. O'Hata resigns fmm the Museum of Modem Art in order to bemme an editorial associate of An News. for which he writes articles and reviews. - 1953. The Aitists' Theatre is founded by John Bernard. Myers and Herbert Mnchiz in New York. The fmt program consists of meRed Hood by Kenneth Koch, hsentinn Jane by James Sehuyler, and Try! Te!by FrIlll)t O'Buri.

--June 12, 1954. Kenneth Koch desMary Janice Eiwd(died, 1981). -19SeS5. John Ashbery works as copywriterin the coïIegedepaxtment at McGraw-Hill. New York.

-1955. Job Askryis granted a Fulbright rholarship to study in France. Studies first at the University of Montpellier, then at the Sorbonne in Pans. -1955. Frank O'Bur rejoins the Museum of Modem Ait in New York, as a special assistant in the htcmational Program. (Fia& O'Hsra remained on staff at the Museum of Modem Art until lm, the year of bis death. He vas smrk by a dune buggy on FÛe Island, New York, on July 24,1966, and died fmcompiicatians the foiiowing day ai Bayview Hospitai, Mastic Beach, Long Island.)

[A Note on Sources: for detaüs of CYHara's Iife, the "SMCbniwlogy" in Dabald Allen's editian of The Cdlected Enms_ofErank has has indindispcde;I have cirawu heavily fiit. F;w details on Ashbq, 1 have made e-ve use of two eariy typcsmipt &mn& fma fide laklled "lggumesnin Box 48 in the John Ashbery Paprs of the Houghm tikary, Harvard University, For Koch, I have drawn espciaIly on the biograpbical account of his fife in the AuthorsROM pubüskd by Gaie Research, 1996, and a questicmnaie tbat Koch fiai out in 1- as a contestant for the GIascock Poetry nizc at Mormt Hdyoke Cdege, a maauscript tbat is aow kqt in the Mount Hdyoke College archives. (Koch's early Iife sœms as yet to have reccived littie tmmcat in print) Furtbcr imporiant sourices include the foflawing: %radGooch, Citv Poet- theof- Oof AJan Feldman, Richard Kostelanetz. OldmNew; Bill Berlccioa and JœLcSueur, eds., to Fia& 0- and the biogramcal notes in Danaid Allen and George F. Butterick, eds., RWtFV Revis& I have also humsomcwhat on prsoaaI conversations with John AshW and Kenneth Koch. Fbr fuller citations of the pubiished sources, see 'Works Consutted."] Introduction

Between 1947 and 1951-fmm 40 Bow Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts-the student-nin magazine The Harvard Advocatc publîshed six issues a year, most issues having between twenty-four and thirty-six pages, and having a strong iiterary emphasis. Usually several stories. a handfui of book reviews, and up ta Madozen poems by students were published in each issue. Sometimcs the Advocate piinteci iiterary essays by Harvard faculty or alumnî, or, lesfquentiy, by literary figures not connected to the university, such as Carlos Williams or Stephen Spder. Occasionaily there were pieces of general interest ta Harvard students: for instance, one on "Afhletic noMemsnby William Bingham immediately follows hank O'Hararsshort fiction "LateAdventure" in the September 1950 issue; and an -cle on the war trials mlated to the Malmedy massacte immediately precedes Ashbery's poem "Fora Eumpean ChiIdnin the Commencement issue of 1949. The Advocate printed minimal artwork-usually no more than an occasionai pend sketch illustrating a story-and riddled its issues with an odd range of advertisements. Tbere were a& for prestigious local clothing stom, and for Cambridge bwkshops tbat would later become famous gatbering places for miters: the Mandrake and the Grolier, for instance. The back inside cova of the Advocate was often an ad offering to purchase "dafYyaand "momn"jokes for a dollar a piece; the front inside cover was nearly aiways a cigarette adveitisement fitu~genâorsements from sports stars of the day. who asured the readet "Moredoctors smoke Camels ibaa any other cigarette"-a vivid reminder that the era in which these Advocate, issues were publisbed is indeed somewbat wrnote from our own. Koch, Ashkry, and O'Hara would al1 begin their Harvard studies in tâis pst-War perioà Ashbery was too young to be drafted, but boa Koch and O'Hara served in the U.S. military beforc entering Harvard, and hbycould taLe advantage of the offer guaranteed by "the G.I. Bill of Rights, passed by Congress in 1944, pmviding four yuus of college education for veterans" (Gooch 92). It would seem that the ending of the War and the grantiog of the G.I. Bill gave the Harvard campus a ccmsiderably dinerent energy than it had had in prcvious years. The MtionaI pwarHarvard ceremoay dseventecn-ydd bearûiess youths dvingin the Yanl from sdect prcparatory high schools in the Northeast, dressed m white bucks, udoading Vuitton bas fmm the backs of their c011vertibles, was lost in the swge of new, and dicn oider, faces. (Gooch 95) The arriving vetcaas in fact made up nearly three Quarters of the Harvard Jtudent population. and generally had an uncornmon "intensityand decïsiveaess" that was likely derived from their broader, more worldly expenence in the war. "they knew what they

wanted as bad no other generation in the ncent past" (Gwch 97). Though Frank OWara was initiaiIy attracted to Harvard's music deparûnent,

whose chair was then the Pulitzer Rize-winning composer Walter Piston. John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch were especially keen on Harvard's literary opportunities. By the time they began their studies, Harvard already had a substantial bistory of pets among its

alumni-Edwin Adington Robinson, , T.S. Eliot. , and e.e.

cumrnings to name a few-as weIi as severai well-established poets then teaching: Delmore Schwartz and Thdore Spencer, for instance. Poets such as John Ciardi and Richard

Wilbur were also in~tructonat Harvard, though their camers had odyjua bepn. Both Koch and Ashbery were attracted to the iitemy oppodties offered by The Harvard Advocate as well, which by 1947 was just starting to publish again, after a four-year hiatus. The Advocaîe was not the ody student periodical on campuothe Harvard Cnmson provided schml news, and the Harvardpmvided occasional satire-but the Advacate, as Kenneth Koch says, was "&literary magazine" at Harvard at the the (Lmdry interview 106). And it was one that bad an impressive literary pst: Robinson, Stevens, Biot, and Aiken, for instance. had ail sat on the Advocate board and published much of their ediest work in the magazine- Both Kach and Ashmwould k elected to the literary bardof the Advocate soon after its reopcning, and would sit at meetings with seved writers who would later becorne prominent Ameriûin authors and editas: John Hawkes and Harold Bmdkey wouid become mspected novelists; would publish his own poetry widely and would dit pfiies, The Sixties, and Tbe Seventies, literary joumals aiïgned with the heded"Dcep Image" school, and eventually Bly would becow the leadhg figure in the Men's Movement; Donald Hall-an intimate frkdof' Blyk-would go on to edit the illostrious Paris Review as well as several iduentiai poetry seiiw bmught out by the University of Michigan. where he would teach as a pmfessor of Engiish for many years. In the titie poem of his most recent book of poetry, The Old Life (1996). Haü nzcollects:

ûn the Advocate in nineteen forty-eight, we argued al1 night about whether a pwm was decent enough to print. John Ashbery sat in a chair, shelling pistachio nuts; Robert E Bly wore a three- piece suit and a striped tie; Kenneth Koch was ever sarcastic. (49)' The full story of the Advocate's ciosing in 1943 and reopening in 1947 seems unclear. Jonathan Culler says simpiy. "[tlhe War silenceci the Advocate for nearly four years" (CuUer xxvi). It is true that during the second World War much at Harvard-and in the United States-closed or at least slowed down, in deference to various war-time preoccupations. But it may k that there were other reascms for the Advocate's shut-down. NomMailer, who had been on the board ktween 1941 and 1W2. paints a picm of mismanagement and considerable diinking: the Amin Mailer's the pubiished issues at wildly imgular intervais and once kwa huge and well-liquored ptyfor Somerset Maugham, which "doubledour debt in a single night," and which Maugham appntly never attended, baving cdydeciined weeks edia(rirst Roweriqg xiii). Brad Gmh

In his letter of 7 Novembcr 1996, Hall ciaboratcs: "1 don2 think that Fkank was ever at a meeting, because he was not a membcr. John was quiet, but evcryone Iistened wknhe had an opinion. Ken was loud and bmy and forcerid aad dkative, sarcastic.' suggests sometbing further, that a and of homophobia infonned both the shut-down and the rropening: Having been funded by a pupdOld Guard trustees, the magazine had adlybeen disbanded in the eady 1940s because of indications that its editorial boaid had huneci into an exclusively homostxuai club. When it was started up again in 1947 with fun& from a Boston businessman, an unofficial guideline had suppoacdly kenagreed upon banning homosexuais from the board. (Goach 122) Kenneth Koch suggests that it was not ody homosexuals wh~nthe stipdaths of a patron of the Advocate-were to be brvnd fmm the lxmrd, but that blaclrs, Jews, and heavy drinkea were to be excludeci as weU (IAndry inte~ew107). The pet Donald Hd writes: It was common knowledge-which does not mean that it was me!-ihat when the Advocate went bust, at some point eady in the IW(k, it was pretty dnmken and pretty gay. I nevet heard that it was "pretty Jewish." 1 do biow that Mailer and Nemvwere bath on it apptoximately at that time. Well, at least they were published there. I think they were on it. There were mours that it had been a largely gay club. In our tirne, it was partly gay, partly soaight, with no problems behveen the pups Certainly when we voted on electing new members, no issues of sexuality or ethnicity ever arose. I'm virtuaiiy certain I would remember if they had doue . - .. BG I do remember that the nunor was that homosexuality had something to do with the shutting dowa of the 01d Advmate before us. And 1 do remember one Trustee was known as an anti-Semite. I do aot remember his narne. (Hail, Letter to Londry, 7 November 19%)

The identity of the sponsor who supposedly donated fuods with strict, exclusionary conditions has not ban absolutely confhned. The editorial in the fmt post-War Advocate issue (April 1947) says relatively little about the magazine's financial cnibibutors: Among the rnany who have made the revival of the Advocate possible, its own Ehard of Trustees desewe first mention. The fuiancial support of the Board as a whole, and the advice and assistance of' Mr. William Bentinck- Smith in piviicular were absolutely indispsable. (20) Harvard University Archives has among iîs holdings papm relating to the Advocate and Mr Benthck-Smith. and it may be thnt some of the mystery would be cledby examination of these pptrs-which are, however, cumntly under dctedaecess.2 Wbattva "unonicial guideLines* thac might have ken famemôership on the board in 1W7, Jews and homosexuals were represented-among them, Koch and Ashbery, respectively. There were no blacks an the board at tbat tirne, though this may k attributable Iess to imposed policy then to statistical improbability, since, as Hal1 mentions, there were "few blacks in my class of a thoulrand" (Hall, Letter to Landry, 7 November 1996). There were, by al1 accounts, heavy drinkers in solid supply on the board-and thus three of the four purportedly banned minorities were in fact well icpnsentd Whatever stipulations the Trustees or sponsors may have made. they seem not to have been taken very seriously by the board memkn. It seerns that the Advocate did not genedly see colour or ongin or even content as most essential to its coacems. but ratha style of expression and quality of thoughf in the spirit of many literary journals that came before them: as the first pst-War editorial stated, "[t]he Advocrrte is a literary magazine in the broad sense of the word which excludes no subject but ody the ili-coasidered or badly written."

1 was unable to e-minetbts papes during my rt~carcbat the Ardùves. It shldbe mentioncd, however, that ûonald Hall in his lcmr of 18 Decernkr 19% stresses that the anti-Semitic Trustce to whom he refers 'was Bentinck-Smitb." The Poets

Kenneth Koch

The oidest of the three pets, Jay Kenneth Koch was born in 1925 in Cmcinnati. Ohio. He bas said that he began witing poetry at the age of five. in 1930, but ody became serious about it in bis mid to late tees (Shapiro interview 55). Sawof Koch's relatives in Cincianati had literary interests:

My maber, if Jeoms to me, had literary talent She wrote a couple of short stories, which 1was wt capable of judging. She was often called on to lecture in various places on books, and often she would try out these book reviews of hers on me. They were sort of like dramatisations more than criticism. And then was a fdylegend, of which 1was never able to ascertain the tmth. but it was probabiy true. tbat one of my mother's uncles, who had become quite prospemus. gave up everything in order to write a baok called Her Fint Kiss. (Hdinterview 27)

There is another anecdote of an uncle wbo, when Koch was f~teen,"took me down to the family business and opened a big safe and showed me some of the poems he had written when he was nineteen years old, and he gave me a big book of Shelley," whereupon the young Koch "immediately started writiog poems which 1 thought were in the style of Shelley. I realised later that my poems wercn't much Iike Shelley. but they had a sort of Shelleyan attitude. I was standing there in the midst of dlspace, time and history, evoking things. and saying thee and thou" (Hetd inte~ew27).

When Koch was sixteen or seventeen Yeats old, he "discovend modern American poetry and I also discovered New Directions antûologies," editcd by Louis Untemeyer -"big wondeiful books ail full of the avant-garde writing of the timen-which included poets such as Paul Goodman, Delmore Schwartz, William MosWilliams. A number of the pets had gone to Harvard Delmore Schwartz in fact. was teaching a course at Hamard, and 1 likcd bis work a lot. Wallace Stevens, as 1 nmmiber, had gone to Harvard. T.S. Eliot had gme to Harvard. I forget who else. It seemed to me a place where poets went to schaol. And of course it had a reputation as a very good college. (Londry inte~ew103) Before Koch entered Hward, however, he was conscriptcd into the U.S. Army. Wbile

serving as an infantqman in the Pacitxc he held a subscription to Vicw-amagazine published in New York by same of the Smrrelists, who wen among Koch's greatest

admirations at the the. Koch once submitted a batcb of his own pœms to Wews and received a rejection slip bearhg the concise encouragement= "We üke your poems, but go deeper into yourself- heam"(Londry interview 10. Koch's eady attempts to publish. however, bore ftuit quickly enough. Whiie dill statioaed in the Pacif~c,Koch learned tbat Poetry magazine-the prestigious Chicago monthly foundcd by Haniet Mo- in 19 12- had accepted some of his wok For the November 1945 issue the editors, Peter De Vries and Marion Strobel, had taken three short poems: two sure-rhythmeù descriptions of Koch's war-time experiences, and one rather sumai lyric about a pleasnrable train joumey, which closes with this seiking image: It was arnazing, as though you conld place your hand in a ripe fmit and withdraw a beautiful afternwn.3

One of Koch's next-published pieces, and one of his diestextant poems,

"Schoolyard in April," was published in Poe- about a year and a balf later, in the April 1947 issue. Here the influence of seems shong-with the very short lines. little punctuation, and the unadomed reporthg of ordinary events. The first stanza, for instance, presents "Little girls" who,

unconscious of the ôeauty of their movements like rniikweed in the wind, are beginning to drift over by the drinking fouotain where they will skip tope

Much of the other poetry Koch umte and pubüshed during his Harvard days is Mer, deuser, more complex syntactically and semantically thaD "Schwlyard in April." Koch bas

Inicmtingly, a similar image-'laside the pomcgniaaic is the biuc sw-wdd appcar svdyens iater as the opening line of Koch's pem "Pregxmcy,"first puMished in the Febcuary 1956 issue of pketry, and lafer mllected in Koch's You adOther (1962). Generaily. Yeats and Surtcalism appear to be the most evident innuences in the verse Koch wrote and pubfished as an undergraduate. The first iweof The Haward Advocaie in which Koch appearsd was the May 21 issue of 1947, the third issue since the Advocaîe's reopening in April. This, the year's

"PoewIssue," is dominateci by Kennetû Koch and John Ashôery: the issue prints four poems by Kach and thme by Ashbey. 'RE fmt of Koch's is a paem that prcpares us for his other writings of the period, a poem that might be mdas somethupg ofa poetics:

NocruRN & AUBADE Now, as a chiid, descend, descend; Youwill grow asfatascream, - And float to the top With your bones undnssed By the angry limestone of dream. Now, at the glass, pretend, pretend: Balance your swimming face, - Or bow, as it rocks, How love must move Tbrough nakedness to grace. In many, even most, of the poems by Koch of this perid, the word "dream"figures prominentiy, as does the image of the minor, the "giass." These two quatrains seem to have the message: huun redeems, though aot without pain. Oae ought to descend with an attitude of openness ("es a child") and through the deal of the descent into "dreamn(the unconscious, or sudity)begin to face oneseif ("at the glass"). Whiie in front of the mimr one has two choices: one can either "pretend," try to save "face," to ignore the previously supprrssed content that is now uneaLthed fmm the mcollscious, and thus live a conventimally or supeficially "balanced"Me, or, cm the other hanci, one can realize that an authentic, lively Me, a Me of redemption (a Me of 'love" and "grace") must opt for the way of "nakedness," en open-eyed descent into the depths of "dm."This strategy is strongly reminiscent of Surrcalism's eari y interpretation (or appropriation) of Fieudian psychoanaiysis. In his fmt maniftstoof SumPlisut, pubfished in 1924, An& Breton stresses the radicaily thecapeutic or redemptive qualities da"descent into ciream": Surrealism is based on the beiidin the supaior tcality of certain forms of previousiy neglected assoCiations. in the onmipotence of ditam, in the disintercsted play of thougbt It tends to nM once and for dl al1 other psychic mechanisms and O substitute itselffor thcm in solving dl the principal probiems of üfe. (Breton 26)

Koch was reading hudas well as Sunepüsm whiie at Harvard-he nfeR to the thhicer more tban once in the poems of the Garri~onRize MS-aiid by 194) he would be undergoing analysis with a Dr Rudolph Lowenstein in New York (Rivers 27576). Three other poems of Koch's were published in the same issue as "Nocturn&

Aubade." Al1 four poems have their seiking lines, and show an abiiity to surprise. as with

the penultimate suuiza of "In Answer to This Empthess": We have arriveci at creation and have swallowed the rnirror: inside us giittering verities shùie, reflect, are re-reflected into speech, are wine in the mouth. in the eyes, in the air, are eyes in the wine of the mouth of the air. .. . Yet in genetal the twenty-two year old Koch is writing a kiod of dogged sumaiism: he seems to be reaching very deliberately, very effortfully, for iaûicacy, seriousness. importance, and sumalistic effects. The ody other poem Koch published in TheHarvard Advocate marked the occasion of his winning the Lloyd McKim Garrison Rize, which was "awardedannuaily by the Faculty [of Harvard] for the best pmsin Engiish submitted in a cornpetition open to Harvard undergraduates" advocatt May 21,1947: 11). This poem was "Entfactefor a Freak Show." which would later be fquentiy anthologized in collections of bdvocate writing. At least as surreaiist as Koch's four earlier Adv- pacms, "Entriacte"seems, howeva. a more matum. more realized acbievement: it has a clarity and ccmtexnielization that is less present in the earlier four bdvocate poems.

Koch prepares us well for his sumalistic irnagery by praviding a title that sets the scene and frarnes each speech. An "ene'acte" is a performance taking place between acts; the title tells us this perticular "Entr'actewtakes place at a "Fkak Show": thus we are pmparrd for the short, odd pmthat follows, popuiated with th.strange speakers, The Man with the Lroa Mouth, The Human Mg,and The Beardcd Lady. The pocm's rhythms are stmng, though not mechanidy cm. The tone is mysterious and authoritative: even a cunory mding of it gives the reader the sense it may weil k saying something of import. Smiantically, the poem is a thomugh Mequestioning: the Man with the Ifon Mouth refers to his own freak-show work as "rniracuiousn;the Fmg rdorts that the Man's trade is simply a "tricL"; the Man then defends his iivelihood as a worthwhile end iiberating activity, one chat aims at "Absiml perfection." and in tum criticizes bth the hgand the hypocrisy of the freaL show audience ("you can remove / The vision with a smile, sane and sincere. I Clencbing your fisis"); the Beded Lady then enters, challenging them both ("Gentlemen, you both lie. Confess me hem I the twice tormented mirror of your dream"). Though "Endacte," seen beside much other undergraduate verse, is an unusually

accomplished piece. i t does corne across as a kind of "textbook surreaiism,"and it and Koch's other Advocate-published poems do not point directly to his later, more mature work. If anything, Koch's later cornic, convetsational. and deceptively simple lyrics make

these earlier attempts seem somewhat pntentious and forced. Koch bas described one way

that his attitude toward complexity changed soon after graduating fiom Harvard:

Frank O'HaraJ was telling me about a novel cded The Circur by Frank Scuiiy. 1 was sort of a snob about üterature when 1 met Fraalr; he was more sophisticated. 1 asked him if the novel was good, and he said "Yes. It's very quiet and modest and dktand clear and simple." I'd aever thought those were good things; I'd thought novels - literature - had to be deep and cornplex to be good My wife and 1went to the haterin London to =a praduction of P- Pm. It wss a children's pmduction, but very moving. Its simplicity, even its "dumbness," stemcd an important part of what was good about it. (Shapiro interview 57)

It seems. too, that Koch's attitude toward serioumess was influenced substantially by bis reading of the mentieth-century knchpoet Max Jacob: 1 was very moved by Max Jacob, particulariy his prose poems in Le Cornet à &S. Those poems of Jacob are dm-like, lyrïcai, and et the same time 11 very fiinny. Fmm Jacob 1lmed the po6sibility of king funny and lyricai at the same the, and that meant a lot to me. (Shaph inte~ew61) Though Koch wodd maintah a me-long intmst in sumaüsm, it would seem that the sort of seriounies, tending towvds the pondemus, of his Mvcxate pieces wodd be sanething to be ovacome before he could write in the comical yet lyricai way that today seems SCJ quintessentiaîly Koehian. Note the deiighdul improvisational ranp one fin& in lines such as these, from the opening of 'In Love Mt&You," a pacm fmpublisbed in Poetry magazine in 1955

O what a physical efktit has on me To dive forever into the îight blue sea Of your aquaintance! Ah, but dearest friends, Li ke forms, are finished, as life has ends! Still, It is beautif', when October Is over, and Febniary is over, To sit in the starch of my shin. and to drumi of your sweet Ways! As if the world were a taxi, you enter if then Reply (to no one), "Let's go five or six blocks." Isn't the blue stream that anspast you a translation from the Russian? Am't my eyes bigger tbaa love? Isn't this history, and aren't we a couple of ruins? 1s Carthage Pornpeii? is the pillow a bed? is the sun Wbglues our heads together? O midnight! O laidnight! 1s Iove what we are, Or has happiness come to me in a private car That's so very mal1 I'm amazed to see it there? Such an energetic wedding of wistful lyrinsm and zany humour wouid be a few years yet to come. John Ashbery

The youngest of the thme pts,Iohn Lawrence Ashbery was born in 1927 in Rochester, New York, anci grcw up in the nearby tomof Sodus on his father's fNit ferm. Like

Koch, Ashbery -te pmseady in We. Among Ashbery'spapcrs at the Houghton

Library are a handfd of very eady juvenifia, including The Battiew("minen 8 p.5 mos. - Dec. 1939) which opens: The mes are kntwith their gliaering lad, The bushes are covered and so is the road. The faines are ridia$ upon their aiowflakes, And the tail haystacks are gieat supmounds. These are the faines camping grounds.

Another poem fmm the same file, dateci May 1936, isa collaboration between Ashbery and his materna1 grandmother. Adelaide Lawrence. Ashbery often spent theat his grandparents' house in Rochester. wben his grandfather, Henry Lawrence, was the chair of the Department of Physics at the university. Ashbery recalls that as a child

I used to spend almost every weekend with him. He was the scholarly member of the famiiy. He had a lot of books 1 iiked to pore over-compleie sets of Victorian novelists and pets. 1 was very fond of him. It's said that 1 look like him now, and that as a teenager 1 looked as he looked at the same age. (Kostelanetz inkrview 91) Ashbery's life in Sodus was not always happy, however. "I had a youuger biother whom 1 didn't get dong with-we were always fighting the way kids do-and he died at the age of nine. 1 felt guilty because 1 had ken so nasty to him, so that was a tembie shock" (Stitt interview 61). Neither did Ashbery get dong with his fatber: "He was a good person. but he had a very violent temper" (Herd interview 32). Sodus was very nual and Ashkry's early interests in art and literatwe were shed by few. Some c01lsoIation was found in weekly art classes in Rochester, but even these excursioas were coloured by a certain lack

My ambition was to be a painter, sa 1 todr weekiy classes at the art museurn in Rochester from the age of about eleven until f~teenor sixteen. I fell deeply in love with a gV1 who was in the class but who wouldn't have anything to do with me. So 1 went to this weeldy class howing that 1 13 would sa tbis girl, and somehow this king involvecl with art myhave sbmething to do with my paetry. Also, .. -1 üvd with [my grandparcna] as a siiall child and went to kïndergarten and fmt grade in the city. I aiso loved [thtir] home; thece were lots of hids around, and I misscd al1 this tmibly whm 1went kkto live with my parents. Tbeo gohg back there each wak for art class was a retuming to things 1had thougbt were last. and gave me a culious combination of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. (Poulin interview 32) Ashbery's eariy interest in painting waned a little when he encorntend modem poetry at the age of fûteen:

I was in high rhool and had received a prhe in a Tmcurnnt events contest which was conducted in our high school. 1didn't know very much about cumnt events, but apparently 1was gdenough at guessing so that 1 won the quk and was awarded an anthology of modem Amnican poetry [me edited by Louis Untemieyer]. 1had nevady thought very much about poetry till that tirne. .. . For some reason that anthology ofpoetry made me feel competitive in a way that 1had never felt when iwkhg at pictures. Maybe because 1 lmew !was never gohg to be a very good painter anyway. But it seemed to me tbat this form offend me a lot of possibilities that would have kenunavailaMe tome if 1 was just painting one thing. A pichire is a pictue-it's what's thm-whereas poetry is what's there and aiso is everything that isn't there. (Poulin interview 34) In this Quiz-Kid period, Ashkry's parents realized "the educational Limitations of his rural hi gh school " and sent him "toa prepatatory schml, the Deerfield Academy ,for his junior and senior years, under 'a scholarship' anonymously provided by a Sodus neighbr"

It was while at Deerfield that Ashbery first had his poetry accepted for publication- initidly in the high school paper. neDarfeld Sdl.and later in Poeûy, though the latter publicatim was entirely without his consent. Many years later, in the 1987 Di~mond Jubilee issue of Poetry, Ashbery wouid recount the story of his early truck with the famous Chicago magazine: My fmt appearance in Poe~in November 1945 came as a complete surprise, in fact, a shock, ta me. In the spring of 1W5,my last year at Deerfïeld Academy, 1had shown some of my pmsto Dafield's poet in midence, David Morton. He was polite about thern, but it seemed to me in reaospcct also somewhat odd and nserved. The mason, 1found out later. was that a fnend and clasmate of mine. dso an aspiring pet, bad shown Morton some of his poems and afso some of mine, passing the latter off as his own. Morton had been sunicientiy impressed by them to forwad them to P~nywhen unbeknownst to me two of mine were accepted. Shortly aftewards. 1 sent a group of my poems to Pohy and eventualîy had them 14 retwncd with a rcjection slip an which an editor M written the single word "Soy." In November of tbot yur, when both 1and my erstwhile frïend were freshmen at Harvard, 1was st~nedto see two of my poems in Pmfry under andetname (JdMichad Symington), a pscudonym chosen by my friend (who is now dcceased). This was doubly distuthg since I assumed tbot the ditors of Pue&y hd sPppoaed that 1vas the plngipsist and that 1 wddk pennmently blackballed fmm publishg thm. Since Pamy was vimtally the only outlet for poetly aithe time, it setmed to me that my career as a pet had ended More it kgan. It was quite a few yem Mon 1was able to summ011up ewugh courage to submit mas paisto Pwny.4 ("Commentnmtry 1513 -ber lm:2û3) Even in these "Symington"poems-with their sophisticated syntax, elegance ofphrasing, and rescmant mysteriousness of diction-Ashkry shows strcngths that would figure large in his later work. Y# the Ashbery of the "Symington"poems is wtdly recognizably the mature Ashbery. And in fact Ashbery would later fmd them "Itind of embariassiog,"and would be "glad they weren't published under my own name" (Kermani 70). It would not be until his Harvard yem that Ashbery would write the kind ofpoems that he would eventually feel were worth collecting in a full-length volume. At Harvard, Ashbery experirnented with a variety of styles, tones. and poetic fomis. and much of this exploration is weU evidenced in the nuwmus pieces puMished in the Advwate. The magazine printed thirteen pieces by Ashbery, neariy twice as m~nyas those by O'Hara and Koch, who published seven each.

John Ashbery was well-respecteci by the Advocate bard, both as a writer and an editor. In a contributors' note in the September 1W8 issue, the editors praise Ashbery's indeedn@dvocate September 1W8: 17). Donald Hall joined the magazine in "Februiuy or March 1948,"s and. in his JkisReview intewiew, remembers Ashbey's pesence on the board vividly: I admired Ashôery; we dl admired John, although in generai we wmnot a muhial admiration Society. In gened we were murdemus. John was at thaî time reticent, &y, precocious. He had published in P~ebywhile he

ILwas in fact not till ten years later. in Daxmber of 1955, with Henry Rago presiding as editor. that Ashbery would puMish in htq again, Doaald Hall's 7 Novembcr 1996 letter to Michael b&y. was still at fkenitld Acadtmy. On the Advatare, we wmtembly serious about the poerns we pubiished. Wewouid stny up untii two or three in the morning arguing whc(her a poem was good enough to k in the magazine. One time we ûad a half-page gap adasked John to corne up with a poem. Afiter some pdding, he concedd that mqbe he bad a pœm. He went back to his mmto gct it, and it took him faty minutes. Wedi&'t know it then, but of couse-he Iater admittcd-he went homc and wrote the mm, In 1989 I told John this story-wondming if he remembmd it as I &d-and he even iernembaed thep&m, wbich bëw, 'hrtunate Alphonse, the shy homosenual .. . He toi&me, with a Ggh, "Y-, 1 took longer theu." (179)

Ashbery's first piece published by the bdvocaîe is one of the most striking from

that period, though also one of the least Kke the matute Ashbery. helywouid Ashbery write again in such abbreviated syntax as " Nearing night i Locks tongue, ties eye." And rareiy wodd he address his reader with such direct force: .. .keep rude hands from sight Nor with speech design fidelities. Break vows as fagots: ignore Romises, prayers, . .. In later poems such as 'Self-Portmit in a Convex Mirrorwand "Paradoxesand Oxymorons" he would address the reader somewhat more obliquely, wiîh a gentier tone. RareIy, too,

would Ashbery again refer so explicitiy to religion in his poetry. Ashbery 's "Amosmi s a son of inverteci sennon, where the spealer-instead of elaboraiing on the Gd-positive

sibonificance of the passage at hend-recommends a whole new appmacb to spirituality, a rnakeshift, provisional psth that downplays moral codes and correctness: vows and prayers are outmoded: one is admonished to "travellighfW to "moveas water," to "touch nothing longn;kindness is found in keepiag one's distance, in cultivahg a "vast disinterest," rather than staunch obedience to religious des. Ashbery's speaker seems to k expouding something more akh to the iconoclasm and detachent of a Zen Buddhism iban a traditionally faithful Christianity. It is strikhg to imagine Ashbery reading this rather

fi The poan bcpi~ing'forninacc Alphonse. ..' bas not betn locatcd Sec the 'Chrowlogical Chsklist of AI1 RiMication in Periodicais of Ashbery, Koch, and ClWua to iM3"of tbe pcséat thesis for Curther deuils. radical, sumewbat anti-establishment poem at the Commencement cercmoaia of Harvard ColIege Class of '49, which he did as the elected Ciass Pau far that year (Shoptaw 38). More Iüre the metme Ashbery, and at least as good verse as "Amos," is The Peifea ûrange." "The Reifect Orange" has characteristic Ashbeyan quplities: a confident, authoritative tane caupled with a certain ambiguity of reference. The poem reads like a short eclogue set in sow placeless pasture. We know neady nothing of the context of the dialogue, wrmything of the two speakers tbemselves, except their sex. We do not know exactly why it is (nor. forthat matter, exactiy wbat it is) they are 'foregoing, foregoing."

The "end of sacrificeu may well be love, which bere is "only gened."and thus foregone. failed The poem has a tangible atmosphere of kk-a grave, imperturbable absence of intirnacy-and is an odd opposite of a MarveUÏan diem piece: rather than seizing the pleasures and vivacities of Me, when the beast "Time"is in view, the speakers resign themselves to a haunting torpor. As with Ashbery's "Amos,""The Perfect Changen seems set against a background of compromisad religiosity: in the third and fuial speech, the hand of god has only a "ceitain"sanctity. a particular and thus partial holiness, and encloses a sun that is characterized not primarily as a "heavenly"body, nor as homonymous with the "Son." but simply as 'the perfect orangen-an eartbly, arguably secular metaphor. There is something genuinely resonant hertz the piece reminds one of Beckett's absurd dialogues, or some of the more radical early Auden, such as the "EpilogueW7to The Orators (1932). One might also be dndedof Hamld Bloom's later, excellent charactaization of Ashbery's poetry as offering a 'curious radiance" and "qiialifled epiphanies"(Bloom. lphp Ashbery

54-55). The elegiac tone found in "The Perfect (Xange," as well as the theme of resignation, or 'defeatism," as Ashbeiy would later call it, would characterize much of his mature poetry.8

Though not eady mgnizcd by ticle. this is the mlatively fmous poem that opns 'O where arc yw going? said reader to rider." * For Ashbety's use of' the ccnn 'dcftatimi.' sez BachKmncthA IAvm Tucson, Arizom Interview Press, [1%5?], 19-20, Several of Ashbery's Advocate pieces seem to be Iove pms, yet have a odd evasiveness or vagueness about them. In his 1994 critical stuây on Ashbcry, John Shoptaw interestiagly dsattention to the Cold Warclimate in the United Statesjust followhg the sefond Wodd Wat. and argues that this atmadphere of intolerance, espccially toward homosexual activity, helped to fom Ashbery's unconventional and somewhat "impersonai" style of writing: But aithough, or rather bcuiuse, Ashbery leaves himself and bis homoscxuality out of his poctry. his pams misreptesent in a particula.way wbich 1 wili cd1 "hornoterrnial." Rather thaa simply biding or revealing some homosexual content, tbese pœms misrepresent and "behave" differently, no matter what their subject With their distortions, evasions, omissions, obscurities, and discontinuities, Ashbery's paems aiways have a hanotextual dimension. This homotextualiîy is histo~caiiyconditioned. Ashbery's poetics evolved durhg the late 1940s and eariy 1%ûs, a particulady repressive and paranoid period of American history marked by the investigation and harassment of homosexuals and Communists by Senator McCarthy, the House Un-American Activities Committee. the FBI. the Selective SeMce System, and the police. In 1950, for example, a Senate Report declared "sexualperveitsw a secunty Bsk, alleging their pater susceptibility to persuasion and Machail by foreign agents. (Shoptaar 4)

While it may be impossible to codmShoptaw's sweeping claim thai the source of all Ashbery's obliquities is to be found in the poet's sexual orientation, one may sense in several of Ashbery's Advocate pieces a need for "nticence"about mmabtic love, even in the famous poem "SomeTrees": To meet as far, this morning, Fmm the world as agreeing With it, you and 1 Are suddenly whsf the trees û'y To tell us we are; ...... Our Qys put on such reticence, These accents seem their own ddence. In Ashbery's poem "Fora hpeanChild," one has a sense not oaly of nticence but of extreme introversion: And no loven stniggle to image in each other Their unspeakable desires, each turning, raîher, Inward for that definition, as you do now. In the opening of Ashbery's 1W7 poem "Berceuse,"a piece Shoptaw dasnot mention, one finQ perhaps the cluuwt dcpction of danger asociaîed with sexual love; the pam is

all the more disturôing being framed as a "berceuse" (ldlaby), when its content is anything but comtorting: Slcep, love. in our Little gabled mm Outside whose door stands no one knows Rustling a paper, in plain clothes He hounds al1 imagery now And mingling in our muted Liss Would be, almost, a part of us While one can prsuasiveiy argue that the speaker of this stanza fears the possibility that his sexuaiity is under surveiIiana and may be mpolicedw(by a "plainclothes" or undeniover officer). and that dread of discovery pervades his thoughts ("hounds al1 imagery now"), one must hesitate to conclude that all of Ashberyk later obliquity is clearly explicable as a

poetic distortion of his sexual orientation; if that were the case, it would likely make Ashbery a very duil pet, with the concealment of love as his sole theme.9

Shoptaw's method as well as conclusions wmquestionable to me. He admib UtAshbcry daes na think of himselr as "agay petw(4), and tbat Ashbcrq. denies bis pote aims to bc qsiematic (IO), and that Ashbery "rarely revises by crypt words on paper" (7). yet Sboptaw still daims that one of the mmcentral fcatures of Ashbew's pcietry-in its supposedly "homotextual" and "misreprescntativeacapacity-is its tendent); to employ a kind of "cryptograp6yn whereby a phrase such as 'mincing flaga suggests a hidden phfase such as "mincine faga (6). This seems a dubious method not oniy because Asbbery's self- un der standing^ writing ptactise seem to speak against the hypotbesis t&t 'cryptography" is one d the poet's centrai writing stratcgies, but also because the= can bc w clear aitena for judging whether a particular "cryptographie" reading is "corractaor -ate. Shoptaw suggests, fm instance, that undermath the Iine "afree / Bride on the rails" thcre lies "FE ride" and "ridethe railsw (8). Yet one mi@ ratber argue that the passage suggests something such as "Fmhbridea and 'on tbc tailsa (as in a narrative in which a man takes a new bride imrnediatety fdowing bis divorce)- TkpoMcm is that-in the ence of manuscript evidence-such readings must dl-unbeavily depend upnthe critic's own imgiaative and associaticmal tendthes. However, the qwstion of the rtl&OIIShip bctwctn laquage and scxual orientation in tbc work of the New York School ptsis an intriguing one, wbicb, unfixtmately, 1 do aot have spce to treat adequately here. ïhcre are several rcfhmes to O'Hara and othcrs teasing Kach for baviag a miid case of "H.D."or "Holf~osexualDmad," a fiIiag tbat apparcntiy anise whcn Koch rtalized (which be must bave cootinually done) tbat aearly ail of bis clasest male frieads werc gay (set, fiw example, the play by O'Ham and Rivers, "Kennctb Krr:b: A Tragedy'). One woadcrs, fot imiaoœ*if Koch's smst of bcing (at fimes) a "minoritynbetetosexual might bave somchow informcd his writing. ïhaid Hall, in 'The Old Life,' ~COQUII~Sbcing at parties as a Haward sopbomore and "gosiping with Frank 1 who finished every verbal soicit witb / a last word emiW f in the rutbiess melody of camp" (48). Henry A belove-Hantard Class of '66, now Roc- of Engiish at Wesleyan University-bas racently suggested tbat 'T=raOk O'Hara diQi't talk (and write) tbe way k did because gay men taiked that way. Gay men talk the way they talk today of Frank O'Haraa (ptrsonal unic cation). Clcarly rhere are fascinating questions in the air. AnotherJkvardAdvocate piece of special intmst is the short story "Fete Galante,' which is meof the very feiv works of fiction Ashby has pubiishcd besides A

Nest of Nia(1%9). the diabontivenovel he wrote with James Schuyler. At fm glance, "FeteGaiante" may not secm at all Lüre the rnatoreAshbery9yet thm are congmïties. "Fete GalantewKems to pdgure a leter, more obviously witty Ashbery, an Ashbery that wouid wt come io the fore until pcibaps the &y 1%&, with poems like "Thoughts daYoung Gid" in Jhe Te~sCourt 0- (1%2). A passage such as this from "Fete Galante"is a typically Ashbeyan double-take:

"Mr.Wylie wishes me to say that he is sorry to have missed so much of the Party, but wili soon be with you Meanwhile let me xemind you that it lacks but five minutes of midnight! At midiught everyone unmasks!" But no one is wearing a mask.10

There is a certain seif-dexiveness and metafictional questioning in "Fat Galantenas well, qualities that abound in the pet's Iater work; imagine, for example, the following passage broken up into carefiilly-measured lines of verse, and imagine it appearing as a passage in a poem of Self-Portrait in a Convex Minor, perhaps between WW~rseningSituationn and

"FortiesFlickn-an easy fit:

Why does she talk iike this? 1s this the way they tak in reai life? Does she love this man? That's t&e important question. But try and get a look at him in the phoney iight fmm the foyer, or hear him, dy,his voice soaring into the ultra-effeminate, or full and canfuily modulated, or sinking into a bestiai monotone, like drums or the sound in a sea-shell. And the conclusion of "Fete Galante,"too, bas a typically New York Schoolian juxtaposition of the ordinary ami the extraoxûinary, as weli as what I bave dedthe "resonant mysterioumess" that is native to Ashkry's work in particulsr. And someone is wbispcring vey close, a velvety voice: "YOU WILL GO ON A TRlP- A MAN WITH BROWN EYES WlLL Sm A GIR - A JEWEL A BROADWAY =AR LENDS YOU HER FUT. YOUR LIE IS WOVEN OF DARK THREADS OF FORGEiWUES AND GOLD THREADS OF JOY ."

. . Io Compare these lines fmm "Worseniag Situaiion" in (197S):".-.My wife 1 Thinks Ikn in Oslu-Oslo, France, tbat is." Here Ashbery fniws or jmts (or even 'excuses") his mystcriousness by making it cluu that the speaker is the fmtteiier-a chcterfrom whom we expea the exotic, the cryptic, the enigmatic-but in Ashkry's later work he will nearly aiways do away with such devices; he wiU have no fmof leaving the idcntity of his speakers unspcdied, oa of leaving contexts and refemces ambiguous or unclear. ladad. saon after Hiuvard, Ashbery's verse wodd begin to keome considerably odder, "crazïcr";Kenneth Koch remembers Ashbey masaying to him at Harvard, "Kenneth. 1 think our work shodd be more crazy." And then he told me that he'd gottea this ide.fram reading Aified Jany-Ubu Roi and other things. So 1 read Jayand 1agreed with Job tbat ouwo* should be der. (Londry interview 113)

It is interesthg to note how much Ashbery wouid change and yet also stay the same: while his poerry would kcome increasingly enigmatic, and his ttferences increasingly difficult to pin down (and his pœrns chus less and less paraphrasable). his worl-fmm the

"Symington"poems of 1945 to bis matrecent volume, Can You Hear. Bird of 1995- would quite consistently maintain the elegance of syntax and diction, the authority in tone, and the confident, often rneditative cadence evident in so many of Ys Advocate pieces. The last of the three pœts to enter Harvard, Francis Russeli OHam was born in 1926, in Baltimore, Maryland. but was raised mdyin Grafton and Worcester, Massachusettstts There were glimmerings of a literary backpund for FhkOliora even before he was

bom: his mother, thKay Broderick, met her future husband, Russeil Oliara, at an English course he taught at the Worcester Business institute (Gooch 15). Russell O'Hara

would won move on fmm icaching English, however, to leam "hisfamily's patchwork of businesses," including the managing of a large farm. Though the young Frank OWara read voraciously, often discussing what he read with some of bis lively-minded aunts- especidy bis Aunt Margaret, a local übrarian who greatiy encourageci O'Hara's intellectual explorations-he was at fmt a little suspicious of poetry, thinking then was something

"sissy" about it. 1 1 O'Hara ovemame this hesitancy, however, and during his Harvard

years wrote an extraordinary amount of both poetq and prose. The destextant poem, "The Higbway," is dated October 13,1946-from his fint semester at Haward (O'Hara.

Earlv Writing 5). Poetry, however, even during O'Hara's Harvard days, was not his first

and best love: he enmlled at Harvard initialiy as a music major, but in his second year

switched to English iiterature. In his thid and fourth years O'Hara sams to have thought himself as much a fiction writer and a playwright as a poet OWara's first publications- one short play and two short stories-appeared in spring and fail1948 issues of

Harvard Advocate. 12 - The playlet "Othe Dangers of MyLivingm-

l l Frank OWara mention& tbis airly 'suspiciona to Bül BehPoa many y- later (Gooch 26). It is easy to forget the dyimporîance of fiction to 0Fh~In the ammbutork note to his tim publication in RwtrJ.. "AM Arbor Vaxiations," in December 1951, k stresses fiction's dein his life, "At present OHaraJ is at workon a aovel." The novd never appead, &ou@ its unfinished manuscript eru'sts in the Frank O'Hara archive in the care of Maueen GranvilIe-Smith. witty, cbatty, fuuny, and wry. Pehps, however, one quatity lacking here tbpt WUshow up later is a Iond of wermth. The play is a witty jumble, a miniature comedy of manners, which perfiaps impresses and amuses more than it moves the rcaâer- John Ciardi, who taught O'Hara freshman Wishand lata Pbctry Composition, had these impressions of O'Haia's Wntings at Harvard: [Alside fmm picking and probing at his papcrs (1 couid teach bim nothkg but ody hope to stir him a littie closr to his own questions) his wit was a sort of wdl around him. He showd his briHiance rather than bis feehgs. -Th was a point 1 oRen made in tnllting about his writiag. 1 th* in fact, it was whm he leamed to use hu brilliance to convey mther tban ta hidc khind that he fond his power. (CiPrdi, "Later"19) Most of O'Hara's bdvœae pieces, as striking as they are, do not seem to resonate with much feeling, do not convey the warm opemess that would endear much of his best, later work to maden. Perbaps one important exception is "A Rayer for Rospero," which- though puMished nearly a year afier O'Hara had graduated fmm Harvard-was apparently composed in Cambridge, sometime in November 1949 (Coiiected Pams 654n).l3

Far different from the chatty dialogue of "O the Dangers," Frank O'Him's next Advocate piece is dense. enigmatic, bold prose, employing a forceful, sure cadence. The Unquiet Grave" does not nad as if written by the same author as "O the Dangers." There is nothing chatty or conversationai about a line such as. Thehead, with long snaky neck and

flapping iips, fluttered in the wind, its florid laves smiling and grinning in hirn." The heavily aliiterated On" sounds in this, the fmt sentence of the piece, and the apostrophe "Oh" in the sentence that follows, are just two of the many dyindications that the reader shouid expect a decidedly poetic prose. The piece might be in same sense ultimately unundentandable. but prhaps interestingly so, as are some of Samuel Beckett's very short, enigmatic prose works-evocative of an atmosphm or psychological $tate!, without king denatatively definite in signification. The title of O'Hara's next piece, "Not with a Bang .. .." dudes to the famous fast tine of The Hoîlow Men" by T.S. ElioQ4 though O'Hara's story pahrps more resernbles sumething by Hemiogway: for instance, "Hilis Like White Elephants." in which the "story"-the sctting. the characters, the plot-is creaîed almost solely out of diaiope, and a short, pithy dialogue et that.15 "Not with a Bang .. ." is perfiaps the least interesting, or least accomplished, of O'Hara's bdvocate pieoes-often king anmyingiy giib-thou@ it does have moments of intmsting and sLillfdly-rcndered dialogue. Whüe the story seems tu have tittie stylisticaiiy to do with Eliot, its content and ending may echo TheHoiiow Menmsomewbat: the charactea in "Not with a Bang. .." rnay be seen to k engaged in hoiiow or meaningless banter, undemeath which lie questionable motives-it is, after ail, a scene of a failed (and deliberateiy foiled) pick-up in a bar; and, as well, the conclusion of the story may be as rnuch a "whimper" or fizziing-out as the meaning and rhythm of Eliot's last line. The sudsticpoem "The Dnimmer" meds another side to OWara that could not have been predïcted if one had seen only his previous )idvocate pieces. This. O'Hara's first pubtished poem, seems a romp of disjunctiveness, prhaps nminiscent of William Carlos Williams' poem "Great Mulien,"l6 with its excited incompnbensibility yet convincing flow. The Dnimmer" Jeems to resist, at every tum, the reader's attempt to discem a coherent narrative or setting. Fmthe fmt word the mader is disorienteci, groping for a dictionary. 'Baraban," however, is not to be found even in the O.E.Q., and ody,perhaps, after one &es upm such an obscure reference work as The New Grove Dictionarv of Musical Instruments does one even discover that a "barabanais a dnim. It is in fact a "double-bcaded drum of the eastetll Slavs" which is "used at weddiDg cenmonies l4 or witlia hgbuta wkinywr." l5 It is interesting to note that, while at Harvard. Fianlr OWimsepwntly fdt Litde amcious affhity with Hemingway: "Hemingwaylspoblem was not mine, whether bt sdved it succedully or not I can leam littie from him. It is sci far rcmoved from me that I scarccly know what it is or how succcssfuI he is . - ." ("Journal,"mv Wri* 101). l6 me Collectcd eermg of WmCaris Wwvdume 1.162-163; for commmtary on this Pm. see Wallace, 2nd ed. 247-269; see also Tcrrefl49,374. and for hceaccompaniment,' and wbich "in the 16th and 17th centuries .. . was also a military instrument." The pmquickiy takes us hmthis Eastern Slavic rtfmnce into a modem locomotive, and thm mto a came1 (dromedary) which is also "a whaie!" and excretes "bison cakes." Several of the figures of this jmem seem so disparate in ongins as to be abIe to exist in no single, plausible setting: camcls (the Middle East), Pawnees (North Awrica), banshees @land), kangams (Austnlia). Yet perhaps pdybecause of its untarnable content, the poem bas its own attractive. evea electric, energy and flow. O'Hara's next Advocate piece is as Surrealistic as "The Dnunmern but has an irnpnssively caherent yet bizam narrative, one which &es the poem that much more engaging than "Thehmmer." if "The Drummer" is aLin to a connect-the-dots in which the dots are neither connectecl nor connectable, O'Hara's next Advogte piece, "Poem,"is like a connect-the-dots where each cormection is made as we go dong, aad the picnire, bizarre as it is, emerges onto the page, distending itseff unpndictably and contindy as we read the poem through to the end. In fact, "Poem"might aply be referred to as "distensive"(to coin a terin) rather than disjunctive. There is a surprise in nearly every Iine, but each swprise is comected to and bdds on the previous one. Rather than presenting the reader with one after another weird item that one cannot fit into the whole, "Poem"kgins and ends with comprehenPiality, and its sumalism consists of its continually expanding, revising-distending-the readefs impression of what is happening. Perhaps O'Hara's last-published bdvocate piece is one of the clearest harbingea of his maaire poetry. In "Rayer to Prospero," F'rank O'Ham seems to transcend the tendency to "hide behind" his ôriiliance and instead uses his literay powess to write a quiet, tender

you are guardian of our faculties and we owe you what beauty we attain to your kingdom always is manifest in viiiains viras everything we understand and hdlu& us to you with its invisible voice or destroys us apart aione negiect us not now we are free out nced is âifEcult sûangers SUAour voie (lines 10-21)

The quietness and modest tone created by the lower-case letters, the reguiar stanzas?as weii as total lack of punchiatioa, is similar to that which one fmds in "Morning,"one of OWara's greatest love pms. Both poans whisper. Listen to the same hushed insisience in the closing lines of "Morning":

is difficult to t)iink of you without me in the sentence you depress me when you are alone Last night the stars were numemus and today mow is their calling card Ili not be cordial

then is nothing that distracts me music is only a crosswoni puule do you know how it is when you are the only passenger if there is a place funber from me 1 kgyou do not go "A Rayer to Rospero" was one of the fmt poems FrPnk O'Hara wrote that bas the feel of king "addresseci"to somcoae. the addressee in this case king an actor he knew-Thayer

David or. al ternative1y, David Hmbey 1'-who played Rospero in a Brattie Hall production of Shakespeare's TheTempesr. Yeam later, in bis mock-manifest0 of 1959, Frank O'Hara would say that the poetry of "Personism"(the mock-movement he bad just

i7 Sec the tutual hcadwct io

It seems that for most of their time at Harvard the iitemy friendsbip that mattemi most to Koch and Ashbery was tbat which they had with each otber. They quicldy kcame close, and showed each derthar petry 'nlmost daily" (Ladry intmiew with Ashkry

99)- They shared interests in -ch literatwe and oiimp1Um. they shared the vocation of poetry, and they made influentid rtediDg nmm.mendationsto epch der:Ashbery suggested the craziness of Jany and the meditativeness of Roust to Koch, and Koch interviews 99, 113,114). The Harvard writings of both pets share a tendency toward the enigmatic and the sumalistic, and in some instances thm is even a shilring similarity in diction. Comp,for example, the closing Iines of Ashbery's paem "Point of Deparcure"

But all escape prefïgures The choices and gdbyes And freedom like a statue Dominates the square: In ciassic Greek attire And fonnal in ail weathers. . with the beginning of a speech fmm Koch's verse play Little Red Ridion. Hood (Koch, Ganison Prize MS):

RED RlDING HOOD: Yes, 1seem to ncognize the place As though its weather wmindelible And fornial in my mind.

OHara would take longer to corne on to the scene, but when he did he made a vivid. lasting impression on both Ashbery and Koch. John Ashbery met Frank O'Hara a month before graduating from Harvard. and he recoiiects ihis mdngin "A Reminisceace" puMished in Homane to Frank O'H- (19%):

1 fint met Fra& at a cocM party at the Uandtalre Book Shop in Cambridge in the spring of 1949. 1believe the occasion for the party was an exhibition of waterdours by , who at the the was Frank's rommate. I bad known who Frank was for some tirne-he had suknitted pmsand stories to the Adwocate, of w&khI was an editor, and we had published some. 1 had thought svdtimes of inhoduchg myself when we pssed each other on the street, but each time 1 heid back. Frank's 28 normal cxpesJion-tbe cmc into which bis foce sailcd when he was thinluig about somdbing-was a twgh, aggessive one which I later found out did not nceessarily rdect his mood (tbough it cntainIy cm& w occasion!). So it was rather a surprise when 1oveihcerd a ridiculous remark such as 1likd to mske aüered in a ndiculous voice tbat sounded to me OEe my own, end to ieilizc that the speaker was Frank. He said= 'Let's faœ iî, Lcs Stfcheressesis -ter than Tristcar." 1 know that Les S&ckesses was a vocal wok by Poulenc which had been Wormed rrceatly at Harvard; 1also know, brcL in those dull and snobbisb days, that nobody at Harvard took bulenc or any other modem composer (except Hindemith, Piston, and StravinsLy), seriowly, and tbat this assertion was in the woy of a ple~santprovocation. Aiso, 1was sowhow aware, it summed up a khd of aesthetic attitude which was very close to my own. I knew instinctively that Franlr didn't dlybelieve that Les S&cbesses was paterthanTm, and that he wanted people to undetaad this, but at the same thehe felt it important to makc that statement, possibly because he felt that art is already serious enough; there is no point in malong it seem even more senous by taking it too seriously. (20) The common pundthat was evident to Ashbery in this averheani remark went beyond the pets' aesthetic stances, their interests in the avant-garde, and their appreciation of non- literary art forms. Ashbery also heard an unrommon resemblance even in their voices and

1 dont know what the ~i~cauceof this was, but it fascinaiad us and was doubtless one reason why we became fnends so quickly dter our first maeting. On the telephone, I was told, we were al1 but indÏstinpishable. Once when 1 was at Frank's apartment in New York 1picked up the phone and impemnated Frank to Joe Lesueur, one of hank's closest fdds, pretending to pick a qmlwith him for several minutes during which he was entkely taken ia (20)

This fint meeting with O'Haia convinced Ashbery "to try to spend as much time as possible in his Company during the few weelis that remained kfore my grztduatio~~from Harvard. Not since I bad met Kemeth Koch a couple of ycars before bdI encountered anyone so stirnulating, with such a powerfuily personal way of lwking at art and poetq and a< the world" (20). Ashbery would later cberish these last few weeks in Cambridge as "almostidyllic" because he had "discovercda wonderful new friaid and we gave eacb other attention and encouragement"and because "wedida't know so many people and could often be alone togethern(21). Later on, when both pets moved to New York, "it was dif'ficult to see [O'Hara] alone. New York discovcred him and his radiant magnetism almost as soon as he moved therem(21). Yet Ashôery sees the Éraasition fmHarvard to New York as generally an auJPcious one: We were serious [whüe at Harvard] but we were aiso a littic mintentionaüy fp~yin our aesthetes' pose, and a littie pathetic. Nobody but ou~elves and a handful of adepts kncw or cand about our poetry, or sameci iikely to in tbe hitmt. Though Cambridge tecmed with poets who wouid later become celebmd (Bly, Creefey, Danaid Hall, Adrieme Rich, Richard Wdku) we did not know them weU, ifat ail, exccpt fur Koch who had hdygriuated the year More, and V.R hgwhoae close fnendship with nPnl; bad only just kgun. And despite their presence, Cambridge seemed to me then a pbwhcre anything advenhuops in poetry or the arts was subtly discomged .. . . Later on, in the more encouraging ciimate of New York, we could kgh to be ourselves, but much of the poetry we bath wmte as undergraduates now stems mamd by a certain nmous preciosïty, in part a reactioa io the cuitivated Mandness amund os which also impelled us to cdow aesthetic pmnouncements. (21)18 Ashbery soon wrote eathusiastically to Kenneth Koch-then living in New York and preparing to Ieave for Fiance on a Nbright-about this "wondemil new friendwand his wnting. Koch recails: John sent me some of Frank's poems from Harvard. He said, "Hem's a new contender," or something like that, "1 thint he's pretty gd." [At first] I didn't reaiiy see what [Frank's poetry] was doing. But I took the poems dong with me, when 1went to Europe. 1was in Provence, but 1 took a mp to Vienna, and on the way to Vienna on a train 1 nad bis poems again, and suddedy, wham! FidnL inscribed his fusi book to me: "To Kenneth, and the Viema canversion." (Herd interview 28) Koch elsewhere elabarates on the "Vienna conversion," the sudden appreciation that amse when he nad O'Hara's poems for the second the: This tirne they seemed to me marvelloiu; I was very excited about them. Also very intimidated 1beiieve I iiked them for the same nesais 1had not liked them kfore-Le. busethey wmsassy, colloquid, and full of realistic detail. ('A Note about Frank O'Hara" 26) A bond quickly developed betweeo Koch and O'Hara when Koch finally retumed to Manhattan about two years later:

It was not iüI the summer of 1952 (after coming back fmm Europe, I had gone to California for a year) that 1got ta how hpnk weil. Know is not @y the nght word, shce it suggests methhgfairly dmand intellectual. This was sornething much more emotional and wild. Frank in l8 Se+ Ashbery's =marks in tbe scccmâ sppndix of the pttsent tksis for a later, romewhat more positive view of Harvard's artisîic arxnosphere- his flld two yeam in New York was having this IMd of explosive dfect on a lot of people he met. Lamy Rivers iater d thPt Frank bad a way of dngyou feel you wcre tembly important and that this was very inspiring, which is true, but it was more than th His pricsenœ and bis poetry made things go on ~rouodbim which could not have aPppeDed in the same way if he hadn't been thme 1 know this is true of my poctry: and 1 would gucss it was true ahof tôe poetry of James Schuyier and John Ashbery, and of the painting of Jane Fhificher, Lamy Rivers, Mike Goldberg, Grace Hartïgan and oihcrpsinters too. (Koch, "A Note about Frank O'Haraw26) In New York during the early fIfties, the thrae poets beaune very close to severai eters, the fvst of whom were Janc hilicher and Lamy Rivers. Koch Inter d&bed the "central gangn at least "fora wbiIewas the latter two painters plus Ashkry, OWara, and Koch himseif(Herd interview 28). Quite quiclly, the poets would kcome friends and supporters of many of the Abstract Expressionists, nedy all of whom lived in the New York area It was in fact through their association with the Abstnrt ExpceSSionists-a subset of "theNew York Schwl of Paintingw-that the three pets (almg w*thlater poetic colleagues such as Barbara Guest and James Schuyler) wouid evennially be labclled the New York School of Poets, a label none of them encourageci, which yei ~tuck.~~

The interest in modem visual art was aie that Ashbery, O'Hara, and Koch had in common even before they met Given their speciai interest in sumalist art and literature it is no surprise that, once in New York, they would develop an Hrnity with Aôstract

Expiessionimi, a movement with strong mots in the Sudisttradition. Frank O'Ham in

[Bleing poets, [we] divided our thektween tâe literary bar, the San Remo, and the artjsts' bar, the Cedar Tavem. In the San Remo we argued and gossiped; in the Cedar we often wrote pams while üstening to the painters argue and gossip. So far as 1know nobody painted in the San Remo while they Listened to the writers argue. An interesthg sidelight to these social activities was that for most of us non-academic, and indeed non-iiterary poets in the sense of the American scme at the time,the painters were the only generous audiencc far our poetry, and most of us read first publicly in art gaileries or at The Club. The literary establishwnt carrd about as much for OUT work as the Frick [Gallery] cared for PoIIock and de

---- - l9 For variegated views on îbc origins and apmm of this lakl sec Anne Waldman. 'A Paraphase," to Frank 0- John Ashbery, The Art of Poetry XMCIII," Review; Kemeth Kocb, " & Kenneth Koch: From a Conversau'on," Pbcirv RoNt New-, and John Myer's introduction to bis 1969 anthology a. 31 Kooning, not that we carrd any more fot establishments than they did .. . . ( 1w The art world of New York was mt ody a good early audience for these poets, but dso produced some of the pets' fmpatrons. Ashbay. Koch, and O'Hnra-behueen 1952 and 1923-each had his fmt collection of poetry publishcd by Editions of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, whose editor was John Bernard Myen. Myers had been the managing editorof Yier, the New York sudstperiodicd, until it ceased publication in 1947: he had begua a marionette canpsny with Tibor de Nagy, an art patron mently emigrated fmm Hungary: and with de Nagy he founded an art galley that kcame one of the most important showcases for Abstract Expressionists in New Yok Myea' iiterary interests remaineci strong while he was managing the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, and he decided to publisb chapbooks of the work of the three prorilising ywng pets soon after he met them at a Southampton cottage rented by Jene Freilicher in the summer of 1952 (Myers,Trackian the Mawelous 136).

Throughout the fifties and sixties the three poets, ohwith several of their artist friends, would collaborate on many projects. Even the Tibor de Nagy chapbooks wen collaborations of a sort: each inclwied onginai prînts by utïsts, and copies were signed by both author and ariist. Ashbery, Koch, and O'Hara would write plays together, including the unpublished piece titied "Rayuof 1953. OWara adRivers wmte the gossipy playlet "KennethKoch: A Tragedy." Tbey acted in each other's plays: Asbbery played the lead de, John, in OWara's Tm! Tm!: A Noh Ray. Koch and Asbbery daboratecl on writing the poem "Cmne Rhapsody,"for which they gave themselves very strict des:

that every fine contain the name of a flower, a t.,a fdt, a game, and a famous 01d lady. as weil as the woid kthnrb; fiirthenncm, the poem is a sestina and dl the end-words are piaw of ce furniture. (Quoted in Ward 126)

Just as Koch and Ashbery had showed each other poems "almat dailynwhile at Harvard, Koch and O'Hara read each other new lines every day whiie they workeâ in 19s on long pms-Second Avenue in O'Harafscase, and the 2400-line Whee fie Sun Tries to Go Ch 32 in Koch's. Even îhough Ashbery moved to Fmce in 1995, he kepi up a sttong correspondence with OWara and Koch. Chce Koch wmte asking Ashbcry's advice on his new poem, "Fresh Air"-a Iyricdcthde against academic poeûy, parts of which Koch was afraid were "too loud and biStcmusn-and Ashbery repütd with did encouragement, dedgto the poem as a work of "searing beauty," and encouraging Koch to leave "aü those parts in; the effect of pmfound quia which thc work iiduces depends so much cm its necessary loudncss and scrrechiness. The louder the kttet, says this der"(quoted Lehmaa, "Dr. Fun" 54). The poets also (favourably) mviewed each otheh work in literary journds, and even read each other's work at poetry readings (something rarely done (&y). rem that O'Hara once rcfemd to Koch as "the backbone of a tmnendous ptry nervous system (O'Hara meant bis own),' and that Ashbery, introducing Koch at a reading in New York in the 1960s. said that Koch's poetry "occupiesmy mind to the point where 1 might be said to iive inside itn('Dr. Fun" 54). Ashkry, Koch, and O'Hara were clearly the closest of fnends and the closest of colleagues. Whether or oot this fnendship and coiieagueship is aptiy called a "schdwis perhaps not the essential question. The thne poets were obviously a close-knit group-with literary and artistic concems at the heart of theu rrlationships with each othcr-and to say "schoolwor "groupnis not to say "mob" (implying a lack of individuality) nor is it to say "clique" (implying close-mindedness and closeci ranks). in tact, perhaps one of the things that most characterizes the thnc poets is a kind of openness. Ashbery once said that "there is no systematic rationale or systematic anything in my poetry. If it is systematic, it's only in its total avoidance of any kind of system or program"(quoted in Shoptaw 10). Among Koch's favourite words is apparently *formulalcss1less."2* Questioning tbe need for "elaborately sounded structum,"O'Hara once wmte, "You just go on your nerve" ("Rrsonismw110). While in other contexts each of the three pets would spcalc finiher about theirpoetics and show a sophisticated dastanding of poctic theory as weii as literary history, there wddremah a decidedly non-stodgy, open and exploratory tendtncy at the centre of th& pocûy fimm theY Harvard years mwad In 1tiuee pets' work. aii unabashed experimentalism, a decp appreciation for the impn,visatcny, an ern.oti0na.i candour and a distinctivejoie de vivre continue to amact and influence generations of pets well into the late decades of the twentieth century. The Texts fiom The Harvard Advocate

John Ashbery "A Sermon: Amos 8:ll-14"

Copy-Text -Adv-CXX?C-l (April1947): 12 Cornposlt ion: MSS of this poem at Hougbton are daîed July 1946 and August 1946. File: *A Sermon: Amos 1 1-I4*"fi Box 29 oC tbt Asbbcry Papcrs. Antbolow Pub8ieatlon: UcIntyrc, Diluglas A., and Katca S. Hull, eds-,-Advgcate Wve-(Cambridge, MA: Scficnbaaa Books, lm. Furtber Publication: Nomz Notes / Emendatioaa In aü MS vem*otw of this poem in the Ashùay Fapcts at Houghton, there is a stanza break between the eighteenîh and nineteenth Iiaes, such ihat "Eom skliac ik swimmer" begins a new stanza 1 read tbis stanza break over tüe piated version- Tbe bas a @od (or faultiiy printed comma) af'r the phrase 'My pqAtwin îhe last shnza 1cmend tbis to a amma on the strength of tûe manuscript versions at Houghtoa, whicb ail read a cornmi at thai point in the pam.

A SERMON: Amos 8= 11-14

And tkyshal2 wanderfiom seu to sea, mrd /ron the north men to the eust; they shdl run to andBo to seek the word of Jehmah. d shaIi not find a. In th&y shall the fair virgins and the young men faint for thwst.

In this imd travei iigbt And iightiy: keep rude han& from si@ Nor with speech design fidelities. Break vows as fagots: ignore Promises, prayers. lusting before the door, Nor press the sinning Tartar to his knees. Move as water: soon gone Lightly girdling the dry stme. Touch nothing long: ïnvdve Nothing ever. Your fate and history Meet in geomeûy And in radiant law dissolve. I explain: imagine A young man or fair Wgin At &rk, at sea's edge wading. And aow drawn in a sûange tight Into the sea. Nearing night hkstongue, ties eye. Fading

From shore line the swimmer Fons with bis ocean brother A cornplex unity: sea immoiates Matter in distance, and he or she Buries desire in motion. And does not see Where, at far left, oars raised, a smaii boat wai ts. My people, what is intendecl Let the cool martyr, whose distant head Now seems a swimming dog's, explore, Sustakd in a vast disbtcrest. But lemthat distances are kindest Not the correct sun sûiking the shore. Kemeth Koch

Copy-Text CXXX3 (Uay 21.1947): 3. Tbe cuver designates this tbe "Commencementaissue. Page 3 fierdesignates this tbe "PottryIssue-" Composition: A MS vcmïaa ofthis pocm bas not been located. bas its date of composition bcen

Antbology Publication= None Furt ber Pu blicrtion: None.

Now, as a child, descend, descend; You will gmw as fat as cream, - And fi oat to the top With your bones undressed %y the angry limestone of barn.

Now,at the glas, pretend, pretend: Balance your swimming face, - Or bow, as it rocks, How love must move Through nakedness to grace. Kenneth Koch

Copy-Text: -A&- CXX%3 (May 21.1W7): 4. The mver designam tbis the "Commetlccmentaissue. Pagc 3 firrthcr dcsignaîcs this the Tbetry Issue-" Comporitlon: A MS version of this pocm has not bsca iocated, nor has ifs date of cunposition been

Anthology Publication: Nom. Fuitber Publication: None.

Everytbing now resolves into the bwnhorizon of breaIcfast= the clatter of pus,mixing moming and night, bdging the bear fresh into the amazing intncacy of summci. Haads unbelieving on the Buick's drearnless chmmium, you are startieâ by the sua, as an immigrant who fnds himself suddenly uttering perfixt poems in a new awkward language- Or rather the brain starts like an awakened wild animal who has been rachg in bis sleep through a country full of hres. Kenneth Koch

Copy-Test mHandAdvma& CXX)O (May 21.1941): 4. Tkcovadai~ this the "Commencement' issue- Ryp 3 fiather -gnates this tbe "Patay IssueSgUt'' Composition: A MS vm*mof t&ïs pem b not hca lm,m bu its date of compom-ticm been

Antbolow Publication: None Further Publication: None PROGRAM NOTES That floating dancer Rules the carciboard toms; Those he will love Wear Yellow spangied goms.

They will pirouette their love, Move away and close, - SandcastIe limbs with bis In a loving pose. He is heavy in your eyes When, dreaming overmuch, You feel the crazy leap through space 1s effortless as touch.

I could mie a carciboard town And stmke your Er, But 1 shouid lave you if1 made That triumph over air. Kenneth Koch "in Answei to This Emptiness"

Copy-Test= CXXX.3 (Wy 21,190): 5. Tbe cover designates this the "Commenœments-- issue. Page 3 furtbcr designates this the 'Poeûy Issue-' Cornposl t ton: A MS version of tbis pocm bas not kenfocal&, mr bas its date of compdtion been

Antbology Pobliertioa: Noae, Furthet Publcatioa: None.

IN ANSWER TO THIS EMPTINESS Inside the form the= are adequaie intncacies, enough for an eagle-creation; gant wings cleanse the air of this place, gant surging momentary eagle cleanses the heart, letting it stnit iike a flung rock, letting the music corne in a pattem of enraptured nmes, letting the clock give biRh to twins, lening the sea rock the air for salt, letting the fish change color in a splendid arc of Iight, letting the master of ceremonies collect his black felt hat and go home. Inside the form there are words that bleed iike stars, that rush and tear at color like stars, that bend the innocent sentence into a terrible lirnb, essence of limbo, oil-cut flesh, gleaming phosphorescent chiidren we cannot touch lest the radium eat away our reason. Inside the possible rhyme there are bodies that fall for us, are crusheâ, with the narrowest wind of danger brushing our chests- knives tum inward- the sua descends in a flaming glutinous baU over the cardboard housetops, over the unbelievable shadows squatting on the river. We have arrived at crcaticm and have swdlowed the mimc inside us glittering verities shine, reflect, an re-refiected into speech, are wine in the mouth, in the eyes, in the air, are eyes in the wine of the mouth of the air. . .. 1 stroke your hair and go stnrtting away on a pilgrimage of music. John Ashbery "Elegy "

Copy-'Ce- -crcdfeCXXJU (May 21,1947): 6. The amer designates this the "Coummœment"issue- Pagc 3 furtbcr designates this the "Poctry Issue." Composition: MSS of rhis poem at Hbugûuib are Qtcd &y 1% The MSS also suggest that the title was atone time "Degy,"tbca cbanged simpIy to "Pocm," thcn cbangd back to "Eiegy" Fik %legyw fnim Box27and~Pocm-(Spingawts- .-)" franBox30. Anthology Publication: None- Furthsr Publication: Naae.

Spring cornes adept with pemmel. Apt for the kill. The cbarging land Iafonns as whcre a comrade feii In hift of pimrose for the hanci, The splùitered green a token Of what was whole and aow is broken.

May Iark and Wac Iift paie heads To bunt the crystai of this vision Tbat to the winter's ice, was food: The lecher's starved and @ed precïsion Saw war the tomre of a single heart; Peace in the touch of May, the Moodless killer's art. Silent, in a skk rnonth though green, A girl wreathes laure1 for the dead That die in spring. 1'11 make my dream Now of her fragrant haod, my last dkindest fknd: So pexf'ect it must die in slightest motion, Yet live, though wars infect a nation. John Ashbery "A Fable"

Copy-Text -aCXMO (Wy 21, i%': 6. coverdesiguces thistbe "C0mmenccmatnissue. Page 3 furtberdesignaiesthis tbe "Poetry Issue." Compos~tlon:MSS af Hmghcm are datai Mvch 1941 ami A@ 3.1947- FiIr. 'A Fiabien fran Box 27. Anthaloly Publicatioa: Nom Furtber Pmblication: None

A FABLE The oracle would not speak, Pave in rhe chatacter Of someone else: an uncle, aunt, or brother. And it was said: the menace of his authority He dares not reved to himself, trusting awther. Luvers in the city where ûis intluence raged Thought themselves lucky: "At last history moves To a definite choice devils; it is an action Of which we are a pa~&and our shmted loves

Swell to majestic daoms. Truc love is greater Thao even we had supposed" They heard him deploy Rough imagery of thundet, and tôe &y became Part of the past of chance, not choice. With a cry Each clutched at his pashg ego. Next &y Lovers meeting could ihink of nothiog to say, Like no love at first sight. And the city parted wide Its gates for the oracle and his terrible bride. John Ashbery "The Perfect Orange"

Cop y -Textr -A&- CXMU (May 21,1947): 7. Tbc cwcr designates this the "Commencement" issue. Page 3 ferdesignates this the "Poctry Issue.' Compositioa: A MS of ihis pam at Houghm isdatadJune 1% File: Tbc Pcrfcct Orange' fnim Box 28- Anthology Publication: Nom Further Publicitioil: None.

THE PERFECi'ORANGE HE: Foregoing, foiegoing, It sams we have foregone Whatever was in the beginning The end of sacrifice- For even of sense deprived And the hoty pang of denial The rituai goes on: 1 sel1 my watch for a comb21 Y ou cut off your hair foi a chaio. And if the oight is cold Or the wolves on the precipice howl I hold you a linie closer. SHE: Yes, there is strength in numbers. Yet I often wish that the stars And the numberiess walking crowds22 Were aot so much alike* For no matter how close we lie Nor how hatd we love each other Our love is dygenerd And our faces merely vary And ow bodies in a season Return to restock the earth And restore its walking people Who move like so many rocks, Foregoing and fmgoing. Yet even as 1speak i fed like a rock in the earth

Lines û-9 alludc to The Gift of the Mngi," a short sroiy by O. Henry (WiUim Syâncy Porkr), collected in bis second bakBur Million* * (1906). The ficticm tells the sîmy of a ncwly-wed New York couple at Christmas: both are poor, but each manage noactbeless to buy the other a gift; the wife has her prized hair cut and sold to a wig-makr for a fcw Mars, with which she buys a chin for ber busband's heirlm watch; yet it happcns taat thc husbaad bas aldysoid bis waich to buy his wik a btautifui comb for her hait. At the close of this tale dselflcss sacrifice, 0. Henry compares tbese gifi-givers to the Magi who were the first to pay homage to the infant Jesus. 22 Lines 14-15 might fainily echo the last stama d W.B. Yeats's 1891 poem, 'Whn You Are Oldw: And bending domMde the glowing bars, Murmur, a Iittle dly,how bvefled And paced upon tbe momtains ovcrheiui And hid his fact amid a crowd of stars, And even in you. my darling 1sense the fatal chill. Both: We bave given omselves away. The chase has a bcast in view And the name of the bcast is The. Beyond the sui lie the rocks Beyond the rocks the sty Beyond the sky the band ûf a certain sanctity Encloses the pedect orange. Ta Iive in love is ta die, To die is to -the again. Wehave given ourselves away Foregoing and foregoing. John Ashbery 'Point of Departure"

Copy-Text -dv- CXXXï-1 (Odober 1947): 9. The cover designatics this the 'Registratioa Issue." Corn posf t ion: MSS of this pmn at fioughm arc dated Novwibtr 1946. We: 'Point of Dtparture" ftom Box 38 Antbalogy Publlcrtioa: None Further Publiemtlon: None. Notes / Emenàatioor In lîne cight, the reads 'cm,' wtiicft I cmdto 'Ch,' in oiidcr to main in keeping with the dbcrwise umsistent captaïuation of tbe fim letter of each üne. The MSS of this poem at Houghton agree with this riEading.

POINT OFDEPARTURE The planes of iight d dark Look on a hurying mari And the seasons run toge- Like the fmgers of a hand Framing his littie street the leaves Hiss, It is time to go, and the consoling Snow descends like a ûenison23 On the actedton.

Only in a dream, perhaps Does some ogre pursue, Or the branches of a forest Geshire against the past Afi flight is opionai hem, No passage argued, the end assured Back to the beginning For the track is circular.

What if i ts mileage led Beyond this specid city With its pigeons and architecture? To feel the answer, darling, Shaping its days and words Into a perfect fkeedom .. . But al1 escape prefipres The choices and goodbyes And freedom like a statue Daminates the square: In classic Greek attire And fomal in al1 weathers. John Ashbery "Fete Galante"

Copy-Tesk -dvocgg CXXX1.2 (Novembcr 1947): 13-14- The cover dcsi~narffthis the "Ainccton Game Issue," Composit~on:Tht th-leaftypscn*ptof tbis short ~fr~~~-intcrtStia@yfiled in a bxlatdled 'Poetry A- F" among tbt Ashbtry Paprs at Zioughton-is undated File u~ Galante" fiom Box 27 Antbology Publicatioa= Srndey,RicbardU,ed.,~Row~ThcRcst~Adv~ (Reading, MA: Addisoll-Wdey niblishing Company, lm- Furthet Publicrtioa: None. Notes / Emendationr Texaial varianis In the MS vcrsioa of this story at Houghtoa. the word "you' precedes "a@ta in the closing paragrapb, and the mtirt pera%raph, appercntly a quote fimn the fortune- teller, is in rcgular text, MH fuIl caps as the pcints it. 1 suppiy a comma aftcr the word 'reaiiy' in the fiifth to last paragraph of the story sime -tbe MS at Hmgbtoa has it aud Ihe syntax stems to cdfm it.

The eightieth bidday of Andrew E Wyiie! That old ~probstestiil alive! Imagine! In one corner of the huge foyer there is a gi-otto made of silver twigs, in which musicians try to rehearse a work of Telemann.24 In another part of the nian an accompanist soikes chords, but the womed soprano does not attcmpt to sing. Thm is so much noise! Two sylph-üke young men, one with an accordion, the 0th- with a guitar, buri thernselves at the groups of guests, bdngup conversation, making bad music. Nobody can talk to the same person for long, and one begins to sense one's futility. A fomne-teller has ken aying to get at Lucy for several minutes, but people are always in the way, laughing and taking rather loudly, a littie sad maybe. "What sign did you say you was born under. dear?" asks the lady. Lucy repeats the odd wonis which enter her heaâ, The sïgn of the flying red horse." Mter several seconds ber cornpanions laugh at this, niroing their fluWfaces on Lucy. Lucy begins to laugh a iittle tao, wondering if she meant it as a joke. The fortune- teller doesn't seem to be ohded, but she look eamestly at Lucy and oies to ciutch her dress. Lucy shrinks away. "When is your birthday?" Lucy stamrners and blushes prettily and looks into her glas of champagne. "Actually", says the sweet miss, Tt's today!" Today? But why hadn't Lucy said anythmg? Wecould have had a paity! But-of course we couldn't have thwgh for everyone is here! But-we must do somthing! Right now ! The fortune-teller bas something to say to Lucy, she stretchs out her withed am. "No." says Lucy in a litüe voice. But people seem to be joining hdsfor a Wul Jones,2s a chah of intoxicated guesis divides Lucy fmm the ancient hag. Maybe it's not a Paul Jones after dl. but everpes#ms to have chnnged bis position. Now the two young men in their dedwhite sbirts and bkktights have found Lucy, now thy drag her to the center of the great baU. Silence! It is Rudy, Andrew E Wylie's trusted old mant "Mesand gentlemen!" he casfnnn the top of the stairs. "MLWylie wishes me to say that he is sony to have misscd so much of the party, but wiiî soon be with you. Meaawhile let me mnind you that it lacks but five minutes of midnight! At midnight everyone immasks!"

24 Gcoq Phlllpp Telemann (1681-1767), Ge- canposct. 2S Paul Jones. 'A dance apilar in Bricsia in he 1920s. in whieh tbe ladies f'ed an outwatb-facing circle mobringin the opposite direction to the men, who facd inwards, The coupies facing each other when the music stopped became partna for the cmt part of the dance, tbis pattern ùeing repeaid several rimes. It was earlier one of îhe 'sets' in American barndaucing, and is perhaps uamd akrthe naval adventuFcr . . * - Jdui Paul ( 1747-a)"(BFCW~ Dich- of cf. nit-. But no one is wePring a mask. Evidentiy this is nnie Lind of satiricai joke on the part of ddAnQev E The guests d a lit& and jostle each aba,as if to say, we lmow we're not a very pretty lot but look who invitcd us hm, dter dl. Th& host's absence disturbtd no one, it's the sort of thing yw get to ex- fn>m that dd nut His svcasm doesn't bothet anyone either, but-the fact tbat he should have motives for sarcasm is a Iittle discowaging. - Lucy is tired Ali the attractive people scem to have gme howeady. Or perhaps getting drunk makcs them laAc dinmnt, thmue ceitainly more pcople hm iban evcr, all shouting and laughing, but not Sccming to have a vagd the. Lucy makes her way to the tmaa, elading ha two companicnw, who apntlybave fwgotten her anyway. It's nice out hem, the light from the ta11 windows malru a silver checket &kt on the stone fiagging, aiso the mdghton the coconut paIms is tovely. "Darlingn, somebody says, and wraps ber in pair of smng amis. His mouth descends over bers like absolute nigk "Oh stop", Lucy says presently, "You don't lmow how physically revolting you are to me." "That could bardly be tnie in the heght of certain rrceat events", says the man in a sulky voice. Then cbaaging the siibject, Why didn't you let Madame Sospïrio read your horoscope. She's remarkable, they aU say. She predicted the atom bomb Sn maths before it happencd. She also piedictcd Corinne Wauchîheimer's twins-" Lucy says, twisting her long scarf, ''Frank, your behavior is impossible. You mut go away fmm hem. Wemust aot meet in public." Why does she tak üke this? 1s this the way they talk in d life? Does she love this man? That's the important question. But try and get a look at him in the phoney ligbt from the foyer, or hear him, realiy, bis voice sming into the ultra-&ferninate, or full and carefully modulated, or sinLUig into a bestial monotone, Lüre drums or the sound in a sea- shell. Then al1 the ligbts go out, dl the noise and the music stops. What a funny dead silence! Not even an echo. Something makes Lucy's fmgers explore, explore, dong the balcony rail to where Frank's hand last lay. Very plump and appealing in the moonlight, it seemed. Now she has found it, now they are holding hands. What a lovely sensation. Help! It isdt Frank's hand at d!And someone is whispe~gvery close, a velvety voice: "YOUWIILGOONATRIP. AMANWlTHBROWNEYESWLLSENDA G1F.T - A 1E\KEL, A BROADWAY STAR LENDS YOU HER HAT. YOUR WFE IS WOVEN OF DARK THREADS OF FORGEEULNESS AND GOLD THREADS OF JOY ." John Ashbery "Berceuse"

Copy-Test IheHsivpnf AdveCXXXI3 (kcembcr 1947): 13. The a>va designates this t&e "C~stmasIssueW Compoaltlon: No MS d this poem appc~nrto be ammg the Ashhy Psprs at Hou@ton. Anthoiow Po blicatlon: Noae. Furtber Pubkation: Ncnie.

Slap, love, in our little gablecl mm Outside whose door stands no one knows Rustling a papcr, in plain clothes. He hounds all imagery now And mingling in out muted Y ss Would be, almost, a part of us

But fmat the edge of wakefulness, A salcken sandman, will assume The squalor of our deatest crimes. Too long 1 lay in a sweat with death Till he grew maii and plausible, A third place aiways set at table; And feeling his blunt profile coined Oa the reverse of our endearments Felt love was of that permanence. Then swooned the acid in the basin And the razor, scented, wbite, Whispered the flesh: He is qùite tight. Mi grate beyond indifferebce: he Will find out our new addresses. Set by our days of blind caresses From the dignity of his nise! So they, when we tum back to gape May blunder on their lasting shape.

26 Berceur "A de-wg,lullaby; aa ins~nimentaipiece Mth a luiling rhythmn (ClEQ., 2nd ed.. 1989). Kenneth Koch Review of 's The Beautifid Chanm.

Copy-Test: wcq&CXXX13 (December 1947): 2830, The merdesignates tbis the 'Christmas Isswc" Composition: Kochalmcstccrcainly wrote this review bchween Scpmbcraad Daxmkof 1947. since the first editiaa of- was pubiished in Sepcembtr 1947 by the New York publishers Reynal& Hitchcock (sec Field 1)- Fmthe Koch Paprs at Berg it is ciear, however. thar Koch persdly biew Wiltrm-wbo was a grabte sWmt tbca junior fdow at ï+amW dunng Koch's Harvard ycars-and it is possible thai Koch saw a pre-publicaîioa MS version of the book, Anthology Pu blicrtios: None- Further Publication: None. Nahs / Emendatioba: This rcview is signed simpiy 'KJC"

7ne Beaun'fuul Chges,by Richard Wdbur. Reynall [si4 and Hitchcock. 32-00. After reading the poems of any good poet, one cames away with the impnss of what is most accurate and original in his poetry. After Rading Dr. for instance, one can see a piece of broken glass as an object with poetic comotations; one's sensibility is opened up to some degree. Sina it is Wilbur's stated intention to ''have objects speak," to rid his eye of "the dry disease / of thinking things no more ihan what be secs,'' we may judge bis success by the effective change that is bmught about in Our vision. He comes off very well. We may not be able to exîst in his 66Gay-pockedand potshed wodd," but neither wi1i we be able to consider muscular soldiers, dodebirds, and summers without the interference of his lightly mocking romanticism. Most of the people who write ieviews of poetry, seem to spend an unconscionable amount of effort and tirne in placing the new young man bidea structure of other poeu that, so far as I know, does not exist. In this, his first book, Wilbur neither takes polysyllabic notes on his pocket-map of the world, nor does he seem to k assund of the doom of Western civilization, so he would be rather diffïcult to place anyway. He bas been influenceci by Wallace Stevens, Marrianne [sic] Moore, and Gerard Hopkins, but he has corne through it dlwith something quite his own: Your hands hold rases in a way that says They are not dyyours; the beautifui changes In such kind ways, Wishing ever to sunder Things and things' selves for a second finding, to lor For a moment ali tbaî touches it back to wonder. At its best, as in the title-poem quoted from above, bis Ianguage is briuiant; there is the energy and vitality that is aa unmistalcable mark of petyin lines like Bright bars explode against the darl's embraces . .. When he was hit, his body tumed To clumsy dirt before it fell .. . The sun carousing in his either eye . .. His images are sensitive and accurate. Snow comes down "like mahs / Burned on the moonw;yawns turn the dancer's face "Into a little wildemess of flesh." But bis irnagery seems to k dorninated by his rhythms, they corne first The strength of fully developed metaphor is saciifceci to a co-ordinatioo of rhythm and idea which, wben it is successful. 51 results in a poetry of "good pams." rather than of "good lines" or stribg images. The poem "Lighmess" is a good enample ofthis cwtdination, and of Wdbur's metbod in general. The pam ûegins A binSnest Mt on the paim of the high- Most bough ofan elm, this morning as I came by A brute gust HM-and-1eft in the mïdst of the air: Whercat the leaves went quiet, and there Was a moment of dence in honor of The sweetness of danger. . . The birdsnest [sic] Boa& safely to mth, a Triumph of lightness!" And now lightness is re-created in ternis of "Aunt Virgima," who was in her gay shroud As vague and as seIf-possessed as a cloud .. . Her husband, seeing her as such, thinks of the sûange intactness of the giadly dying.

Thus, a new look at lightness, assisted by dactyls and an-on ünes. Wilbur uses a variety of fomslllilfuliy, some, as the jacket udonns [sic] us. "inaicate, invented fomis." In a few of these poems, however, the chosen fom seems to be slightly incoasonant with the subject-matter. In "Mined Country." for instance, the light rhythm and light rhyme-scheme seem to obstruct the full emotional impact promised in Danger is sunk in the pastures, the woods are sly . . . Sunshiny field grass, the woods floor, are so mixed up With earliest trusts, you have to pick back Far past all you have leamed, to go Disinherit the dumb child .. . "Water Walkef' is not completely successful for sïmilar misons. This is, however, to judge these poems on the level of their omtechnical accomplishrnent, which is considerable. Wilbur's wit, which is delightful, must be mentioned, if oniy to fkshan excuse for quoting the first stanza of 'The Walgh-Vogel": More pleesuraMe to look than fadupn, Hence uncollserved in dodo-ans,the round, Udeathered, melaacholy, more than fd'pound Dodo is gone . . . 'Tywater," "My Father Paints the Summer," ''Grace,'' rightness," and The Beautiful Changes" are sensitive and intelligent Iyric pams with a distinctive and original touch, and such lyrics are very rare indeed. And so are lines as good as The damer kneeling on nothing into the wings. This is an unusual first book. John Ashbery "Waltz Kingw

Copy-Test -m CXCXLQr 12 No publication date is @vafor this issue. ïùe cover designates this tk "WntcrIssuee" ïhe Harvard Uaivdty Library stampcd it as dved"March 11 1WB' Sine tûis issut fdows the CXXXT3 -ber 1947) issut and pdestbe C=XXMS (Marcb 1948) issue. it was vcry Iikly puHished in cilber Jan- or Fkbniary 1- Composition: The oaiy MS of this poem at Houfiton is Qted Scptembtr 1945. File= "Waliz King" from Box 30- Antbology Publication: Norte. Further Publlerit ion: None*

Roses whirled up fnmi the south. The bloody mouth Soaked in the pofitless kiss Cannot answer for this. S ubtle the flute and drum Troubling the parquet.27 Numb the cramped spectre! in the cobbled market. There are ten girls in Viema Dressed for a ball. Then are ten graves in a mw As the leaves faiL

More do not ask Nor take to task Justice when the bt ade faUs As at twelve al1 wirnask.

2' Parquet 'Pan of the auditorium d a tbeatrc, the front put of tbc gourd-floor aearat the orchestra. or sornetimes the whole of it, Chiefly U.S." (O.E9., 2nd ed-, 19û9). Kemeth Koch Review of S~earhead

Copy-Test: -dv- CXXXI.4: 21-22 NO pobkaîîrn daie is @vafor tbis issue, but it was very Iikely piblished in ci* January ar Ftbniary 1- See tbe textua beadme to Ashbcryis "Wdtz King" (above) for details *. . Composit4oa: The literary anthdogy was pubiisbed in 1947 by New in New Yok Koch must bave w&en bis revicw in 1W7 or eariy 1948. Antbolagy Peblicatfon: Ncme. Furtber Publication: None. Notes / Emendationa: The utde of contcats lists Kenneth Koch as a book review author, but the pece itseif, appearing on pages 21-22, is unsigneci-

SV,New Directions, $5.00. The temptatioa to go &on a semantic excursion on the word "experimental" is mgeatwhen one is confionted with Mr. Laughlin's "survey of the signif~cantexperimental and advance guard writing in the United States during the past decade." Wallace Stevens has said that "AU poetry is experimd," end it does seem that experiment is involved in the very nature of literary mation; Laughün's Wecbaical" defintion of experimentation is strange, but fortunately maileable enough to awer many examples of the most stimulahg wnting king done today. It may aiso have something to do with certain peculiar omissions and some prlychosen inclusions. Mr. Laughlin's argument that Wadiace Stevens, for instance. is a iess "experimentaiwpoet than Karl Shapiro end Joscphine Miles is rnysterious: and, again for insiance, the selections from Patchen are not representative of bis best work, excep fot the beautifîd TheCharacter of Love Seen as a Search For the Lost." Whatever the reason, Paul Goodman does not get as much aitical and popular attention as he deserves. He is the cornpiete master (and the only one, so fpr as I know) of m'cprose, a complete obsession with, and deüght in, the of any enpenence. any hught-a joy in the situation that allows him to developFandal1 directions. The reader never has, with Goodman. that appalling sensation that the author is slowly being crushed to deatb by the "profundity" of his theme; ifGoodman findr a symbol, he laughs at it; he hes made the uncornmon discovery that laughter doesn't make any differerice, it doeso't invalidate; der,it is a way to ffrredom. ûfhis stories in this volume "The Facts of Life" is the best, and certainiy a clessic treatrnent of anti-sernitism. John Benyman's story, "The Imaginary Jew," is a quite difiereut and equally 6.fective treatment of the same theme; here the emphasis is on the inevitabie involvement of each inâividual in the guilt manifest in a fantastic social sentiment. HJ. Kaplan, in his excellent story. "The Mohammodans," extends the basis for out guilt even mer;the Negro, Wiley Bey, who becornes a Mohammedan and defies his draft bard. is dso guilty: he "chooses to witMraw from a society which is still capable of absorbhg bis vaïues. To dissolve the City which gnw . . .. comptly, and which alone stands betvan us and the unending jungle." Perbaps the best psewo* in the book is the sclcction fmm Djuna Bames' magnif~centnovel, Nighnvood, the chaper entitied "Watchman, Whaî of the Night?" Here the guilt, the terrible lack of coatrol. end the imsistabie [sic] pull toward invoivement in human love am brilliantly examineci by Dr. Matthew O'Connor. The other writers here represented are not so successfui in tiwtllig the canplexities of love. Maude Hutchins coastructs a very fernale fantasy on the hypothesis that Julius Ca- had Oedipal dficuities with his Aunt Julia; Henry MiUer's apparentiy automatic sex-liie sen& him into cosmic exultations; and Temessec williams prrsents an ohneone-act play with dl the pride of an adolescent boy who has just discovmd that some people get pleasure out of being hurt. In al1 faimess to Miller it must be stated that almost my excerpt from Thc 54 Tbpic of Ccuu:er wodd be supriorto the fmgment hmpresented wbich is an eccount of his mind and libido while in the Service of the "Cosmodemoaicn Telegraph Company. DehmSchwartz's rtoy, "In herms Begin Raponsibüities; is original and fuie; then is dso a selection fnmi his long poem, &nesis, and twa distinctive LHcs. There is a fundamentai seriousness and intcgrity in aU dMr. Schwartz's work tbat distinguishes it with a grace not to k fouIlcf in the more clever verbal py~dccànicsof mach contcmporary verse. The most exciting poehy is a section from William Carlos William's [sic] Pcrtmon, a clear and passiontate poem on the theme that "a man in bimsclf is a city, btginning. seeking. achieving .. ." Williams shows in this poem a vigor in expresshg ancl relating ideas, in combining inteilect, metaphor, and music, that is unîike anything in contemporary poetry. CMMings, ShapUo, Pmd, Marianne Mm,and Randaii Jamii are weîi represented. Kenneth Reuoth's long poem. "The Phoenix and the Tortoise. is interesting, but its extremely conscious iotellectuaiity suffiers by campaiiscm with the excerpt fiom Patmon. Jose Garcia Villa and Josephine Miles are here engaged in some fairiy unnecessary esthetic sleightof-band, but the prize for unreadabiiity must pmbably go to Anais Nin who is poorly represented with a labyrinthine prose piece calleci "The Labyrinthew MerTyler coaaibutes an unusual and petceprive piece of movie eriticism, and George Mann a very fu~ysatire on a Bolshevik beawocrat [a.A section from Robert Penn Wamn's eady novel, AI Heuven 's Gare, is hem, a bcautifui example of the use of fol k-speech as a drarnatic limitation. There are many more seledions, tm many for an individual examination of each one. If we ccmsider only what is kst in this book, what shows the widest and deepest semibility and the kttechnical means to expmtbat sensibility, we may agree with Mr. Laughlin's practical criterion for what is expimental wriiing and find that it does not contradict Stevens' statement at dl; not only is ali ptyexperiwntal. but al1 that is experimentai is poetry. This volume, then, may serve as an admirable introduction to some of the *mstwriting by Amencans in the Iast decade. Frank O'Hara "O the Dangers of Daily Living"

O THE DANGEKS OFDALY LIVING

George, 1 said, 1 hop never to see you again, and with that strode into the thickening du& It was April and the smoke of early twilight wrcatbed slowly around cacetakers f~shiagup their grwming jobs for the day. Sad iles of refuse-papers, weeds, leaves, twigs, rotted blossoms-lay, dohgthe park with d'goance. putthg a period to the day. 1 was glad of the approaching night. If anyone asked me two months ago who the oddest person I lmew was 1 would have said Morris Morgan; I wodd have been wmng, it is George Rose. I shall never forget the night 1met bim. MIRIAM: Helio. Heilo. Hello. Hello Oh! Hello. ME: Hello, Miriam. How nice of you to cail me up. I could no

28 KOmmel. 'A liqueur, flavowcd wish cumin, manufactured in Nor& Oennaay" IO,ED.. 2nd cd., lm). MORRIS: Now don't copy this down. Because 1always think of sex on stairs. FELICE: How a~dt MEYou're so dd,Morris. FELICE= Who made that noise? JAKE It was a what, FEWCE A what? JAKE 1 didn't see it ïMIUAM Have yon been to F'isby's lately? ME: No. 1imagine you asked that for a purpose. You think 1 am brrekiag up theu home. 1 am not. 1iike their childrcn bettcr

29 Tkname of the King of the Danes. in dose bail Beowuif desmys the moastcr Gmdcl. 0- li My chose the name simply fw its unusual sound aad origin, thus thickening the disjunctiveness in his absud playlet Pairml with "Bob," a familiar American name, "Hrotbgar"sccms an -alfy rididous choice of a narne for a character. (Cf. R W. Chambers, 3rd ai., Cambridge, Eaglaad: Cambridge UP, 1967). SS And so it vas tbat when George Rose aune up to me in the park that April evening and asked me what time it was, 1did not so much as look at my watch, but fled into what was soori to be the night. John Ashbery "Song from a Play"

Copy-Te* CXXXI.6: 7- No pubiicaticm Qtt is given for tbis isme, Tbe cover and the masthead designatc this îhe "Comm~ll~~mcntIssue.* This issut fdows the CXXXIS (Much 1- 1- issw and pbcrdcs the CXXMI. t (Scpcemba 1948) ism. Commcaccmcnt (giaduatioa 0cccmdes) usually tod~piace in May or June of each year at Harvard The Hamud University Library appears to have stamped this issw as rcceived May 3,1948, ibough the ficharacier ('W?) in the date is bearly illcgibie, Ail evidence amsiderai, it appears very iikeiy ttte issue was pMishcd in April or very early May 1948. Cornposit ion: The d y MS of ibis pocm at Hougbtan is uadatsd Filc: 'Song from a Play" from Box 29. Anthology Poblkatioa: Nane, Furtber Publication: None. Notes / Emenâations A beading piecedes this p#m as pinted in the 'Goniwri Compeiition, Honora& Mmtion." The pœm is ap~arcntiya song fram Asbkry's w- a play perfonned in 1-1 at the Pats' Tbtarrr in Camkidge, Massachusttts, but never puMished (Kmnani il;cf. Allen, "A Short Chrwology." Jhc Cg&ctcdm of- û'ljjg&.

SONG FROM A PLAY Roses stwd among the pans As the sick ejected bitter humors; Lilies came aiid went like passions On faceless private errands; Somebody sent me an amomus Skeleton clothed in geraniums With a card ngned "Compliments of Jerry". What couid we reply, with the Wen Ripeness fdling acn>ss us, and lovers In vicious pursuit even througb dreams Unless death were a vital sac hidden Under eveq leaf and erotic gesture. Allowing excursions into peace, kyond The lockd joy of the moment?

But the yellow foliage that now 1s running to cover the planet's face 1s dead motion that goes on awbile After the genital force has stopped. And the departum of love does not Happen on this planet, it is a kind of action Not permitteci by the imagination. Frank O'Hara "The Unquiet Gravew

Copy-Tert: -dv-CXXX1.6: 3- No pybücation date is given for this issue, but it appears to bave becn pubiisbed in April or very eariy May 1WB Set tbe textual headnott for Ashbery's 'Song fma Play' (above) for &ails. Composition: A US version dthis piecc bas nat kenlaatai, wr bis its dak ofcun~tionbeen

Antbolagy Pubkmtionr Nane. Furt ber Publicatiaa= Nonec Notes / Emenditionr The piccc is sigaed 'Fbcis CWam,' but tbe author is fisted as 'Fia& OWam' in the conoibutor's note- That note iadicates also that OHim's previous A-picce-*O t&e Dangers of Daily Livingg-'Ied to much amrniveisial ccïo'cism, as we expect Z%e Ungiiiit Grme aiso to do,* Ine U-et Grave' was in fact reviewed by (May 1,1948). Acoording to Gooch. the "shdeat critic" judged tbat iûe story was "goai, bat not espccially so, and œrtainly aot conmversiai- The iâea of the story*which sœms to me erra%gcratcdtypicairiesque, is geacrally hi&h befrinà a styfe whicfi is floridly poctic, Perhaps this coacealment is a good thinp fw the style is definitely the strong part of the piece' (Gooch, Citv kt123)-

THE UNQmGRAVE The head, with long snaky neck and flapping Lips, fiuttered in the wind. its florid leaves smiling and grinning in mm. Oh to be the sawhen the spray bits the rock, tears at the lichen with tazor-nails, Meeds the barnacies. He bit the world. He never shouted, tan, bipped. and clawed the sod. Awakening never, 1 am buried on top of the earth, the air my tmb, this robin's shell my coffin. And rdling over. the ePi

Copy-Test CXXXI.6: 11. Uo publicaam da& is given for this issue, but it appears the issue was published in Apil or vcry early May 1948, Sac tbe textual bcadnott for Ashbcry's "Song from a Play' (above) fordetsiIs, Composition: The date of composition bas aot bacn rtsocrtained Koch's Gamism Rizr MS, ammg the holdings of Harvard University Archives, induks a version of this pocm. Amoag the Ashbery P.at Houghton Library, tbcre is a file of scverai leaves catitled ' Warwud SetDpoems - JA & Kcir9ctb Koch' ' from Box 38; the cigbth leaf has aaother MS v~~sl*onof 'Entrbae fw a Freak Show," Antbalagy Publication: Cullcr. Joaatban. ai., TheAdvocatt (Cambridge, MA: Scbcnianan PuMishing Company, 11966); Smdey, Ricbard M., cd., Flow- Westofthe (Reading, MA: AddiunkWdey RiMisbing Company, 1977); Mcfntyre, Douglas A., and- Karicn S. Hull, &. 9(Cambridge, MA: Shedanan Bah, 1987). Furthet Publication: None Despte the popdanantyof tbc poan-evidcnt in its prizc-winaing and freqwnt antbologization-Koch never hpriDted it in any of his own cullecticms. Notes / Emendatioas: A beading pmxdes this poem as printed in the Am'Ldoyd Mckrim GmrLsonPnzeTeUTextual variants the Gam'son Prize MS mais "tbat" raîhcr than "That" after tbe colon in the third line of the third speech.

ENTR'ACIP* FOR A FREAK SHOW

THE MAN WITH 'RE IRON MOUTH: See how the light-bulb powders on my tongue: Miraculous. TE -N m:No more than a mockery, A trade you learned, as useless as a lung Without a body. Rather gaze on me: My shrunken body utterly depends Not on a trick, but birth; this should delight By making nightman soiid for you, friends, So that, undressing in your homes toaight, Your undeniable symmetry wiil mean The temr was udthat made yw cry: For you are you, and with your eyes have seen The twisted pmfthat figures do not lie. 1 am a ihing of Gd.

THE MAN WTH THE IRON MOUI?I: My vuigar friend Disdains me for my intellect, but this Alone can set you fiee: That 1defend Absurd perfection. happily dismiss Al1 other kinds of action, mut console AI1 you good people gathered in this place Who feel your bands go empty and your whole Body tremble, suddenly meet the face Of your own childhood. when sleep will not briog [ts usual peace, rernindiog you of love

3o Entrlwtt. 'A performance in music, dancing, etc., taking place bctwccn the anr" m..2nd ai. 1989). And what you have not kn;rewmbering My serious diet of glas, ymcan remove The vision with a srnile, sane and sllicere, CIenching your fists.

THE BEARDED LADY: Gentiemcn, you bah Ge. Confess me here The twia torwnted mirror of your dream. John Ashbery "Why WeForget Dreams"

WHY WE FûRGET DREAMS

Through the haif open door came a sound of April- But I'm sad, said the tenor, O mwisely the spring Piles up its dangerws architecture! Who expects wisdom from lightheaded birds Movinp through a forest of constant desins, A world continually budding and fading, Where oniy death flowers and is exact And the season of love will never happen? The sun went out, the noise of his crying Feu amss the year like an icy min. Who can make his somw or bis happiness rd, Or make of their changing a beautiful thing?

Now, he said, it is dl ovei; only Someday, crossing a street, or innocently Rilling on Our gloves, the will Of an unseen lover will stam us into silence: In the sky, piladian? or the waving Tips of the dow,his sudden song Will confound us, for it shall be noiseless and wordfess; The sky of bis coming, ddess,and we The ghosts of which a dreamer tnLes possession.

So today, the Mans in the public gadens Carry bis sentence from shore to shore Yet we sit in the sun with our legs danglhg And my imowledge Mack and cold ùencath.

Pilladian. "Of. bcloaging to, or accordiag to the rîbool of th Italian ~i~hll~ftAndrea Piailadi0 (1518- &O), who imitated the ancient Roman architecture without regard to classicai principka Thou@ apparently spelled with an initial capital "Pxnost ofren, the O.ED- gives an iastaace fmm 17% which uses tbe lower case u.,2nd d, 1989). To move, he said, in his definition Peaccful as swans! As in a poem Lave is forgotten, and in a dream CII i ne paem is iost in a üesat of contexts, So motion is OW cure, but tiii be names us Love can k oniy waking to cach aha; 1 to the biinding nowhere of your limbs. You to the sad spring lost in my stammerings. Frank OtHara "Not with a Bang . . .O

Copy-Text: CXXXiI-1 (Sepumbcr 1943): 9.26. Comporltloc-- A MS vemïonoftbis pum has notbeen 1- norbics dateofannpositioo km Antbology Pubtitatfaa: Noac. Furthet Publicrtioa: None- Notes / Emendatiom Tbe piece is signai 'Fniacis OWam' The fwucnt lack of qucstiai aiarlEs-in pl- whert the reada migbt expct han-is the ms,and 1 fdiow.

Angela Symington put on her tightest Mack cocktaü fmk, a satin, and slunk across her mmto the mirrot on the back of the bathroom door. She medto stroke the seams of her stockings into straight ünes up the backs of her caives, then faced the mirror; she pushed her pelvis fornard, tüted her head badc and smiled at her self. "Well, baby," she said. "Weil."

Christy T was only haif fded when Angefa went in. She lookd around cofdly as if she had a date waiting for her, then stalked to a &aletable in the mat. She shed her little black monkey-fur cape and dtaped it over the back of her chair so that the tining made a ribbon of red behind her dnss. She laoked impatiently at the door a few times. "Hello, thete," a tail heavy man with oily black hair said. He bent over her. "Hello." 'Wouldn't you Iike a drink?" "1 've ordered one." "No you haven't. The boy hasn't been near you." "Oh?" "Would you sue for assauf t if 1sat dow a?" -1 "ghtw b4~.~.* "You know you'U just have to get back up when my date arrives." "That's dl right." "Yes. It wiil serve him right for beiag late." "My name's Fied Lutely." "Hello, Fred." 'WeUT' "Angela" b4~1a~ "Symingtoa." "Nice," ''Thanks," "What are you drinLUig, Angela?" "Bourbon and ginger." '"Twobourbon and ginger."

32 The thie almat certainly alludes to the last quatrain 0fT.S. Eiiot's pam "TheHollow Mm,"fint published in 1995 mrsthewaytireworidends Tltisistiie waythe wrikiendr î3ts is the way the worià ends Not with a hgbut a whhpt. Tmbot 5ttetcd" 'Right Make it one bourbon and ginger and one scotch and water." "So?" "hof acti~~.'' "How nice for you" "I'm not seffish." "h't get fric&." "All right? He üt a cigarette for her. "Corne hem dtaiT "Sometimestw "Yes It's a nice place." He stared at her through the smoke she puned at him. He quinteci as it reached his eyeballs. "Are you a model?" "No and I'm not suyears old either." %il right. What do you do?" 1 work faa üving." "So do 1. Another drink." "Yes." "Same. Where were we?" "Yes. So were you if 1 remember." "You werc working for a living." "1 wo* at Grodon's. I sel1 dresses to youihful matrws." "1 sell, too. Bonds." "How nice." "No, but it keeps me in socks." "1 imagine it does." Her band eluded his. "Look Now that were [sic] acquainted let's go somewhere and dance." "My date, remember?" "How long are you going to wait?" "As long as it takes." "Going steady?" "No. Just patient." "Y ou think he's worth it." "1 wouldn't wait if 1didn't." "No, I don't suppose you would." He Lit her cigarette. "And if he dasn't show at aiiT' "I'U be a linle annoyed.'' "Annoyed enough to let me take you home?" "Possibly ." "Good. 1'11 wait. If it's all right." "Remember 1said possibly." "Yes." He caught ber band. "hinking the same?" "Yes." "Teil me about youtself-" "Taat's my iine isn't it?" "It should be. But you don't follow the script, do you?" "1 don't like scripts." "You don't need one." "You ad Iib rather well yourself." "Thanks-" His thumb snoothed a wrinWe in her glove. "Why don? you take this O=' -1 migbt catch coldw "Have it your way. Another?" "Al1 right." A woman in a large black coat came to the table. "Angela. How arc you?" "Hdo, Doris. Have you seen Roger anywhm? I was to meet him hm." "Roger? No. No. 1 haven't" "Sit doma minute. This is Frrd Lutely? "Helo. No. 1 haven't scen Roger in sges. How is he?" "Fine. What have you kcn doing Iately? I expected to see you at May Berrage's Cocktail [sic] party the other day." "She didn't ast me. Ever since I staited to go out with Bob Goldman." "Jealous?" "mea tigress. Wlthout any young." "WeU god knows it's her own fadt if she's childesS." Angda withdrew ber hand from the man's. removeci her glove, and then put her hand back on the table near bis. She felt the misture on his paim as it covered hcr hand. "What are you drinLing?"' hc said to Dons. "Bourbon and ginger. Th&. Have you sœn Maurice Dent, Angela?" "No. 1thought he was out of tom." "He came back this weck. From Fiorida and looks divine. AU brwvn and gold." "1 hate blonde men." "Oh but this one, Angela." "Weii. Yes. i suppose." "Of course Sue bas him. She hast flew dowu to meet hini." "I'li bet she could have." "She is dreadful, isdt she? Well, 1dly should run dong." "Don't go. Hmcornes Christine. Christine. Hello." 'HelIo, Angela. HeiIo, Doris." ''This is Fred Lutely. Christine Fiendou. Sit down for a minute, Chris. 1 haven't seen you in ages." "Weil,just for a minute." The man got up slowly. He came around the table and bot over Angela "You bitch," he said. He waited. Angela smiled down at her cigantte. Then she raised her head until her forehead touched his lips. The other girls retumed her srnile. "Grease-hall. she said. John Ashbery "Grandma"

Copy-Test: CXXXiI.2 (Novcmber 1W8): 11. Tbe cover designafes tbis simply the "Novcmbcr-- Issw, IW8." Compositiom Ooly one of tbe several MSS of this pmat Houghtoa gives a date, and t&at is July II, 1W7. File: 'Grandma' from Box 28. Anthology Publication: Noae. Furthet Publication: None.

(D.1947)

Death exposes the rapuns of each instrument In the waltzing orchestra ofthe dead His pulse is tempo, and each lapsing head Exed in the flood-tide of his nyed intent.

How they go under and under, forcing Sayings of the tulip, black-eye susan, bone extending Lace of arpeggios beyood the deaf ear, anything Taken as a fugue, and no thane of their chmsing. John Ashbery "Some Trees"

Capy-Tt* -du- QCXXIIS (March 31,1949): 10- Compasitio~:Of the thne MS V~*O(ISof this pam at Houghtcm only one is dated, and tbat is Novemk 16, LW8 File: 'WCTrecs" fnw Bon 29, John Sbopaw in bis book Qp tk s Pœtry statcs this poem was wriw November 8,1948, but docs not iadicate his source (22)- Antbology Publication: Wl, Donald, ed., -2nd d,(ïmdtx~ En@& Pmguin. lm-);Ollier, J.S., H. M&, Jr., and J- Rodgers, cds., m-1979,(=S. Fraace: Hachcite Ic1973D; Sdcy, Ricbarid M., d.&g Flow&g The Best of' & HamdAdv- (Reading MA: Addison-Wesley RiMishing Company, lm;Vder, klead, Badrof (RKgvb"dgc. MA: Beiknap P at Hkrvard UP, 19BS). Furt ber Publicritioa: Ashtmy, ((1953); Ashbcry, Tm(19%; Asbbery, Semm ( lW- Notes / Emendrtiana The feiuis a stmi-coion after 'amaingRin Iine oae, 1emend this to a colon, since dl the MS versions at Houghton have this, and the synêuc stems to cal1 for it, I similarly emend Iine five, supplying the d comma, siace ail MSS at Houghron have it, and the syntax seems to cal1 for it. The Tint two lines of the third stanza d thus in the MS versions at Houghton: To tell us we are; That their merely being there I have, however, decided to retain the &ivq&s reading. since it seems imlikely a printer's emr, and thus plausibly Ashbery's own revision at the time- After c0llslCOllSlderabledelibemtioa, 1 have decided to mi..the Adw'sreading of 'a summer rnonüng" in the fmt liae of the concludiag stanza Though dl MSS of the Fmat Hougûton and all future publications of the poem in Ashbery's own colleciions read "awinter rnorning,' it seemed to me plausible that Ashbery had revised tbe Iine to read "a swnmer morning" for the initial &fv- publication, and had later reversed his decision. A glance at Ashbery's early manuscripts show tbat tbis son of revising and re-revishg utas not alien to bis wnting practises at the timc (Cf. the texniai headaote for "Elegy" above.) Further, the change d

SOME TREES These are amazing: each Joining a neighbor, as if speech Were a stiil performance. Arranging by cbaace

To meet as fat, this moming, From ihe wortd as agming With it, you and I Are suddenly what the trres try To tell us we are; That our merely being here Means something; that sbon We may touch, love, explain. And glad not to have invented Such comeliaess, we are surrounded: A siience already filled with noises, A canvas on which emerges A gathering of srniles, a summer morning. Piaced in a punling iight, and moving, Our days put cm such mticence, These accents sem their own defence, John Ashbery "For a European Child"

Copy-TexE -m ClOUCII.6 (April1949): 7. The cova dcsignia Usthe "Comme~~lllcatIssueSSue* Composition: OC ihe five MS vasions ofthis pocm at Hou@toa. dyone ïs da

FOR A EUROPEAN CNILD In the park 1saw the chiIcüike lovers Lie down on the newsprht whcre your quiet face Biossomed in a famine Uowingno appetite. The conceit, pulled tight as a mssk acioss The obvious he,altered but codd not hide Love's aching premise. Was it our wish to faü, that fanned Copies of your shadow amss our feasting land, hblished a face no mirror would understand? The diplomats sulk aad stammer; you pedy Your hunger in silence, and ml1grow to manhood A sallow abstraction. Then your photograph WilI flare in the sky over this semual wood And no birds mating cd1 from bough to bough And no loven struggie to image in each other Their unspeakable desires, each hiriiing, rather, Inward for that definition, as you do now. Frank O'Hara "The Drummerw

Copy-Tert -&IV- CXXXIV-1 (Scprcmbcr 1950): 9. The merdesignaie this tbe Wegi~tra~mIssue." Composition: Donald Allm suggests the poem was '[pJmhbty writtca in 1949 or 1950' (- pocmS 51911). Anthology fublicdion: Smolcy, Richard M, d, nowThe&st of the MppO A&- (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley bbiishiag Company, lm;McIntyre, Douglas A-, and Karen S- HulI, eds., Advv(Cambridge, W. Sckhmn Books* I9Sf). Furtber Piiblicatioa: OWam, Domid Ailen, d,rcvised ed, ( 197 1; Wtkedey. CA: U of Califomia P. 1956)- Notes / Emeadattons: Texnial variant Allen's Collectai of- mreads"cm~ raîher than "coupe' in the fmt line of helast stanza

THE DRtlMMER

Ba1aban!33 baraban! this is a quick stiletto bounced tight in tin casket! The devil you say! Wicked the way my aunt had to tell me after uncle rolled over and over inside the locomotive bellowing like a walrus's guffaw ! Bmbiill! Tighten till it pncks through keen as a blond feather, the saint! the rib-tic* oh! oh! the dromedary sharp-tooth, swaying its ali-muscle beiiy, has al1 the luck. Wbat a whale! it careens over the tracks, dmpping bison cakes. That's the way it was on the prairies, with a baraban! every two minutes and the red men hocking us off like turkeys.

Oh uncle. you died in a mdster coupe fighting the h~nees3~and Banshees35 you did, and 1'11 dmm you over the hi& bumpiiy, my dmm strongiy galumphing, kangaroos on al1 sides yelping baraban! for you.

33 Buiîmn. "Doubie-hesded dmdtk tastem Slavs (the Ukraine, &!-a pnd western mgimof Russia). It is used at wedding çcriemonies aad Tor dance. . accompüment. tn the 16th and 17tù centuries it was also a military instrument" kwGrove of-ed. SWey Sadie. London: Macmillan Press, 1w). 34 Piwnee. A maberof the pupof aibes ftferred to as the Pawneés, which inbabit rhe Southwestern United States u.,2nd d., 1989). 35 Banshec 'A aipmatural king supposad by ihc pcasantry of Irclaad and tbc MshHighlands ta wail under the wurdaws of a house whcrt one of the inmatea is abwt to die. Certain families of rank were reputed ro have a @ai 'family spirit' of tbis kind" N.,2nd ai., 1989). Frank O'Hara

Copy-Tests CXXXIV. 1 (September 1930): 9. Tht merdesignates this the "RegismticmIssue." Compasmit ion: hddAllen tepons tbat this potm is dami 'Cambridge, i;ckuary 1930" in US 3 12 in the Frank O'Hara archives (1Cdlectrui paias S19n). Antbology Publicatto~~m, Arabcl I, et al., eds., pfcw WddWntinn,(Efew York, NY: New American Library, 1952); WiUiams, Oscar, d,nP#iLct tf 3rd ed., fwifWisaiby Hyman Sobiioff, (New York, NY: Simm and Schustcr, 1972); Smoley, Richard M., ai-, The West of- (Reading. MA: Addisoll-Wes1cy RiMishing Company, lm;Mcintyre, Douglas A-, and Katcn S- Hull, eds., (ChnAntboloPvdgc, MA: Schenkman Books, 1987) ;Ellman, Richard, and Robim OCJair, uk,Tti.-v of Mr.kni Fwüy, 2nd 4,(New York, NY: Nortoa, Rokn Wallace, d,'Pbtms to Considcf [a secâon ofa chapter titled "Beyonci the Ratid: Butglars and Housedogs"], 3rd d,(New York, W- Harpercoliius, 1991); Hoover, Paul, ad-, N- ((New York, NY: Norton, 1994). Further Publicatioa: OWm, inY& Grove P, 1957; OTbm, In A Bill Berkson, d,(New Yak, NY: The Museum of Modern Art, 196'7); OTha, Frank, of Donald Allen, ed., (New York, NY:Knopf, 1974); OThm, Cdlected cf- WdAilen, ed, revised ed.. ( LW 1 ;Berkeley, CA: U of Califda P, 1995). Notes / Emendations: Textual variant: Allen's of omits the comma pteceding "CallWin the first Iine-

POEM The eager note on rny door said, "Cal1 me, cal1 when you get in!" so 1 quickiy threw a few tangerines into my ovemight bag, straightened my eyelids and shodders, and

headed straight for the door. It was autumn by the time I got around the corner, oh al1 unwilling to k either pertinent or bemused, but the leaves were brighter than grass on the sidewalk! Fumy. 1 thought, that the Lights are on this late and the hall door open; stili up at this hour, a champion jai-fi36 player like himscIf? Oh fie! for sbame! What a host, so zeaious! And he was there in the hall, flat on a sheet of blood that ran down the s&. 1 did appreciate itTbere are few hosts who so thoroughly pnpive to grest a guest only casually invited, and that several rnonths ago.

36 Jai alai. "A gamc d Basqw origin played on a thrcc-wallcd court in which a small hard bal1 is caught and thrown against the wails with a long, curved, wiclrtr scoop (cesta) strappeû to the playefs am. The meis usually played betwœn two desof one or two piaycrs each; the sidc thai-. fails to catchlStbd,1975)* and rem the bail before it has bounccd twice on the flocx loses the point' (- Frank O'Hara "Late Adventure"

Copy-Text: -4- CXXXIV. 1 (Septnnber 1930): 1&11,1&20. The cover designam tbis the "RegistrationIssue.' Compositiom: This short st#y was ihly wcitlcn bttwecil1946 and 1948, thcn reviscd in rhe summcr of 19% Sec *Noteswbelow for details. Antholow Publicatioa- None Furthet Publication: None . -- Notes / Eaenâationr Alexander Smith's E&& A ve quotcs Frank (YHarais27 Sepiembn 19SO km to former Harvard ciassmak Lawrenœ Osgood: '1 bad no idta tbat ihe &ivqjg wddpint that story, 1 bada't san it sincc two yem or tbrœ ago w&n it was wriücn for John Ciatdi's class aad Dan Efatl asked me Cm it. This summer DanDei Ellsbcrg, then aüû~of tbe Ad;vocaael asked me if I'd bt willing to =vise it f'him and 1 zald ya, . . I lwe the convcrsatioa Hu@ had with himself in the middle, tbe best thing in it, mi sdfquestioning!' (Smith 111). Tbc iist of courses tûat DddAIIcn includcs as an appcndix to Frank O'Hara's F.arlv 1Kna'anists lohn Ciardi only as teaching Frank UHaca 'Compositio~t:Poctry" in his fiaal acahic year at ZCarvard, 1WP-19%);tbe genre and ycar would secm to prcclude that course from bcing the one to which O'Hara refers in bis letter to Osgood, However, in his coutribution to -!c Ciardi states that he recalls teacbing O'Ham fnshman English and iastnicting him in more rhan one writhg wakshop- Allen's appcndix lists OWua's insrnictors for f- Eaglisb as "MLMom'soa and oihtrs" (149). It mas k tbat Ciardi was one of the 'otbers," and tbat O'Hara mtt the story in fteshman Eaglish during the 154647 academic year, or it may be that CYtiara wrote the story in a Ciardi worksbop not accaunted for in Allen's list- The inconsisteacies in tbe speiling of "seaweed' and "sa-weed" are the Adv-'s and 1 rehh them. The lower-case 'pa in "god' is also the Awsand 1 fdiow-

Benditz had oaly pitinted a purple patch on the canvas, but he sat down on the flmr as if he had completed something. "What's the matter, Gilo?" said Hugh. 'Tm bord is a,''Gilo said. Tmso god .. . ." He chewed his cigarette-holder and slanted it at a nostrii. He took it out of his mouth and drew cides on bis temple with the mouth-piece. "I'm getting gray." "We ail are. We're gecring old." "And sorry." "Yes and sorry." Hugh looked out the cvindow. "Let's waik down to the beach." "Yes." The sea lay in the harbor like a spider lying on its back. The water was faintly brown with seaweed, and rickety staimays led up fran it lüre Spndiy, segmented legs. On the seaward side, where the= were no bliufA the= werc no staimays, and the wind whirled in tivough the opdgin the land to tear at the cneLiag staiiways and stir the sluggish water. Hugh and Gilojumpd to a rock sumwindeâ by slowly circling water and sat down. Giio todr off his shoes and bathed his feet, catching sea-weed with his toes and bursting its linle mbbcrish bubbles with his fmgers. "You'ie too ptoper, Hugh," he said. "You're ever oldcr than 1am." "#en did you last har from Mary?" Hugh said Giio had always thought him not young enough, not bohemian enough, wtradical euough, aii of them bad, and it had annoyed him so that he wouid admit it eggnsSveIy without ever dybeiievhg it, without letting himself believe it, because it refiectad on his artistic and poüticd integrity, on his hatred of' the bourgeois and the nomai. and he was afraid to feel iderior to them in any of these things. 76 "She's fine." "Oh." So she was gme. Gïio was pmôabIy ktter off without her. He suddenly wished he had na come domto sec Gilo. It had wthing to do with Mary Mggone from Gilo's lifc, fnnn Güo's youtû, and fnnn his own. Yes, it did ûave to do with Mary's king gone, this dspak. because Mary was awtber page nsd and bmied, motber leaf fden frmthe winte~gm. ''1 may k leavng [sic] this place pretty mon." "Were do you pian to go? Some place to pick yourseif up and start in a new direction? Ordo you meen to paint?" "1 rnay paint there or 1may not 1don? imagine I'U have much tirne." "I've been tbinüog aftravelling lately. I'm so tired of places when I'm in them." "1 was thinking of hiesthe." Gilo had gone to Spain, too. And Hugh, the socid dilettante, too Jocially niindeà to abandon &self to art Pnd forget his rtsponsibiities in b~hemia~sm.had not. They'll win anyway, he had thought Therc's no sense in geauig your htad shot off;the= are few enough liberals in the worid as it is. And then Iater he had known they wouldn't win. that Franco would win. It was as simple as that. No sense geaing your head shot off either way: do more good right where you are. "Wondedul, Gilo. They certaidy need help, god knows." "Yes I thought I'd finish things up here and then voitmteer to sme on a ship smuggling refugees km Palestine untilI can get in myselfand join Haganah3' or the Stem Gang."38 "The extremists?" "You dm't think they'n j-ed?" "1 don't how. I suppose they are. It's ratber ugly, though." "Isn't it." Gilo got up and turned his back, then he knt and picked up his shoes and socks. "Gilo. I'm going to Palestine, tao. I've bcen thinking of it for quite a while now and 1 want to go." "oh. "Yes. 1 feel l should." "Why? You aren't a Jew." "You're not a Jew, either." "I'm not not one." 66 99 .....a "Soq, Hugh." Güo put on his socks and shoes. "Shall we go back up?" "Y es." "We can have dinner with Lucia and Bill and Nan." "Fine. I'd like to see them." Hugh wished that he had stayed at home. Once back in New York Hugh found that three weeks werc plenty of tune for a mildly successful novelist to whd up bis aff&irs,sublet bis apartment, and attend a few parties. He had told only a few of his ktfrienâs d his plans and admonished them to serrecy, but he lmew that bis fnends had not kept silence (there was that time at Charlotte's when he haâ overhead [sic] s rnatmn he bewonly by sight saying, "But Hugh Wtllmont's

Hyamh, o modemte Zionist military organization that cvninrally bccarne, by 1948, tbe national army of IsraeI. Tbe Hapuah "opposed the-. pditical philosophy and tmonst activities of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stem Group" * lSthed.,1975). 38 Stern Gang, aisa hmn as Stern Gmup, 'of'ficially WWWE HERAT YISR4EL (Fightcrs for the Freedom of Israel), militant Zionist organization in Palestine, founded IWO by Abraham Stern after a split in the right-wing underground mwement, Irgun Zvai Leumi .. . . Aftcr tbe creation of Israel(1948), the pup, which had aiways been cadcmnd by moQratc leaders of tbe kwish conimunity. in PaieSine,- was banned; some of its unit. were incorpomted in the lsrael Dcfenst Fbrces.' 15th ed., 1973). midde-aged, my dear! WeU I mean.. .."), and that most of the people he imew thought his forthcornhg trip intemithg and romantic: adventure might yet occurin their own Lives, the nit was not inescapable. He foimd that putting his Heaway in moth-bans was not so hard to do as he had thought it wouid be, and that he was looking fornard to new experience with an uncyaicai eaihusïosm. He bought radical adlikral joiimals each day or so, and read thcm with a f&g of klonghg he had never felt b&or& His f-r faint feeling of gaiit was gone, and his impatima with what he had ded"the vïsicmary mind" had disappearrd in his i&ntifïa*on of himselfwith it. Mtet the fint days dcodusion Hugh had mmleismc thaD he had had in years, and he was more in demand oociaüy. Pcople he knew ody slightly remembend tbat they had intended to have him to cocktaüs or dimer soine timt ago and weie eager to get etmd to doing it now. He fished one of a mies of critical essays he had been doing for a sdl, unremunerative litcrary magazine, and Itt his other work go so he couid spend most of bis remaining thewith Chariotte. Cûariotte, too, had changd toward him. He had not nocicd untii after her cbange how stereotyped and periuoctory th& affair had pwa.Tbeir iove had become a sort of reminiscent rituai which sligbdy bordboth celebrants untii the night he told her he would leave her sooo. Beginning with that night she had re-bloomed for him; they had not been happier since the &ys when she fvst beaune his mistress. She wouid wdt for him; she promiseci, and he was sure she would His gesture had, perhaps, more sigaaicance in her eyes than his heart. Gilo Bendiajoined him about a week bcfmthey wmto leave for North Africa, and Hugh end Gilo went to exhibtions [sicl and mitais which Gilo &ad missed while he was painting in Rovincetown. But after the fvst two days Gilo followed bis own pumits and Hugh his, for Gilo dampened by his matter of factness the adventure of Hugh's decision. Gilo even went so far as to suggest that Hugh might by now have neoosidered and might pnfer not to go &ter ail, a suggestion which Hugh found offeosive. "Why shouid 1have changed my mind?" Hugh said. "1 don't koow. &cause you have more to lose than 1, perhap~.~~ "Weil, 1 suppose I have. Hugh said, and the following day was füled with depression. Toward evening Chariotte calid to say she bad tickets for two at the symphony (they were doing a Schocnberg symphcmy that mutn't be missed) and would stay at home if Gilo wanted to go with Hugh. Hugh declined for Gilo. Hugh and Charlotte amived at the concertjust in time for a Mozart symphmy and after the Schoenberg, while they wtre having a cigaretîe in the foyer, Chariotte asked if he wouldn't like to do a mther stnmge party they'd both bem invited to. Hugh, too depressed. decided to stay for the Bruch Concertdo and offed, if Charlotte was bord by concert war-homes, to meet hm later at the party. She went back to their seats with him and the concerto began. The violinist, a young boy with a lean, passioaate, Jewish face, played the work with possessiveness and warmth. Chariotte leaned over once ta whisper, "Pure schmaitz." but [sic] Hugh was t&ected fmm the fm note of the violinist, and the cumulative

39 1 have cmeadcd this passage to rcad as it now does. The rcacüng maices Littie ras: "Why should 1 bave cfianged more to lase than 1, pcrhaps." "1 don3 how. Becaust you bave my mind?" Hu@ said Apparently the m-'s typesetter simply exchanged two passages by accident 'more to lose than 1, perhaps' for ' "my mind?" Hu@ said.' ' 40 Max Bruch (1838 1920). Gertnan composer anâ amdunor. Amcmg many aba vorl;r fa voiœ, -* piano, and symphony, he wmte îhevidin c01lcertos (RandtI, cornp., Jiarvatd -OC Music). emotional pressure ovmaae him during the second mbvement. Team pourcd domhis cheeks. He took out bis haudlreEchicfand pushed at his noae, but the last movement sent bïm into such turmoil that k could bahly see tbe orchestra. His braia wallowed in sound and Chariotte's whispcrs wmlost to hh. When it w~sber he sat brk Ümp. Noise seethed amund bim,-cIapping, bravoes [sic],chatter. "What is it?"Chariotte was saying, Tbatis it?" He numed to her, dabbmg quickly at his eyes. "Oh Hugh, desr, what is it?" He stdup. "God damn it," he said too IouàIy. 'Notbing. Nothhg, Mother Hubôard," and walked away. He got vey dnmlr thtni@ and argueci uninteiligibly with Giio when he got back to the menteady the next morning. When he woke up it was aftcnim. He got up and showtred. When Oilo insisted then was n&ng to apologize for. [.cl"Tt probabîy did you g@" hc saki, but Hugh felt uneasy. Hugh calied Chariotte and epologizd. "Ofcoune 1don't mind," Chsrlotte saiû wdy. "You wmjust .. . . upsct. He did play divinely. didn't he? 1 tbink everyone was affected by him. AU ri@. I'U expect you." Charlotte was prrparing dinner for two when Hugh amved. They had cocktails in silence. Hugh felt rested and relaxed, and durhg dinnet embprLed on an easy conversation which Chariotte gzaduaily took part in, fmcautiousIy. then sympathetically. Mter dhex they âid the dishes together, and by the timc they had moved into the living room for one more cup of coffee they bad rcgained th& afllectionate reiationship. Hugh waited for Charlotte to ask him to stay. She did. He showered; and after mabglove to her decided to stay with her aLl night. The next maning Hu& called Gilo up and inviteci him over for breakfist. It was a sumy &y and they ate in front of a large window so they codd see the son on the tree outside as they danL cup after cup of conee. "1 wantd to ask you both something," CharIone said "I've been thinking of giviag a üttie Party, a sort of going away affair wiihout anyone Lwwing it's that-no sense in us aii getthg maudlin." Hugh Lnew that she rushed on to the next sentence because of this slip; he watched her to see if she would try to find out if he had noticed it. "Just a few old friends in and maybe something aftenuard if we don't feel like staying hem." "Nice of you to thinlr of it, Charlotte," Gilo said, lwhng at Hugh. Hugh didn't look at Gilo. "It's a iittie silly, Cbarlotîe," he said "But 1 suppose if you want to. . .* Then shall 1have it?" "Why not the night we leave?" Hugh said, dreading the night of farevell he would owe her if the party were given some other the. "There is nothing like a send-off from the pier to drive evecyone completely hysterical. Remernber that tiw Mary tbrew one before you sailed for Paris. Mo?" "Never fmgetgn Then it 's settled. Who do you want invited? Anyone special, Gilo?" "NO.It dœsn't matter. I'Ii leave it irp to you, Chdotte*" "And you, Hugh?" "It's al1 yours, dear." "1'11 get busy on it then." The party was a success. Charlotte invited tcm many people, serveci tao much liquor, and eveyone had a gdtirne. Hugh Qanlr in du1moderation and took care to avoid an emotional scene when he saw tbat Cbariotte was getting high. Gilo got quite dnmk and reminisced about the Spanish Civil War. "We'ii get that bastard yet," he thrcatentd Generalissima Franco's41 safety, and fat, balding businessmen

41 Frracisco hinco (Bahamonde). "A gamal and leader of the Natioaaüst f" ihat overîbew lhe Spanish democratic republic in the Spanish Civil War (193639). [and] was after 1936 head of the promiscd him support wha the thecame to invade and mûm the Repubiïc. One of the businessmen came up to Hugh and, away fmm Mo's magnetism, said, "What WUyou lost-causefs do if the Jews win out in this thmg?" Hugh stared at the mm's ugly srnile as the question bobbed in fmor of him like a eoik and then, lucaly, disapprarrd in the eddy of conversation. Y said. . . .: but Hugh had fled. Soon it was tune for them to leave. Tbt party's memben packed themselves into taxis and, hooting snd bilering, emptied ont0 the dock for a fcw seconds of good-lucks; Chariotte wept profiisely; they all stdad scricamed afkthe ship as it got uidaway. Hugh and Giio had gone klow kfoie they watout of sight. The trip was dull. The small, dingy vesse1 wddlm them at a North Mrîcan port where they wodd be interviewed and pladon a Jewish smuggler by teprescntatives of the kwish underground organkation whom they wddcontact upon going ashore. Their fellow-passengers wcre middle and low clriss Mediterraneam rauming to th& native lands from America, cxcept for a missionay or two. They spoke English, with few excepions, rather pwrly, ad,although Gilo had an amusing time with some of thcm, Hugh was bond by a series of socially pretcntious businesmen wbo wae the only people on board ship to approach him. Th& coaveRation was invariabLy the same: how gdit would be to see thek relatives again, how prond the village would be of their succes in Amerka. how happy they were to k going home, how plobable the nimour of a renegade Gemum submarine was, how shocked they wae to hear tbat the mce-loolcing old missioaary had been transferred from South Amerka forraping a Bdiannun, bwdortunate it was that one of the Iittle boys, travelling third dass had caught the mumps, how sick all the passengers whose staterooms were on the port side had bec- as soou as the ship had got undmvay, how convenient it was tbat the management made available a prostitute who could be contacted through one of the stewards, how much they tbought of the United States. And Hua,with bis pecfunctory answers to their questions and inattentive listening to their convefsatio~liilaoemps, made ûimseIfa reputation for snobbery which was more than to any disappmvd of them or their social milieu.[sic] He balf-dized this, but was tw depressed to &y cm.He decided that ocean voyages did not agree with him; he knew that he would feel better, more himself, when he reached land-he hated the barren, metal sea, the wheeling gulfs and siithering porpoises, and loogcd for the smells of people and dirt and vegetation. The sun seemed damp to him on the clcarest deys, and b could stomach Little fdHis sleep was coastantly hken by the awkward rhythm of the ship. Upn reaching port Gilo and Hugh established themselves at a maderately cornfortable hotel and presented themstives to the proper perrons. They wmpted with enihusiasm and friendliness and immediateiy taken into the social lite of the members of the Jewish organïzation who were unknown to the authorities, arwi thedore did not lead so precarious an existence as their bmthers in the underground. Hugh and Gilo had wriited for assignment a little less than a rnonth when Hugh became iil. He was admitteci to a dhty, cdudhospital nm by French auas and remained there for over a month with a serious attack of mumps. haing this tirne he rrceivcd two notes fmm Gao, one explaining his reluctance to exposc himscif to the diseases of the over-crowded hospital when he might be called fa duty any &y. and the der, which came the second week of Hugh's confinement, notifying Hugh that he bad been dedand would leave soon. government of Spain .. . . Fraarr, entend the army in 19in and bccame a dooal bero for his mie in campaigns apinst Moroccan rcbcls. By 1935 ùe was chief d the army's gendstaff. Pditical disintegration led Franoo to join a military &Ilion in 1936; he was mal commander in cbief oT the rcbd Nationalist govemment and won a cornpiete vicrory on April 1, 1B9. 'During Wdd War II Frawo's govmtnmained ncuiral. At tk ûeight of the Cdd War liana tmk a position of strung anti-Cornmunism.- In the 19SI)s and W)s his barsh c011servaiismrelax& somewhatn 1% d,1975). al Hugh was stül wepk when he left the hospitai but @adto move back to the hotel. The diseasc bad Ieft no ill dects but he would ncsd a few weeks, at least, of convaiescence. His Jewish acqiiaiatanccs soon contactcd him. Gilo bed ken smuggied out to a ship Lying off the hnrbor the night of the day he âad wriücn ta Hugh and by now. barring mishap. was delivering dugees somewhere dong the cosst of Wlestine. They had cancelled Hugh's v01m~'sregïstratim whcn he wu admitteci to the hoSptai. and felt thet he sûodd wait till his fidl hcaith was restored More re-rcgistcring- Withouî Gilo he found it difiicult to spend any length of thewith these acquaintances, even though they attempted to entertain him md relax him. Gilo, he realized, had provideci couunon ground wbich, without him, he was at a losto esîabüsh. Graduaily he stoppai saing anyone. and qmt his time reading or wahgthe kaches. He became anxious to do #imeth..g.but the doubt dhis abüity to accomplish his purpose without the aid of Gio as a sort of& intapteter nullüicd his desire to accompüsb it, and the knowlcdge thnt he was so dependent on same0ne7a situation wbich he had avoided even in such intimate mlationships as that with Charlotte for fear that just what had happened to him now would bpp.rendered him completeiy incapable of action. The datorfmaliy settied the matter of his re-regïstraticm as an underground volunteer for him during one of his periodic inspections. "Just what arc your immediate plans, Mr. W~llmont?" "Why .. . . 1 don't believe 1 have any immcdiate plans." 'Then 1shoufd aiggest that you na plan anything which would be too strenuous, physicafly, Mt. Wilimont. And furthemore althmgh many people fmd our climate ideal for convalescence, 1 believe you might make -ter progres in regaining your health if you were to live elsewhere. Perhaps a more temperate climate. .." "1 see, doctor . . . . .99 That same aftemooa he onlcred mationsfor New York. Honorably relieved of an obligation which he bdup to aow not allowed himself to admit had become unplaisant. he speut the few days of waiting in an enthusiastic spending spree; he bought oddities as souvenirs for bis friends and toiletrîes for Charlotte which were unobtainable or fabulously expensive in the United Staîes. For the fittime he kameaware that he had not even sent Charlotte his address. The &y before he saded he cabled her saying he was returning due to iU health, and wouldn't she meet the ship. The second day at sea he received a cablegram from Charlotte. It was a long one: they had al1 been terribly womeà about him and Gilo and would aii be at the dock to meet him. They might even hire a band. .. . He burnt the cablegram. He was physidly incapable offacing them. He could not stand to ~eethem ali again. The ship began to make him ill. Frank O'Hara

Copy-Text: -dv- QCXXIV-4 (Fkbniary 1951): Il. Cornpor it ioii= DddAUcn indiates that MS 305 in the Frank OWam archive dates this poem "Cambridge, Nwmk1W" (Men, ai, of fiartlr 551911). Aat hology Pu bltcation: Noae. Furthet Publicmtion: û'Hara, Cw of Doaald Al& d,revid d, (1971; Berkeley, CA: U of CaIiforiiia P, 1995). Notes I Emenâationz Texnial e~t: Allen's bas tbe tbeclc "the" preceding wmotive" in Iine two-

to Dovid.Hms@2who crecrted himfor me Our fathefl3 local and famous you are motive fonver guide of our consciousness iowards you storms beckon incident for morai proof and abide by your decision with you as upon an island the beast the butcher and the fool live hannonious you are guardia.of our faculties and we owe you what beauty we attain to your kingdom aiways is manifest in villains virgins everything we understand and hazard leads us to you wi th i ts invisible voice or destroys us apart aione aeglect us not now we are free our need is difficult smgers steal our voice

In his note to

1. Mamuscripts. Ashbery, John. Job Ashkry Papers. The Houghton Rare Ba& and Manuscript Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Koch, Keruteth. Garrison Prize MS. [Full title of MS: "A Letter, Tbta Poems, and a Selection from a Play"] (Harvard Arcbives nfmnce numkr: HU 89.18599), Harvard University Archives, hsey Libiary, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA. Koch, Kenneth. Kenneth Koch fapers. The Henry W. and Alberta A. Berg Coiiection of English and , New York Public Library, New York, W.

2. Books, Articles, aad Cocrespoadence. Adams, Michael. "KennethKoch." Dictioaarv o~terarv~iogra~hv:American Püets Since World War II. Vol. 1: A-K. Donald J. Greiner, gen. ed 2 vols. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, 1980. 412-16. Allen, Donald, ed. The Collccted Poems of Fiank OWani. Revised ed. 1971. Berkeley, CA: U of California P, 1995. Allen, Donaid, ed. The New Amencan Poetrv: 19451960. New York, NY: Grove P, 1960. Allen, Donaid. and George F. Butterick, eds. The Postmodems: The New Amaicm sed. New York, NY: Grove P, 1-2. Ashbery, John. The Art of Poetry XXWI." Interview by Petet Stitt. ne Paris Riew25.90 (Winter 1983): 3 1-59. ou Hem. Bir& New York, NY: Fm,Straus, and Giroux. 1995. -. "In Conversation with Job Asbbery." By David Herd PN Review 99 22.1 (Sept.- Oct. 1994): 32-37. -. "An Interview with John Ashbery.' By John Tmter. Sc_npsi 4.1 (July 1986): 93- 102. -. Personal inte~ewwith Michael Londy. 5 March 19%. -. "A Reminiscence." to Fd0% EL Bïii Berkscm and Joe LeSucar. Bolinas, CA: Big Sb, 1978. 2û-22. -. Sekcted Poems. New York, NY: Pen* lm.

Self-Portrait ia a Convex Mïrip~. New York, NY: Pen&, 1975. e Trees. Yale Younger Pats Series. New Haven, CR Yale UP. 1956. -. The Termis Court Oath. MiWletown, Cï:Wesleyan UP,1%2. -. Tmdotaod ûther Poems. New York, NY: Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 19s. -- A Wave. New York, NY: Papin, 1984. -. "TheExperiena of Expience: A Conversation with John Ashbery." Interview by A. Poulin. Jr. Michi- Ouartdv Review 203 (1991): 242-55. Ashbery, John, and Kenneth Koch. JobAshkrv and Kenneth Koch (A Conversation). Tucson, AZ. Interview P, [1%5?]. Ashbery, John, and James Schuyler. A Nest of Nimies. New York, NY: Dutton, 1%9. Auden, W.H. 'Epilogue." The Chators: An Wish Studv. London: Faber and Faber, 1932. 112.

Berkson, BiU. "Frank O'Hani and his Poems.' Wane- to Frank O'Hara. Ed. Bill Berkson and Joe Lesueur. Boiinas, CA: Big Sky, 1978. 161-65. Berkson, Bill, and Joe Lesueur, eds HO- to OHam. Bolinas, CA: Big Sky, 1978. Bloom, Harold, ed. John Ashbmy. Modern Critical Appraaches New York, NY: CheIsea House, 1935. Bly, Robert. Talkiqg AU Momiqg. Poets on Poctry Series. Donald Hall, gcn. ed. Am Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P, 1980. Breton, André. -estocs dS-. Tram. Richard Seaver and Helen R Lane. AmArbor, MI: U of Michigan P, 1972. . pnwds hcbcmarv. of- and Fkblg 15th ed. Revised by Adrian Rom. New York, NY: HaxperCollins, 19%. Brodkey, Hnrdd. The Art of Fiction CXXVI." Interview by Peter Sti~The Paris &vkw 121 (1991): 51-65. Carroll, Paul. The YoeericanPbets. Chicago. FoUctt Ribiishing Company, 1968. Chambers, R. W. Beowulf. 3rd ed. Cambridge, Eugland. Cambridge UP, 1%7. Chapman, Robert, d Volume the FÏrst. By Janc Austen. Mord, England: Qanndon P, 1933. Ciardi, John. "Letter." Homane to Frank O'Hara. Ed- Biil Berkson and Joe Lesueur. Botinas, CA: Big Sky, 1978. 19. Contemwrary Autbors. CD-ROM.New York, NY: Gale Research, 19%. Culler. Jonathan, ed. me Harvard A dvoaite Centennial atbdogy. Cambridge, MA: Schenkxnan Pubtishing Company. 1966. . - A Dictionarv of Amencamsrns - Chicago, IL: U of Chicago, 1951. Eliot, T.S. The Hollow Men." ne Cornolete Potms and Piavs: 1909-19s. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 19% 5659- Elledge, Tun, ed. Frank O'Hanc To Be Truc to a City. Under Discussion Series Donald HaU, gen. ed. Am Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P, 1990. EIlman, Richard, and Robert (l'Clair. The Norîon Antholoq of Modem Poew 2nd ed. New York, NY: Norton, 19éR J%cyclopaedïaBribqg&g. 15th cd. 1975. Feldman, Alan. Frank OWarg. Twayne's United States Authors Series 347. Boston. MA: Twayne Pubüshers, 1979. 85 Field, John P. Bifb4Ld Wd buc A Bib110~~. . The Serif Series, Bibliographies and Chec~16. William White, gen. cd. Kent, OH: Kent State UP, 1w1.

Gooch, Brad. Fhr Poet The Meand Tbes of Fia& OWiw+ New York, NY: Knopf. 1993. Ml,Donald The Art of Poetry Mm."Interview by Peter Stitti The Paris Review 120 (lsml): 15593. -.. ed. Contemmrw Amaicm Poernr. 2nd ai. London, Engianck Penguin, 1972. -., ed. The Harvard Advocate praabdogy. New York, NY: Twayne Riblishers, 1950. -. Letter to Michael Londry. 7 November 19%. -. Letter to Michael Londry. 18 December 19%. -. The Old Me." The Old WC.New York, NY: Houghton Minlin, 1996. 25-123. Hemingway. Emest. "HillsLike White Elephants. Men Without Womm. New York. N'Y: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1927. 69-77. Henry, O. (William Sydney Porter). The Gift of the Magi." Four Milliog New York, NY: McClure, Phillips and Company, 1906. 17-25.

Hoover, Paul, ed. O O . New York, NY: Norton, 1994. Jacob, Max. 1c Cornet à ci&. Paris, France: Gallimard, 1945. Kermani, David K. Km've Biblio~... Gailand Reference Library of the Humanities 14. New York, NY: Gailand Publishing, 1976. Koch, Kenneth. "AllenGinsberg & Kennet&Koch: hma Conversation." The Poetry icct Newsletter 158 (0ct.-Nov. 1995): 4-6. -. "A Conversation with Kenneth Koch." By . The Field 7 (Fall 1972): 53-61.

c kunwav:. Selected Poems lW0-19BB New York, NY: Knopf. 1994. -. "An Interview with Kenneth Koch." By John Tranter. scripsi4.2 (Nov. 1986): 177- 185. -. "Ke~ethKoch in Conversaîion." By David Heid PJ Revhw 106 223 (Nov.-Dec.

1995): 27-3 1. -. "A Note about F& OIHarain the Eady Fifties." )Iomanc to 0'- Ed. Bill Berkson and Joe Lesueur. Bolinas, CA: Big Sky, 1978 26-27. -. Personal interview with Michael Londry. 6 Mareh 1946. -- . The Pîeasures of Peace and merPœms. New York, NY: Grove P, 1%9. -. Poems. New York, NY: Editions of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery, 1953. - Poems from 1952 to 1953. Los Angeles, CA: Black Sparrow P. 1%8. - Rose. Where Did You Get That Red? Teachipg Great Poetrv to Cbildnn. New York, NY:Vintage Books, 1974. -. Selected Poems: 1950-19821 New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1985.

-- Thank You and merPoems. New York, NY: Grove P, 1962. - When the Sun Tries to Go On. Los Angeles. CA: Black Sparrow P, 1%9. Kostelanetz, Richard. "John Ashkry." The Old Poetries and the New. Poets on Poetry Series. Donald Hall, gen. ed Ann Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P, 198 1. 61-1 10.

Lehman, David. The Bie Ouestion. Poe& on Poetry Series. Donald Hall, geo. ed. Am Arbor, MI: U of Michigan P. 1995. Lehman, David. "Dr. Fun." pUnerican Poetrv Review 24.6 (NovJDec. 1995): 53-59. Londry, Michael. "John Ashky." J'he Reader's Guide to Literature in W. Ed. MarL Hawkins-Dady. London, Eagiand: Fitpoy Oearbom Riblishers, 1996. 37- 38. Mailer, Norman. "Our Man at Harvard." Advocate. Ed. Richard M. Smoley. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company. 1977. xi-xiii. Martin, Robert K. "Scmdal at Smith." ["Lesbian I Gay I Queer Studies" issue.] &&&

. * t TeackA Sgllilisi and F-st JO- cm the Thww 45 (Wlimter 1994): 48. McIntyre, Douglas A.. and Karen S. Hull, eQ. The Harvard AdvcrasAniiivenay vmaq &@oiogy- Cambridge, Scheakman Books, 1987. Meyer, Steven. "Ashbery: Poet for Ail Scascms." mtan: A ûtwteriv Review 15.2 (Fd 1995): 144161. Moss, Howard, ed. The-Poet'sStow. New York, NY: Collier Macmillan Publishers,

1973 * Myea, John Bernard, ed. The Pats of the New York Scbool. New York, NY: Gotham Book Mart and Gallery, 1%9. -. "Frank O'Hara: A Mernoir." Homane to Fraak O'Hara. Ed, Bill Berkson and Joe Lesueur. Bolinas. CA: Big Sky, 1978. 3438.

-. Tracking- the Marvelous: A Life in the New York Art Wodd. New York, NY: Radom House, 1983- New Grove Dictionarv of Musical instruments. Ed. Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan P. 1984.

O'Hara, Ftank. #4 Citv Winter and merPoems. New York, NY: Editions of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery. 1952. - Earlv Writi~g,ed. Donald Ailen. Bolinas, CA: Grey Fox P, 19'77. - In Memm of Mv Fecm:A Selection of Pocms bv F* O'Hata. Ed. Bill Berkson. New York, NY: The Museum of Modern Art, 1967. - Love Ponns (Tentative Titiel. New York. NY: Tibor de Nagy Editions, 1%5 -. Meditaticms. . in an -. New York, NY: Grove P, 199. -. Oranpes. New York, NY: Editions of the Tibor de Nagy Gaiiery, 1953. -. "Personism: A Manifesto." wtiiiand Waihgp* in* Ne w York Ed. Donald Allen. New York, NY: Rmdom House, 1974. 11M1. eved Ed. Donald Mm. Bolinas, CA: Grey Fox P, 19f7. d Avenuç. New York, NY: Totem P, l%ûO selected Piavs. New York, NY: Full Court P. 1978.

. O dippsti11 and Wallppo in Ne w Yorko Ed, Donaid AI1en. New York, NY: Randorn House, 1974. -. "IIy! Try!, A Noh Play." Selected Aavs. New York, NY: Full Court P. 1978. 17- 30. -- "Try! Try!" selccted Rays. New York, NY:Fù1l Court P, 1978. 3 149. - ne Collected Poems of Fr& OWm U Donald Men. Revised ed. 1971. Berkeley, CA:U of California P. 1995. -. The Selected Paems of Frank O'Hata, Ed. Donald Men. New York, NY: Knopf, 1974.

O'Hara, Frank, and Lamy Rivea. "Ke~ethKoch: A Tragedy." Selected Plavs. By

Frank O'Hara. New York, NY: Full Court P, 197û. 121-32. Ollier, IS., and H. Mosher, Jr., and J. Rodgers. American Literature: an Antbdoav ïI, 1912-1972. Paris. France: Hachette, [c1973]. Oxford Enelish Dictionary. 2nd ed. 19û9.

Padgett, Ron, and David Shapiro, eds. Anthoiogy of New York Poets. New York, NY: Random House, 1970.

Pedoff, Majone. O'Hara: Poet amou pplieters. Austin, TX: U of Texas P, 1979. Pilling, John. "Secret Sorcery: Edy Ashkry." JNReview 99 22.1 (Sept-Oct. 1994): 38-40. Reminger, Alex, cd. Teh.Princeton, Nk Rinceton UP, 1986. Restianni, Vincent. "KennethKoch: An Analytic List of Bibliographies." Sggctrieb: A Jou& Devoted to Poets in the IQlgOist-ûbiectivistTradi ticq 12: 1 (S pring 1993): 131. Randel, Don MickI, comp. ~arvardCdse 1)rcûoparv ' . OCMUSIOc. Cambridge, MA: The khapP of the Harvard UP,1978 Rivers, LPrry. What Did 1Do? The Unamdlglrv Riverg. New York, NY: HarperCoUins, 1992. Sander, lrving. "Sweepingup after Frank." to F+g& O'Ha Ed. BU Berksoo and Joe Lesueur. Bolinas, CA: Big Sky, 1978 7879. Schrag, Peter. Test of Wtv: DspidEUskEp and the Rituais of Secret Ciove-. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1974. Shapim, David. John Ashky: An Introductiw to the Poetry . New York, NY: CoIumbia UP, 1979.

Shetiey, Vmon. Mter the Death of Poe~rv:Poet and Audience in Contemmtafv America. Durham, NC: Duke W.1993. Shoptaw. John. Oa the Outside bkinnOut: John Ashberv's Poetrv. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1994. Smoley, Richard M., ed. First Flowerinn: 7'he Best of the Harvard Advocare. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pu blishïng Company, 1977. Smith, Jr.. Alexander. O'Hara: A CompteBeusive Biblionra~hy.Gadand Reference Library of the Humanitia 107. New York, NY: Garland Publishing, 1979. .* . Soearhead: 10 Years'O f ZaperimWnwen 'ca. New Yo* New Directions, 1947. Temli, Carroll F. -Carios Wlüams- MggeQd Poa. Orono. ME National fœty Foundaticm, U of Maine at Orono, 1983. Van O'Connor, William. "We Happy Few." mtry 78.4 (July 1951): 24142-

Vendler, Helen, ed. ~~~DO~SUVben- Poe~Cambridge. MA: Belhiap P of Hvvard üP, 1985. Waldman. Anne. "Paraphrase of Edwin Denby SpeplMg on the 'New York Schod' "

nqge to Fionk OWam Ed Bill &&on and Joe Lesueur. Bolinas. CA: Big Sky. 1978 32-33.

* . Wallace, Robat Wnego Poe- . 2nd ed Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company, 1984. Wdace. Roka. Writinn Pocms. 3d cd New Yo* NY: HarperCoiiins, 1991. Ward. Geoff. Statutes of'bmtw The New Yak Schod of Pats. New York, NY: St.

Martin's Ress, 1993. Wilbur, Richard. The Beautifid Charmes. New York, NY: Re@& Hitchcock, 1%7. Wilbur, Richard. The Pams of Richard Wilbur. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. Williams, Oscar?ed. The Pocket Book cf Modern Vme. 3rd ed Revised by Hyman Sobiloff. New York. NY: Simon and Schuster, 1972. William Carlos. "Great Mullen." The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams. Vol. 1. Ed. A. Walton Litz and Christopher MacGowan. 2 vols. Manchester, England: Carca.net, 1986. 162-63. Yeats, W.B. ne Pams. Ed. Daniel Albright. Revised ed. London, Eugiand: J.M. Dent, 1994. 91 Chronologid Checklist of Al1 Publication in Periodicals of Ashbery, Koch, and O'Hara to 1953 Note: Ai1 pieas listed ôerc am pœms dess iadicarrd. Wkna piccc is untitled (or titicd gcwrically, cg. 'Pocm") 1 provik, in square brackcts, tht fmfcw words of tbe flIim to aid idcntificatioa.. C list tht jounial title fiin each entry, fdlowed by the pages and titles oC whatEvcr pieces (by any of tbe tbrst pets) tbat are pinted in tbe issue in question- Thb ~~~~(~venb'oaalformat bas the advantage daliowing the nader to aœ œrtain pubiidon paemat a glacm: it wiU bc dear, fm instaace,howoftcn~tbrcepoctsappeatcd~etbcrinv~~~~~p~odidsintbest~yyears,One wili also notice bow largely figures irr the poets' dypublication ncord. I bclieve rhe listings for al1 thme pets shouid te bearty cxbaustïve. There exist crwnprebcnsive bibliographies Ming with the early pblicatimcarcers of Ashbcry and OWim4yKcnnani and Smith, ~velywd1 have collsultad thesc errtcasivdy. WhiIe no major bibiiographical study of Koch's work bas yet becn publisiwd, 1 did coasult aii enaies listeci in Viaccat nestianni's a~~icle, 'Kenneth Koch: An Anaiytic List of Bibiiographics," and ahckckcd contributors' notes for maay of Koch's earliest pubkations; tbEsc f'tly had belpfrti indications of furtber publications by Koch; finally, 1 simply seatched many of the other major and minor litcrary mapan'ns of the pcri06 1 was unable to Iocate several publications. in bis Rcview interview, hddHatl &ers to a poem that Ashmwrote for -dv- wbse first Iint bcm'F;ortuaate Alphonse, the shy homosexual . . . ." My miCrofdm copy of the issues from 1947 to 1951 appears mi to coatain this poem, In the Septembcr lP48 issue of Kenneth Koch's cmüibutor's note indicates that "[KochJ will also have a group of poems in the Ancricun Arts and frttcrs, a new qmedy coming out tbis fa, edited by Anthony Wgan." I bave not located this periodical- Nor have I located the poems that Koch published (Iikcly between 1% and 1- in -and twvo journais he lists ou tbe Glascock Poetry Pnze questicmnaire as periadicals which had acceptecl his poems.

-Deenield Sdl, Deerfield, MA, XWI.5 ( 1 1 December 1943): 2- John Ashbery Untitled [" 'A year will pass, and 1 sball Im' "1.

-Redield Scroll Deerfeld, MA, XVIII.7 (12 February 1944): 2. John Ashkry "January Twilight." -J3eerfïeldScroll Deedïeld, MA, XVm.8 (26 February 1944): 2. John Ashkry "Child's Penny -Bank." --TheUniveisitv Review, University of Missouri at Kansas City, KS, XI2 1944): 109. Kenneth Koch "PhysîcsLecture."

-Deerfield Sm11 Daneld, MA,XI.XJ (27 January 1945): 2. John AnLbety "A Ride on the Busn [prose]. -berfield Scroll Deerfeld, MA3lX.12 (5 May 1945): 2 Job Ashkry "Transformation." -Meid Scmu berfield, MAJaX.13 (19 May 1945): 2. Job Ashkry "Reversai."

-pOetq, Chicago, IL, UNII.11 (November 1945): 66,667: 8081. Job hhkry "Poem"[Thoagh we seek dways the knom absduten]and "Lest Cove." These poems were published mdcr the namt "Joel Micbael Symington." Kenneth Koch "Powfor My Twentieth Birthday," "Mesfor ber,Saipan" and 'The Trip fmm Catifornia,"

-The Haward Advocate CXXX.I (Aprii 1W7): 12 Job Ashbery "A Sermon: Amos 8:1 1-14." --PoetwJ Chicago, L, LXX.1. (April 1947): 17. Kenneth Koch "Schoolyard in April.'

-The Harvard Advoaite CXXX3 (21 May 1947): 3.44.5; 6,6,7. Kemneth Koch "NOCtllrn & Aubade," "Carnival,""Rograrn Notes," and "In Answer to This Emptiness." Job Ashbery "Elegy,""A Fable," and "Ine Perfkct (hange." -Vaices [Special issue: Young pets], New York, NY, 130 (Surnmer 1947): 12. John Ashbery "Da& River."

-0wutelv Review of fiteratures Bard College, Anaandaie-on-Hudson, NY. IV3 ( 1947): 243. Kennetb Koch "Questionin Red Inlc" -The Harvard Advocate CXXXI. 1 (October 1947): 9. John Asbber y "Point of Depamire. " -The Hamard Advocate ClWCI.2 (November 1947): 13- 14. John Asbbery "Fete . Galante" [short story]. -The Harvard Advocate CXXM3 (December 1947): 13; 2830. John bhbery "Berceuse." Kenneth Koch review of Richard Wdbur's fvst bodr of poetry, Beautiful Charmes.

_-The Harvard Advocaîe QCXXI.4 ([J anuary or February 19481): 12; 21-22. John Ashbery "Waltz King." Kenneth Koch Review of &cahead. -The Harvard Advocatç CXXM.5 (March 1948): &9,23. Rank O'Hus "O the Dangers of Daiiy Livingn [play]. -The Harvard Advocate CXXXI.6 ([Aprii or May IWû]): 1; 11; 24. John Ashkry "Song fnmi a Play." Keaieth Koch "Entfacte for a F'reak Show." Frank 0'EI.n "The Unquiet Graven [short story J. -Poetry, Chicago, IL. UW1.S (August 1948): 244. Kenneth Koch "You Know AU This." 93 -The HmwdAdv- QCXW. 1 (September la18): 8; 9.26. Job Ashbery "Why We Forget Drieams." Fmnk 0'- "Not with a bang . .. ." [short storyl. -ne HarvdAdvocate CXXXlI.2 (Novemkr 1948): 1 1. John bhkry "Grandma." (The coverart of tbïs issue is a sumahic dageattributcd by the table of contents to "F. Amory and John Ashkny." In a convemtion of Mmh5.1996, Ashbery dmedfor me thaî he did indoed coUabarate on îûis dagewith Werick Amoy. a fellow Hamard student.)

-Furioso3 NoaMicld. MN. IV.1 (Winter 1949): 60.61. Job Ashbety "Friar Laurence's Celi" and "hma Diay." -The Harvard Advaate CXXXIi.5 (March 3 1,1949): 10. Johm hhbtty "Some Trees." - adAdvocate CMWI.6 (April 1949): 7. John hhbry "For a Eumpean Child."

-Poetry New York, 2 (1950): 234.25. John Ashbery The Dolon of Cdumbiie"and "The Statues." -The Harvard Advocate CMWV.1. (Septemkr 1950): 9.9,lO-11, 1820. Frank O'Hsre "The Drummer" and "Poemu["The eager note on my door said. 'Cail me."], and "LateAdventure" [short stq1. -Furioso, Northf~eld,MN, V3 (Summer 1950): 50. Kenneth Keh The Courtier."

-The Harvard Advaate CXXMV.4 (Febniary 1951): 1 1. Frank OWara "A Rayer to Rospero. " -Generation, AmArbot, MI. II3 (Sp~g1951): 12. 12. FruL O'Hara "Women"and "Homageto &ose Sélavy."

- sari Review, New York. NY, XVm.4 (Juiy/August 1951): [42û-211. John Ashbery ThePfcture of Littie JA. in a Rospect of Fiowers."

-Ac~ea&,Urbana, X13 (Summer 1951): 17475. ïhak 0'h"TheThme-kmy Opera-" -Poetry, Chicago. IL, LXXIX. 3 (December 1951): 13639. FdO'Hara "AM Arbor Variations. " --MgAm Arbor, MI, m.1 (Winta 1951 [ie. 19521): 45,46,46,47. Frank O'ba 'Momhg," 'Intaior," "Poem" ["If 1 lmew exactiy why the chestnut trie"]. and "ConcertChnmpêtre." Rcview, New Brunswick, NJ, XIX.2 (MPrcWApd 1952): 18384. FruL O'Hua "On hluagat La Grapde Jatte, the Czar Wept Anew." -Qne Fourteq, New York, NY,VI. 11 (Dccember 1952): [l]. John hhkry "Gmtings,Fneods! "

-Folder, New York, NY. 1.1 (Witer [ir OctJ 1953): Unpaginated. John Ashôery "The Grapevine," "Erras." "White"and The Way They Twk." Keuetb Koch 'Poernq and "1s Nothing Resmed For Next Year, Newlyweds on Arbor Day?' Frank O'ltIara "Blocks"and "Commercial Variations"

--#ktNews, New York, NY,Ln.8 (Deamber 1953): 42-44.63.65. Frank O'Haua ["Reviews & Pceviews"] [prose]. An Interview with John Ashbery

by Michael Lundry

What foiJaws is an adited exccrpt fnnn ab mtcrvikw conducted in RoTiAshbay's ibbahna apartment on the aftcnioon of ibch5,1996- John Ashbcry's leüa of Novcmbtr 5,1996, dümstbe text of the interview fm înciusion in tûïs thesis

LONDRY: My1 ask what drm you to Harvard? Ktmeth Koch recently mentiaieci to me

that he'd been aware several ptpets bad gone to Harvard-T.S. Eliot and Wdace Stevens, for example-and that he thought Harvard wouid be a good place for an aspiring pet to go.

ASHBERY: Weil, there were two poets teaching at Harvard at the tirne. One was Theodore Spencer. with whom 1took a poetry workshop in my freshman year-rather surpisingiy, since there weren't such things as poetry workshops in those days. especidy at Harvard- and they still, probably, have very few things iike that He was quite weU hown but hels been forgotten since then. He in fact died during my second year there, at the age of only forty 1 believe. And then Delmore Schwartz, whom 1 ended up never taking a course with, and 1 can't remcmber why 1 diabecause 1 was very fond of his poehy. I think he

oecasionally would cancel bis courses, and corne back to New York on the spur of the moment He was a bit of an unstable person. But 1probably wouid never have thought of applying to Harvard had it not been for some fncnds of rny graodfather, who was a proftssor of physics at the University of

Rochester. He had a forniet audent who was teachiag physics at Harvard, and he and his wife came to visit. His wifcls parents lived next door to my grandparents and they knew each other. Her father bad also beeo a pmfssor at the Univemty of Rochester- I remember saying "1 don? Lnow where to spply to college" and they said Why dont you try Harvard?" and 1 thought "Inat's intedg, never thought of Harvard." My grandfather was hophg that 1wouid go to the University of Rochester, because he had hem a dentihm and tbca had taught fm4û years in the Physics Department. But 1 didnr want to go there. Luckily 1dida2 1 wanted to get away fmhome. Ah1 Ued the idea of üving in a big city IüEe Boston, which I'd never done More.

LONDRY: What dnw you to mardAdvocate? You decided quite eady on to try out for the board, which had an muaicornpetition to sekct new members.

ASHBERY: Obvioudy would have bem attractcd to a fiterary magazine if ody as a place to try to get my poems published The ~dvocatebed ken closed for severel years and it reopeneâ, 1believe, in the fdof lW7. That was when 1met Kenneth KochTand we showed each other Our poems. He was vay entbusiastic about mine, and 1 liked his very much. That was dythe fvst theI'd known samebody else who wrote poeûy. He told me 1 should try out for the &ivocate editoriai board and he was influentid. I guess, in getting me on it

LO ND R Y: Could you demibe the competitions for editorial positions at the Advocate? Were these ferocious events where fnends had to stick up for other friends to get them on the board. or were they fairly prosaic meetings?

ASHBERY: No. 1 think they were pretty ketn competitions. As 1 red.a lot of people wanted to be on the board. I remanber that in the year 1applied the editor-in-chief was a Mexican, Antonio Haas. Achially he and 1 became very good frieads, and I'm stU in touch with him. And there was somebody from Alabama or Mississippi who was also on the board. These people addressed us d as aspiring Advocstc editors and then Antonio said "WeIi, is there anything we havent told thtm?" and Kenneth said "Yu,1 think you should explain you don't need a fumy accent to get on the board!' [laughs]

LONDRY: You didn't aeed an Alabaman or Mexican accent? ASHBERY: Right! 1 remember dm*.. or, 1 don't member this actdfy-I mean, we're taïking 50 years ago, of course-but Donald Hail told me, some years ago, that &ter 1 became an bdvocate editor and was one of the judges of' these aspirants, -- one of the pplewho evenhially ldd the Rntagon Papem to the press-was apparentiy comïng out for the Advoepte. After the aspiiants wcnt away 1said "Wecan't possibly bave him. Did you sec the k he was weafiDg?' [laughs] 1don't think 1was ever as ... as dandyish as that malces me sound, but Donald Hall iiisists 1said that LONDRY: h hcsof md oaf srad kxhmentions a couple of events et Harvard that fnghtened some people: a Mack man who was discovered necking with a white man in the library was kkked out of dege; and thcm was a ~l~andal involving two men in Eiiot Home, wbich eventdy rrsulted in a suicide attemp. Couid you speak for a moment about what the atmosphcrc and the attitude towards homosedty was at Harvard, and in America at that time? Did the attitudes prevaht at the time have a play at al1 in how you or Frank O'Hata felt kingat Harvard? asaseRY: Yes, king homosexuai was grounds for being expdled hmHarvard. On the other hand, thmwere obviously-as at any umversity-a lot of homosexuais who felt more or les at home then as cmpared to the hdandof Amexka. 1suppose the feeling there would have kenanti-homosexual, though perhaps not as vociferous as it is today because it was much les visible then. Today's atmosphere of gay militancy provokes a strong reaction from the right whg, as you know.

LONDRY: According to Brad Gooch's biography, Frank OHani leaned to the left politicdl y during his Harvard days. Would you say that you or Kenneth Koch were allied with any political foices at dLst the?

ASHBER~:No, 1 dont think so. We were apolitical-although certainIy more inclined towards the Dcmocratic party than the Repubtican party. And 1don't myself remember what FranL's political stance was. 1 dont remember ever discbgpolitics with him, although it's possible tbst we did and ï've forgotten.

LONDRY: Were you inspird or hprwped by any of your instructors at Harvard other than the ones you've already mentioned? You were attracted to Schwartz, but you didn't actually take a course fmm him, and you enjoyed your coume with Spencer. w

ASHBERY: Yes, F.O. Matthiesscn. 1 idhis course in modmi Arnerican poetry my last

year at Harvard. and tbat was a vay good expcriena. 1d cause hnd already read most of the -le who were covered in the course, but in fsft i'd aevcrreaüy read Stevens very

closely, and that vas when I began to do so. 1nate a ppcr on him adllPIIy; phaps you've uncovered it.

LONDRY: 1 baven't achially. I'd heard of it, but didn't sec it vwng your papers at the Houghtan Library. About a third of MS Box 3 1 contains your undergraduate papm

LONDRY: Are you surpxised how smaü the seiection is, or how large it is? ASHBERY: No I'm . . . sorry that they're there. should have deshoyed them. LOND RY: [laughs] Do you remember the Stevens paper as a piece you enjoyed writing because you were just then cüscove~gStevens? ASHBERY: Yes, and the pdcular poem 1 was writing about, wchocoruato Its Neighborn -a kind of longish mm-1 really became very fascinated by.

Of course rnost of the other courses 1took tended to be quite academic cornparrd to those. 1 enjoyed a course with Dougias Bush on the seventeenth century: 1 think it was on just poetry, not prose and patry.

LONDRY: Wodd that bave kenthe course for whkh you wrote the paper on the nature poetry of Henry Vaughan and Aadnw Maivell? ASHBERY: Yeah. Ah,as recali, 1 had a freshman hghhcourse with a very nice man who made fnshman Eaglish beatable. He went fnmi Harvard to teach at Smith CoUege, and was one of the people involved in that homosexusl scandal with Newton Arvin in the 50s. You pbably know about that I think he Iost his job dong with Newton ANin and a couple of other people. although by that time 1was no longer in touch with him. LONDRY: Kemeth Koch spcaLs as if you and he wem a sort of mini chleof pets back then- Was it mcouraging to spmd time with a close friend who bad the love for poetry that you had, and wmyou evm at that theCntiquing eaeh othefs waL, Oneriag editoriai advice that was helpfid to each oiha? ASHIERY: Yes we did. We showed each 0th- ouwork ahost && 1 uu'nk. And as I say it was sort of a unique expaience for me-and I'm quite sure for him too-since at that point 1hadn't lmown any poets. 1didn't have any friends who werr poets.

LONDRY: Did you make reading suggestiotts to each other?

ASHBERY: Yes.

LONDRY: Do you mmember anything in particular, any poet Kenneth mentioued who vas ao author you ended up feeling quite close to?

ASHBERY: 1 don't offhand because we were more or less reading the seme people: you know. great modern poe~.... But I do think I got a lot of insight into William Carlos Williams' ptryfrom he&g Kemeth dkabout him. Kenneth was very enthusiastic

about him and I became so tw.

LONDRY: The OctoberNovember 1995 issue of The bWhiect Newsletter prinis a conversation in which Kenneth Koch teus Allen Ginsberg: ''1 was at Harvard with John and he said to me one &y that he just read Alfred Jarry, and he decideci that our wodc should k crazier, so we took t&atto heart" 1 wondered if you remembered having said that Also, your essay "A Reminiscnwx" in Ho-c to hPnL 0'- uses words such as "snobbish"and "cuitivatedblan&essw to ddbethe artistic attnosphere at Harvard daiing your undergraduate &YS. I wondencl if you were consciously üying to be crazier in your poetry, trying to be more anti-a>aventional. because of a seuse of the oppnssiveness of a sort of snobbery, elitism, or excessive conventionality of Harvard .. . . Did you have a stmng urge to disrupt somehow- a 3ohn Ashbcry and KcmKth Kocb met each aber well bcfa cithet met Frank û'i-km wbo bcgan studies at Harvard in 1946 and never sat on the editonal board of Adve- 100

ASHBERY: 1 dont achially remcmber finding it so oppmssive at Harvard 1was in fact giad to k in a rather literate place for a change. It was catainfy a change fmm places when I'd peviowly lived. Fiom what you quote it sou& as though 1 was indulging in =me counter-snobbey of my own when 1made tbose rcmarks. Tho* 1probably did say to Kenneth we should make our worlr der,1 really doar remember saying that w actuaüy formulahg thst

LONDRY: 1 gwsanother way d ashgthat kind of question is. Did you and Kenneth during your undergraduate years have a "program"or a "goal" as pts? How programmatic were your attempts at poetry at that time, if that isn't too odd a question? ASHBERY: .. .No it's not but 1&y can't remanber. 1thllilr my mernories are not precise enough to give you an intelligent answer, but perhaps Kmneth wiil rewmber it better than 1 do.

LONDRY: ùL your BA. honors thesis-"The Po#ic Medium of WH.Audenm-then is a phase 1 was quite struck by. You are arguing for the inseparability of style and content, and write: "A poet (in our strict and hdy usage of the word) with a briiiiant style and no ideas is as inconceivable as a didactic poem." For the moment what interests me is the fvst half of the sentence, which might be taken to imply that a genuioe pat sees poetry as-at Ieast in part-a spiritual vocation. 1might k reading too much into that parenthetical phrase. but 1 was wondering if you ngarded yoursdfas having the "vocation"of a poet during your Harvard days, and if' you conceived of it as a spiritual vocation.

ASHBERY: Well I think 1 c-y did regard myselfas a poet then. 1dont recail thinLing of it as a spirituai vocation and indeed I dont mnember making that statement in my essay. 1 wonder exactly what 1 meant.

LONDRY: My impression is that pmbabiy quite a few of ywr readers today wouldn't immediatel y imagine that you are a Christian and go ta church reguiariy. as I've heard. and I'm wondering if you were religious even during your Harvard days and how that inforneci your poetry back then, if you think it did 101

AsHBERY: Weil. 1remembei one of the poems 1published in the #ldvocatehas a quotath fmm the Bible at the kghohg am^."

LONDRY: Yes, "A Sermon: Amos 8: 11-14." ASHBERY: I've aiways been kiad ofreiigiaus but 1don't thialr that it has played much of a

dein my poetry though.

LONDRY: Seved major ptsgave nadings at Harvard iuound the theyou were rhm:

Eliot, Stevens, and Dylan Thomas. for exampie. Were you able to aîîdany of thex? Wm you iaopired or influenceci by them? asanerv: Yes. actuaily the= was quite a memarable series of read'mgs. 1particularly Liked the Auden one because he was my favorite poet at the time. 1 dont remember Dylan

Thomas. 1 certainly would have gone to ht, had it kenwhile 1 was there, but 1 didn't in any case. William Carlos read. Waliace Stevens read as well. 1think Stevens ody gave two readiags in his life and that was one of them. As I mail he was wearing an overcoat which he did not remove during the reading and he spoke rather .. . be nminded me of a statue speaking. And 1 reaily thought 1 got something out of hearing him read, which is not aie at most ~adings1 go to. Even if 1Wre the poetry very much 1 don? usuaily have any special feeling about hearing the author. But 1 did in the case of Stevens, though I'd be very hard put to tell you what it was. And , also, read when 1 was there. And Eliot.

LONDRY: In your Auden honors thesis you seemed to downplay Eliot's importance to modem poetry and to suggest Auden as, in some snue,a more important or more relevant poet.

ASHBERY: Yes. it taak me a long thne to appreciate Eliot's poetry. 1 think 1didn't untilI was perhaps in my late twenties.

LONDRY: How did that shift occur?

ASHBERY: 1 was dways wary of the khd of intenectual apparatus that accompanies his pms-the f~~fnotesto "The Wasteland," for example-ami felt 1would cettaidy be missing important points if I hadn't read mmRitual to et cetera, but at one point 1changed my mind and decideci that Eliot's reaiIy much wne impdcmistic than th& and tbat 1muid appciate.

LONDRY: You've said that eady on in your po&c career you used to &se quite extensively, but that after a whüe you came to revise much les. I think you gave as an example "Le Livre est sur la taMe," which you said went thrwgh many more drafts than you go thfough now. I'm wonde~gif anything efse is different about your writhg process today. Are your inspiratioas mereut? Do you write at a diiemt theof the day?

ASHBERY: 1think 1 used to write my poans more in the evenhg and now 1 don? do that at dl. 1 dfycan't do much of anythiag after, say, seven o'clock, which was when 1 used to begin, probably. I also used to wait around for just the iight soothing or inspiring combination of Qrcumstances-or the feeling that I'd been inspired. 1 dont do that anymore, since 1 would k waiting forever.

LONDRY: [laughs]

ASHBERY: 1 don't know. Over the years 1 pess I've just got the habit of king iess self- conscious about writing.

LONDRY: Thanks so much for speakhg with me today. ASHBERY: YOU'E very weicome. An Interview with Kemeth Koch

What follows is an ediW cXOCfPL from an interview CObducW in Kcnacth Kocb's Columbia University office m the afteniani of March 6.19%. In his corrwponQace of Oc- 24,1996, hfissmKoch drms tbe te# of the interview for inclusion irr this tbcsis.

LONDRY: Why did you choose ta do yoor undergraduate snidies at Harvard?

KOCH: 1wanted to go to Harvard becawe 1thought it was a good place for pets to go. When 1 was sixteen or seventeen yem old 1âiscovered modem American poetry and I also disovered the New Directions anthologies. Do you mmember those big wonderful books aii full of the avant-garde writing of the time? Paui Goodman, Delmore Schwartz, Wdliam Carlos Williams. A number of the pets had gone to Harvd Delmore Schwartz, in fact, was teaching a course at Harvard, and I lïked his work a lot. Waiiace Steveus, as I remember, had gone to Harvard. T.S. Eliot had gone to Harvard. I forget who else. It seemed to me a place where poets went to school. And of course it had a reputation as a very good college. And so it was my fvst choice. The way 1 got into Harvard was rather funny. 1 mean, 1 don't know reaiiy wh1 got into Harvard. but 1 went to Harvard after 1 got out of the army. 1 was drafted into the amy in 1943, when 1 was eighteen years old. When I got out, I applied to Harvard. Om of the people who recommended me for Harvard was a very, very rÏch man in Cincinnati, Ohio, who was a Harvard graduate, and had given a good deal of money to Harvard. My father hewhim. slightly, and, 1 thidc, introduced me to him and also sent him mne of the poetry 1 had published. While 1 was in the army 1had published oome poems. 1pubtished thme poems in Jbetry magazinemin Febniary 1945. 1mmmkr it had a yeliowish and brownish cover. I remember well because it was so momentous for me. 1 dont think it was the fm time 1 had published in Patry, but there were thra poems of mine in this issue. One was "Poemfor My Twentieth BirthdayW--whichis about king overseas anci king a soldier and king twenty years 01d. Another was calied "Ladiesfor Dinaer, Saipana-which was a kind of ironic poem abwt my longhg fa these beauiifpl young women who came ovcr-1 think they were piut of the US0 show or sometbing-and who ody went out with the O~CCIS.This is when I was on Spipan, in the Pacific. Amther pomi-I forget the name of it-begk 'in the &a-fixery and on the train." These were short poems and they odytook up a page and a haif of'J%ctry magazine. On the other half-page was a poem ded"'ïherds Margaret." I dont mnembcr the naw of the poa, but 1 remember the fmline: "With hdedIoIIipp and sticky dime." It was ri sonnet. As I rememkr, it was a very conventional poern. Weli, ihe letîer this very wealthy mnn from

Cincinnati mefor me-which 1klieve helped me to get doHarvard-said "Kemeth Koch is a very precocious, excellent writer. His work bns teen published. 1espciaiiy adrnired the poem There's Margaret.' " The poem was more ncognizably poetry than my poems, but rnaybe wa~n'tas adventurous. It bdthis obvious, rather dopey. paradoxicai first line. Anyway, that was one way I got into Harvard. Thm were probaMy others.

But 1 was very @adto be going to Harvard because it seemed iike the best place to go.

LONDR Y: It also struck you as a good place dter you dved? KOCH: Oh yeah, 1 liked it because 1had thought of myself as a pet, more or les, since the time I was fifteen years old, but more vividly sa when I was seventeen and eighteen. when 1 discovered modem poetry, and discovercd Lols Untenneyer's anthologies of modern Arnerican and British poetry. discaverd New Directions anthologies. When I was eighteen years old, 1 was cray about Kemeth Patcben. Did you ever read bim?

LONDRY. Yes, yes. KOCH. I found a lot of his books et the University of Cmcinaati Library. And thca 1 dso had studied a iittie hchin school. Very haltingly. with the help dadicticmary. 1 ümslated some Baudelaire prose poems, wbich 1didn't understand very weU, but 1did try translating them. 1 remember 1 also became a subscnber to Wew magazine. Db you know -View? LONDRY: I've $gad of it. KOCH: It was a Sdstmagazine pubbhed in the Unitcd States by André Breton. Charles H~MFofcf, who was quite yoong &en. was on it too. some of the sumabis came to New York, during tbe War, and they brought out tbis magazine Mewa to which 1 sent sMne panu. They didn't taLe my poerns, but 1got a nicc letter back. The njection slip said (1 foiget who signeci it, maybe Chrules H~MFord): "We Wre your poems, bot go deeper into yourseif. Dream."

LONDRY: [laugb]

KOCH: [laugbs] So there vas this innuence of Surrealism on me even at seventeen. And French poetry.

LONDRY: Did you take the advice from Mew to heart: Go deeper into yourseif and drearn?

KOCH: No, 1 was alnady ddng,pretty much. I still had a long way to go, of course.

I wrote a poem-which you can find in the archive4~-called"For a Birthday"or 'For My Eighteenth Birthday." 1was big on bVthday poems then. It begins "At eighteen 1 waik on the surfice of things, tread in my stockhg-feet in bouses of wft love." It gets more surreal after that, but I thought the line "housesof soft lovenwas very sumal for me, then. in Cincinnati.

So 1 was a paa. I'd bben reading ail these poems and writing under theù influence. In any case 1 was a pet, and before 1 went in the army, 1 had one semester at the University of Cincinnati, and 1won a poetry prize them. 1farget the name of it, but 1 won a poetry prize. Then 1was a poet in the amy, and a few people found out 1 was a pt. 1 remember at one point 1 trïed to send some poems home and they wmceasoied. 1 found letten aii cut up. They thought 1 was giving secret information. 1 triad in vain to explain to the lieutenant that poetry doesi't really give idmation in tbat way. (I tbiak 1had mentioned the name of an island or somcthing.)

Js Kmh =fers to 'The Kenneth Koch Papcrs." at this timc a rclatively arw acquisition of the Berg Collection, New York Public Library- By the tirne 1wmt to Harvard 1was twenty, 1think, because I'd ken in the amiy more tban two ycars. It samed that in Citinad in the ~miypople had thought tbat ifI was a poet it meant that I was homostxual, that 1was a ctmmunist, that 1was somethim they didnr me. It would have beea fine to k a homoscxual communist-I just wm't. My writing poetry seemed slightiy suspicious to di but a few people. Some peuple reaIIy aQnid th fact tint I couid write poctiy, but at Harvard peybodysecmed to like it. As if a pet was a thing to be at Harvd. And tbat was the fvst place 1had ever ken where it vas sort of uaivedy approved of. So I liked that

LONDRY: Did the newly-passed G.I. Bill of Rights-which guaranteed four years of university edufation for veteis1~1s-havea play in your decision io go to Hmard? Was it a helpful financiai boost?

KOCH: Oh yes, it païd my way through Harvard.

LONDRY: Couid you have gone to Harvard without the G.I. Bill?

KOCH: I wish 1 kuew. 1 donltknow. It wasn't so expensive then as it is now. 1 dont really know. 1doa't kuow what my fathers finances were. He pmbably would have found a way to do it He was very generous with me.

LONDRY: Were you drawn to The Harvard Advocate pertly because you kuew that several of the prominent poets who had attended Harvard-Eliot and Stevens, for instance- had also been on the Advocate editorid boarâ, or were you aware of that fact at al1 back then?

KOCH: Maybe, I doa't know. 1 wanted to be on the Advoca@ because it was a famous literary magazine at Harvard University and it was Qg literary magazine there. 1wanted to be on it. f was a pi.

LONDRY: Do you remember anything about the editorial meetings themselves? Donald

Hall has mentioned that the board would stay up into the wee hours of the moming, arguiog whether a certain poet's work should k included in the magazine or not. Do you remember these long arguments about pieces, or how the adjudications went at dl? KOCN No, 1 don't remcmber long arguments about pieces. I'm not sure we had long arguments. I dont ~memkrtbat very weii. 1remember the meetings wma lot of fun. Wesat therewe were just kids, you know-we aii were so "wise,"and had our "taste."

1 remember I was very proud because 1found a wmdttful stay by a guy nnwd Andy Lewis, a woderfnl stoq about a circus or samethkg. And 1was vev happy to bring that to the 1 donr Lww what Andy is doing now. I saw him once after bard, about --fdtan or twenty years afteiwards. He was writing for television. He seemed very nostalgie for the pure liteniry days of the ~dvocste.He was a good writer. I don't know if he's written any fiction since then or not.

LONDRY: You mentioned to w over the telephone a few days ago that thm was a sponsor or a patron of the Advocate who donated enough funds to start up the Advocate again after the War, and that he specifiied that his donation k used on the coadition there were no homoseds, no blacks, no Jews and no heavy drinkea on the Advoca~bard. yes?

KOCH: Right. Tbat's what I heard.

LONDRY: Do you redthe name of that benefaaor? KOCH: 1 wonder if Tony Lewis would bow. He writes for the m.Anthony Lewis. But he wasn't on the Advocate. Tell me the names . . . . There was somebody who asked me X 1 wouid be willhg to be part of some sort of court case about this, to challenge it. But 1 didn't want to be. I just wanted to get on with the poetry and. .. . 1 forget the man's name, though.

LONDRY: 1 have with me some xmxes from vafious Advocate issues of the tirne. 1 wonder if you rnight see the name you're looking for there. KOCH: Let's see. How lovely it look .. . . "Grandma"by John Ashky-1 remember that. These are fun to look at. I nmember these lines of John's: "Who expects wisdom from light-headed birds?" He's so pdwhen he's so young. So wise . . . . But I'm supposed to be looking for something. LONDRY: Anything tbat cornes Co miod is fme.

KOCW When 1won the hmisonRize, 1was at Smith CoUege with my girlfriend and John sest me a telegnun: Tou won the Gsmson Rize. 1 got Honorable Mention. 1 thhk mntinually of those who are tnily great.'

LONDRY: [laughs]

KOCEI: That was very swat of him. -à5 OWara, my, my.4 The twice tormented mirrot of your dm." O William Butier Yeats, fmgive me!

LONDRY: Tbe piece you're quhgfm-"Endacte for a Fm& Showa- has ban anthologized quite fnqwotly in Adliterary anthologies: Jonathan Culier's 1%6 compilation, the one titied Frst Fioweriqg fmm 1977, and ne HdAdvocaîe efrom1987. They aiI choose the "Eatr'acteuas the one piece of yours to reprint. KOCH: I didn't let the Advmate have as mach wiiting as my friends did. I was really stupid. Robably the best audience I would ever have was there. but I wanted io publish in Poetnt magazine.

LONDRY: 1 was very irnpressed to fmd that you had puMished in at least thra dflerent issues of Poetry very early in your career, and 1 was dso struck that I saw no Ashbery pieces there and I iemembered hearïng the story about how .. . KOCH: Somebody stole his poems?

LONDRY: Yes, yes.

KOCH: No, I don? sa the name. He was more like an eldr statesman than a titerary man-the guy who wanted me to be in this lawsuit

LONDRY: Let me r#um to a comment you made a fm moments ago. You thought the

Advocate would have been a good place for more of your pmsbecause you thougbt a

46 Koch is lookiag dova at a xcroxd pigc from ao issue. hueof O'Harars cariicst Advocafe pieces wcre published under "Francis" rather tban "Frank." For the majuity of his addt Life, O'Hara would be "Fd" 47 Koch continues to dance Uvough the xeroxcs fmm the bdvocak issues. very good audiencc for your work was thm. Did yuu mean that thm were pople on the ditonal boani itseif who wouid bave rdyour pams wd,or did you have in miad simply the generai mdership of the /idvoc~~?

KOCW thiiit Che gcndfeade~hip of the was as good as that of any magazine I've ever published in since. Everybody read it. AU the literary people read it. If1 published a pmin the ~dvo~&,it would bave ban read by John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, , Aiison Lurie, Bob Crichton. AU these good umïtm werc there who wouid have read it, whemit's sort of chancy in any other magazine. However, 1 wanted ta be in national magazinksomewhat fooiishly 1think. But

LONDRY: How much of a nadership was there for the Advocate outside of the Harvard &le?

KOCH: 1 have no idea.

LONDRY: Do you think being an Advocate editor, having to read other wnters' pieces with an editoriai eye, helped you to get a better sense of objectivity on your own work? KOCH: 1 don't think so. 1 don't rcmember nading 1that much wo* in fact 1 don't know. As we were reading poems (I think that's what 1 mainly read) 1 wouid just have a feeling that 1 knew right away if1 wanted to publish them, if they wmgood enough. I don't think I leamed tw much from îhat. As far as my own Mting wuconcemed, 1 seemed to be on some sort of automatic pilot-as if my writing wasn't going to be changed by an experience like that. I think John and 1probaMy influenceci each otber a little bit even when we were at Harvard, but Frank 1 didn't know when 1 was at Haward. 1 didntt meet him until afterwards. LONDRY: Right, But you did read his pieces in the Mvaote . . . KOCH: Yes. LONDRY: .. .du~g the tirne he was at Harvard, though you &adgraduatcd from Harvard by the time you wmreadhg his Advocate pieces? KOCH: Yes.

LONDRY: How did you meet John Ashbery? 1remcmbcr your speakhg about how you were tryiDg to get him on th Advocate bard . ..

KOCW Oh 1 met him More that How did 1meet John? Weimmediaîely became friends. 1 know it didn't take any time at dl. It may be tbat I got to know him because 1rd one of his poems for the Advaatc. The poems were so impressive-so Wise and prophetic and beautiid-and 1was hygL[y to know another pet. I didn't know any pats. 1 dont think I'd ever known any pets till I met John. Fate gave me a good fmt one. 1 mean that's lucky-to have the fvst pet you meet k a good one-because that's like fmt love.. .. But I'm trying to thinL if 1 knew any poets before John. 1 ceitainly didn't know my gd ones. 1 diMt know any that bad any effect on me. 1m$ have knom people who wrote poetry when 1was in Cincinnati-but nobody who took it seiiously. I took Delmore Schwartz's course at Harvard because I loved his work and 1 wanted to k in the presence of a real poet. There must have ban other poets in DeImore's class. 1think 1 started Harvard in the summer and Delmore Schwartz gave this poetry workshop in the summer term. I dont haw whether 1 rememkr the pets in that class, though.

LONDRY: 1 could list a few wnters who were students at Harvard at the time, in case this rings any bellr These areo't all pts, though. Donald Hall, and John Hawkes, for instance . . . KOCH: 1 met John Hawkes at Harvard but he wasn't in that class. Donaid UlInever met, but we p~teda poem of his in the Advocate.

LONDRY: Hardd Bdkey? KOCH: No 1 didn't know Harold there. Frank did. LONDRY: Robert Bly . .. KOCH: He was there afterwards. LONDRY: LawrenceOsgood.. . 111

KOCH: Lamy Osgood, that was a friend of John's and Fiank's yeah. 1 vaguely hKw h.

Did he write po#ry?

LONDRY: 1d seeing ai least one poem and one stoy of bis in thc Advocate. George Montgomery aisa has a couple .. . KOCH: oh y&, 1 knew George.

LONDRY: Adrieme Rich was probPMy a iittle bit &ter you.

KOCH: No, 1 didn't know her.

LONDR Y: Robert Creeiey? KOCH: 1 knew Crceley, sure. LONDRY: Was he in any classes with you or. .. KOCH: Was he classes or was he just a presence there? 1kuow that he was at

Cronin's a lot-Jim Cronin's bar, where we went in the evening-and he always wore aa eye paich. He was a very bohemian figure because he had this eye patch and he haci, I think, a pregnant wife, who wore a red dress, and he bad a big dog. He was very impressive walking amund Cambridge. Yeah, I knew Cdey. 1 didn't Lnow him very well,

LONDRY: I)id you ta& about poetry with Creeley?

KOCa He was a good fnend of Sam Lawrence, Seymour Lawrence. Cdeyand 1 didn't speak about poetry that 1rernember. He was in sort of a dinerent gang. My gang was John Ashbery, as far as poetry was concernecl, and thea 1was fnends with Andy Lewis and a guy named Bob Bingham and. .. Who did 1 go to Cronin's with? John didn't go to Cronin's much, 1 dont think. Once 1 got John to go to a bowIhg dey with me and 1 turned mund after 1went CO fmd a bail and Job had disappeprrd That was how. . .. He just couidn't stand the atmosphere there. We knew Barbara Epstein, whose name was then Barbara Zimmerman, but was known as Bubsy Zimnierman. She's the editor of the New York Review of Books* She was a friend, a Radciiffe student. Alison Lwie we knew. Peter Grey was a good frimd of mine. LONDRY: Yes. you have a paem about him in the ChisonRize MS. which is at the Harvard Archives: "Letterto Peter Grey." KOCH: Do you have a copy of that poem?

LONDRY: Yes. Are you sqiised? hardArchives has a cqy of your

LONDRY: 1 thialr it must have beeu. KOCH: Did 1wh the prize for al1 of ihese pieces ajust for "Entracte"?

LONDRY: I'd love to know. I wish you could teIl me. 1imagined that the Garrison Rize adjudicators loaked over the whde manuscript and made tbeu decision based on the whole,

but 1 dont know for sure. But it is irue that the only poem thet was published in the Advocate-on the occasion of your winning the prize-was "Entr'acte for a Freak Show."

KOCH: Couid 1 make a copy of this?

LONDRY: Sure-

KOCH: So you dont biow what 1 won it for?

LONDRY: 1 can't be m.1 was boping you might have some impressions yourself of how

the adjudications worked, and of who the judges usuaily wem-if tky were Harvsrd professors or adjudicators from outside the facuity . .. KOCH: No, 1 don't know. Thisll be very entertainhg for meDa

LONDRY: "merto kter Grey" should be in there.

The USwas submiacd 'fa ik GIARRISON Rü2E 1 Harvard Cdlcgc I 1947-48' (tiiic page). aud is tecorded as having becn 'deposited by Kenneth Koch* at the Harvard University Archives on '5May l!M8.' The full title of the MS reads 'A Lem Three Poeins, aMi a Selection from a Play' (Harvard Archives referenœ number: HL1 89*185.!B). Thc poem 'Entr'acte for a Freak Show' was published in the Commencement (Sping) issw of IWS, with the heading 'Lioyd McKim Ganison Rize.' John Ashbery's poem 'Song from a Play" is pub(ished in the same issue under the heading "Garisunr Coinpetition, Honorable Mention." 49 ~och~ooim at the MS. KOCH: 1 was so in that pam. It was my f~ work in blank verse. Nancy was rny girUnend Stewart Kirby was a guy that we Imw. Peggy was a giri we knew in New York. .. a damer . .. Peggy Conndly. LONDRY: Wodd you travel to New York fiHarvard for the wakend or hdidays?

Kota Sowtimes. My gwdness. Who would bave thought? [laughs, loohg through the MS] What strange works 1 Oh weii. Yes, more questions. LONDRY: Wetaked a httk bit about meeting Ashbcry* It's s-g for me to heuftom you and fmm Ashkry how much eafh of you were giad to meet the othcr, how much each of you apciated having a coileague, a friend in petry. Kota Oh, it was wonderful, yeah.

LONDRY: Did Ashbery recornmend you read any authors you badn't read befbre, any authors who would evenhially Muence you? Ashbcry mentioned that he thinl

LONDRY: Ashbery haht mdany Roussel before you ncommended him? 114

KOCH: No, I dont think so. I've elways been gratefiil to John for books and movies. Oh, aiso Roust. John told me I had to rcad Rowt.

LONDRY: Yes, Ashbery wmte an intercsîiug undergraduate psper on Proust that's in the Houghton Iibray: ThePrevafence of Odette." May I gct back to Alfred Jany and &es fora moment? Were you interiestcd in king cmiabuse you wmsimply attracted to Jarry's cnnDcss or vas it pertly because you fek th- was an exces of conventionality at Harvard, or in the üteray scene at the tirne? In derwords, why exadly do you thlliL you and Ashbeiy felt at this time the urge to k derin your woIlr?

KOCW 1felt lesconventiondity at Harvard than 1had in the anny or in Cincinnati. No, i t didn't have anything to do with the atmospime at Harvard I was jut .. . attracted to it. 1 was immediately attracted to Sumalism. 1told you at seventeen, before 1 went to Harvard,

1 was a subhber to Viw. I used to get copies of View magazine when 1was at Western Pacific Base Command Headquarters on Saipan. This magazine would cane once a rnonth. It made me so happy! No, I just loved Sumalism immediately. The whole idea that you could k crazy .. . . You know there 1 was: seventeen, eighteen yean old, filled with lust and desires to be a mat pet, filled with all these crazy desires that didn't correspond to the Me anwind me at dl, but hem it was in this poetry. And painting, too. 1 loved modem painting rather early on. I remember 1won some sort of prize in high schwl and 1 could chwse any book 1 wanted. 1chose a book about modem ait; 1 loved the reproductions. 1 immediately liked things by Max Emst and Picasso's sumalist things and al1 that. So 1 dont ihllilr it bad anythhg to do with Harvard. 1 thinlr Jobhad the same experience-that he was immediately attracted to things that were cray. It's true that the poetry scene then wu very conventional. Al1 of the dyestablished piswere the ones who came after al1 those gnat inventive people-lile Pound and Williams and Stevens-and they were al1 publishing in the quartdes sort of hnicpoems and inteliectual poems and that was very duil. but it wasn't mainly a reaction against that that 1 wmte. It was just out of pleasufe. 115

LONDRY: Did you and Ashbery nad the New Crib'cs? I>id you bave any impression of or respônse to their ariitings? Koca1 had tmuble understanding what they were taiking about. 1nmcmber 1felt dumb when 1 read RP. Blackmur prticuiariy. His sentences seemed very mmky to me, like strearns that were blocked by stones and hp 1thought he had same very gcxxi perceptions about, for instance, Stevens's strange languagc, but Wy1 didn't enjoy that cnticism much. But thm it was. It's one thhg for me to ôe sort of a revoiutionary avant- garde writer, which 1sort of felt myseif to be-after a while, dter I was in New York for a while and was fnends with the paintem and with John and Frank and was writing a lot-but during the time 1 was at Harvd1 was just a baby poet and whatever was established had a kind of glamor. So the New Criticism had this kind of glamor, soit of unavoidebly (the way theory does for some poor students now). You know, light was shining off it So 1 tried. 1 never got much out of it, though. i read Empson. Empson was sort of ipteresting. Reading Seven Tmof Ambinuity was a bit like reading poeq, but it didn't seem to be exactiy about the main thing. No, 1dont think it meant very much to me. 1just Loew it was there and it excited me because it seemed to be one of the golden steps I'd have to get on to get to glory (whatever that was); I'd have to go tbtough New Criticism in some way;

I'd have to get those guys to like me. 1never did get them to like me, 1 dont thinlr.

LONDRY: So there was no antipathy towards the New Criticai attitude? You waen't specificaily trying to spcakagainst or trying to write pœms thpt were not appreciable by the New Cntics . .. KOC~No, no. I never would have thought of that. 1 think John caught the las&gasps of approval from some of them. He got approved by the estaôlisbment quite early, so I think he might even have won meof them over before they stopped writing. But I didn't, and anyway by the tirne 1wmte JkshAit and 1CQ 1 certainly lmew that 1didn't üke that stuff, that it was going in the wmng direction. LONDRY: Mayd the poems yon pubüshed in Tbe &ad Advoca&, as well as the pieces in your Ganisoa Rize MS, sœm to meto have a stnkingiy grave tone, as weii as often very strong. regular ihythms-at least compued to much of the walr you did after graduating fmm Harvard, which frequently has a dccidedly comic toae, and much looser, more conversationai rhytbms. If you agree at ail alla îhat assesment, do you have a sense of how that shift occuncd?

KOCH: Rnbably. It was when I was at Harvard that I Gnt rdYeats. 1remember 1took the writing course with Delmore Schwartz and he said "YOUshould & Yeats." 1 hadntt reaily thought much about reading Yeats befae that. So the tone of these poems is very Yeatsian indeed Mcularly "LittleRed Riding Hood: A Play for Dancers" is W;e one of Yeats's plays: "Yes,1 seem to recognize the place I As though its weather wmindelible I And formai in my mind." Verse forms always came very easy to me. 1 remember when 1 was at Harvard I took Werner Jaeger's course in Greek cinlization dedPaideia, and I took my notes in bldverse. 1used to be able to speak in blank verse-to at first the delight and then the ho= of my friends. It was hard to get me to stop. But . .. "New York is our seductim: we go back / As to the wriggling housemaid in a dream" . . .oh rny God, that's very Yeatsian SM.1passed through it iike you get hughan obstacle course or something. Then what happened? Let's see. Mter 1 graduated from Harvard 1came to New York and not much happenecl to lwsen my verse up the fmt couple of years in New

York. but then 1 went to Fiance. That cbged a lot. French poetry. Reading Max Jacob. and Apoliinaire. I rewi everybody.

LONDRY: You hadn't nad those pets eariier in View ? KOCH: They weren't ~~sts.View was very Surreaht. LONDRY: Ah, it was very süidy Surmdist. .. . KOCH: The thing is that my bnchgot very good wben 1was in France. 1 got to speak

French very weL 1 mnember two poem that I wrote in France, the two erirliest poems in Th& You. I didn't Mymach esteem the tbings 1wrote before I was in France. That was 1%& 1 was twenty-five. And t&e fmtwo poems I wrote tbet 1 liked enough to put in my book wm"On the Great Atlantic Ramwaya-which is kind of iafluenccd by Yeats's poem "EgoDominus Tmy"with his two characters taikhg to each derabout inteflecnial

subjects-and the sec~Ddpm, "The Bricks," which begins:

The bncks in a wall Sang this Song Veshali not fali The whde &y long But white and smd Lie in abandon." I wrote a lot of other things then when 1 was back in Ms,but 1 dont thiak any of thern were very good. When 1fmt got to France i knew Fnoch but 1didn't -IV know it, so I'd hear an ofdinary sentence like "Eile se tient debout contre le mur blanc"and 1 knew that "murblancn meant 'white wd,"but "mur"al- meant "ripe"and "mature"; and "blanc" also suggested "blank"to me; and "deboutnhad a funny sound; and "ellenwas sexier than

"she." And it was ail üke hearing lots of snow flumes, hearing a lot of nuances. of colors and sounds, when I would read just an ordinary French sentence. And after a while 1 tried w* w* this way too. That was after 1 came back. Let's sce. Aftcr 1 was in Firnce, then 1 went to Berkeley for a year. 1was a teaching assistant. And then 1 wrote a long trauslation of a Raymond Roussel pœm-but that was in fowteners50-and then 1me some poems that wen much freer there. Oh I know what bappened, 1 left out sometbing. When I got ôack fmm the amy, when 1 was in Cincinnati, before 1went to Harvard, 1 got overwhelmed by William Cerlos Williams and 1wmte a lot of poems in rather free verse.

Fourtecaer. 'An hgluh meter dscvca iambk fut [which] flairiobcd in the namitive paûy of the Eiizabethans, who coined for it the tcrm&merYI" buseof the fourteen-syllable Iine. NotaMe later uses am Wordswocthfs ïh Norman Boy, Elitabeth Barrett Browning's Cowplr's Grme, and Colcn'dgefsRinie of the Ancient Mariner -ton of Roetic Te~ms,cd. Alex Rmiinger, Rinceion, New Jersey Pnnceton UP, 1986)- But they didn't have much of an aftetiife. They're arwnd xnnewhere in the 1ibrruy.s' But

when I was at Harvard it was the Yeatsian tant that doniinated But wben I was back in

New York in 1950--or 1951 mayk-1 wmte When the Sun Tries to Go On." Do you Lnow that pam?

LONDRY: Oh Yes.

KoCA: That's completely wild Tbat was innuencecl by Ficneh poetry, by my not understanding and understanding at the same the and king able to enjoy it It was very infiuenced by reading War and Peaa .. . and Kar&g just because Tolstoy seerned to include everyihing. And then 1wrote this whole bunch of poems in the style of

"WhenThe Sun Tries to Go Onu-which I'd love to pubiish as a book, but 1 havent found

anybody who wants to do it yet

LONDRY: Are some of those pams in that little chapbwk pubIished by Black Sparrow Press?

KOCH: Yes. Poems fmm 1957. and 1953. 1 wrote that way for a couple of years. And after that 1 could sort of write in al1 differeat ways. Yeats was gone. Not that he was an evil presence in my poetry. it's just that when 1 lwk at these poerns 1realize how influenced 1was by tbat kind of writing. Another big influence on me-when 1 first came back to New York-was Wallace Stevens. 1was crazy about Stevens. Very intluenced by Stevens is the poem in Ch the Great Adantic Rainwav cailed "Summery Weather." 1forget

how it goes. "And tbet night we rainingwor somcthing liLe that His poetcy was an influence for quite a while. I'm a poet who mes ta be influenced. i'm always trying to find new ways to Mite. 1 Like everything 1Wnte to be different fmm eveything else, which is rather hard. 3tts not that 1 like it to be that way. I'm just usually not satisfied with it unless it is.

LONDRY: It str&es me at times that ha'ssome sort of pmjudia agaiast creative writen who "accept"influences and deliberately take other authors' works es mdels to start with. But in the visuai arts for himdreds of yean tôere's ken a Wticm of dyon going to the museum to copy the Giest Mastem--in oder to lcsm technique, mdmtaad compoWtion, expand one's sense of the art-and then you move on fnim those infîueaccs. How many

musicians have you evabeard say, "1dont tisten to mUac-except my own songs- because 1dont want to k infiuencedw? It's unhdof. Fm wondexing if a certain kind of

fear of innuence is quite spscaic to the litaPy arts. Ohcn, at lesst with beginning studtnts

in poetry, I hear a phrase wch as 1try not to read tw much work of other pais because 1

dont want to be influencedW-andsomebw this aiways surprises me.

KOCH: That's exactly what I said to Delmore Schwartz. This is in 1M.Delmore Schwartz said. "Have you read Stevens?" And I said, "Yes, but 1 stoppeci." He said, "Why did you stop?" I said. "Because 1 didn't want to be iofluenced tw much." He looked at me and he stopped and said, "How could you be too infiuenced by Wallace Stevens?" So 1 read Stevens again. Young pets, I guess. often have an idea (1 did) that one's particuiar genius is something that can't be touched by anything else. I think one grows out of that idea.

LONDRY: Were you aîso infiuenced to move away from the rather grave tones and the more ngular rhythm to a more comic and a more conversatiooal style by baving read Frank O'Hara's poems in the dy1950s? KOCH: I remember feeling a new freedom to do certain things when 1 read Frank's poerns -when 1 read his poem 'hiter," for instance. That was very inspiring. And 1 inmmber trying to do some of the thinp that Frank did, Lüre wnting a pam and somebody walks into the rcmm and telks to you and you put what they ssy in the poem instead of getting imtated and stopping. Yes, there was a while when 1wrote a Littic bit under the innuence of Frank, and 1 tbat John and Frank and 1 al1 Muencdeach other in a pmbably un- sort-out-able way. 1 mean, we encourageci each der. Wewen so happy to k with each other. At leest I was. It tumed out tbat each of our poetry huneci out to k rather different, but 1 know 1 got a lot out of their poetry. 1never rcad anything by eithcr of them that was boring in those eady âays That's the main mg. 1was aiways fascinatcd to nad what they wrote. It was primDy SM.It was reaiIy gdand nobody else's poetry affectcd me that way. I was sure 1 muld teii if somcthing wswritten by John or hank and thatk the oniy kind of poctry that 1 dy.. . . Weii. 1felt equaily inspimi by catain Fiench poeU 1 suppose, and by Williams and Stevens, but as far as the absolute thing that was closest to

me. the thing thpt 1 felt was closest to me-it was JoWs and Fiank's pottry. LONDRY: You mentioncd you wcn inspVcd by Frank's pam Zssier." May 1esk if you were inspireci by "Easternto do anything in pariicular? Perhaps that's a nasty question for

me to ask. KOCH: No, it's not I dont remember. . . . Frank did things in that paem that 1 didn't think 1 could ever do: something about "sistersin a imky of &de," and "the glassy towns are fucked by yaks." Thete are ceirain remarkable things in that poem. But there was one thing that 1tbink insphed me-but 1dont know if it wuin my poetry before or not, though

I dont remember its king there. At a certain point in the pmFrank writes: "the roses of Pennsylvaniaw To put something recognizably poetical (roses) with something recognizably unpaetical (Pemsylvania)-that seemed wonderful. 1think 1got something out of that. 1 got meother things out of Erank's eariy pms: I tbinL 1 started ushg more exclamation marks, and 1 also talked about linle thiogs-as in his wonderful poem Todayw which bas kangaroos, sequins, etc. When I was in France, I noticed a number of @rin tablets appeariag in my poems, smaii things.

LONDRY: At one point Frank 0% said that he used to be able to write ody wben depressed but later in We coufd write only when happy. And apparentfy John Ashbery used often to write in the evenings, but now usualiy writes earlier in the day. Has your writing proces, bow yw get inspired to write or the time of day in which you write, has anything like that changed between the Harvard pnid and the present? KOCH:The Harvard @od. It's bard to nmember what the of day 1wrote then. It seems to me alwa-ys my favorite the to write is right after breakfast, &ter I've dru& a gddeal of coffee and I'm fidi dhope and 1 cm be aii aione and it's quiet and the& sdght

That's a very good thefa me to write. Sometimes I write at othcr times, but tbat's my favori te time.

LONDRY: Do you always have to be kphcd when you etc(whaîcver your understanding d the word "inqkednis)? KOCH: 1dont have ta be inspired to St down. Unless something help me out whiie L"m sitting there 1 dont write vyweU. But sometimes 1only get inspird by writing. No, the the muse doesn't visit me every day.

LONDRY: But at times you will just sit dom, start to write, and sec what happeus? KOCH: Oh, yeah. A & of times. LONDRY: Were you influenceci by any of your instructors? You mentioncd Delmore

Schwartz. I have a lia of a few others iastructors who, 1 believe, taught at fiarvard amund the time you were there. 1 could nm some of these names pstyou.

KOCH: Delmore inspind me because he Iüced rny work and because 1admired his woric a lot. Theaiore Morrisoa was the other Mtingtacher 1 had. He thought my ptrywas accomplished. but 1dont Lww how much he üked it. I don't remember. He was a very nice man, though. 1 liked Clyde Kluckhohn, w60 taught Culturai Antbropology. 1 twk a wonderful course in Japanese and Chinese Art, which I iikcd, but 1 don't remember the name of the man who taught it. I liked the man wbo taught Rato. I dont remember being really inspind by any of my teachem Oh, 1 liked F.O. Matthiessen-who gave a good course. But 1dont remember ever being paiticularly hpired by my teachers to write.

LONDRY: Did you know John Cid?

KOCH: John Ciardi? Yes, 1knew Joha Ciad slighuy. LONDRY: At or. . KOCH: Yeah, 1 thialr he was in the Society of Feiiows or something. He was a rnember of the Signet?

52 A Harvard litcrary Society. LONDRY: AlktGuerard?

KOCH: No, 1 didn't Lnow him. 1 didn't take a course with him. I think be taught a writing course after I'd stapped taking writing courses. LONDRY: Ashbery mentimecl he twk a course wïth Theodore Spencer that he quite Wrd KOCH: Tbeodore Spencer. yes I remember I went to see Delmore Schwartz in his once once and he introduced me to Thcodore Spencer and I felt very .. . giamorized. Deimore said. Ted. this is Ke~ethKoch. He's a good pet" I was vay happy with that Tbat's al1 1remember- LONDRY: hum Bush also taught amuad that tirne at Harvard. KOCH: He taught the eighteenth century ?

LONDRY: 1 think Ashbery did a seventeenth-century poetry course with him. KOCH: 1 didn't take a course with him. LONDRY: There were poetry ieadings at Harvard by some very well-knowa pets around the time that you, Ashbery. and O'Hara were there-by Eliot, for instance, and by Wallace

Stevens. Did you attend any of these, and, if so. were you inspired or influenced by them?

KOC~No, 1 dont think 1 got to either one of thern, for some mn.I'm pretty sure 1 rnissed the Stevens and 1think 1 missed the mot too. 1 was sorry that 1 missed them. But 1 dont howwhy 1 did. 1 mean, undergraduate Me was so cmzy, 1don't know why . . . I don't how what 1 was doing. 1wasn't doing what was good for me when 1 missed those readings, though. LONDRY: This may have been after you graduated. but mardAdvaate would sometimes host a cocktail party for a pet who was readllig. KOCH: They had parties for writers, yes. I nmember they had a pgny for Auden. And 1 remember they had a party for Stephen Spcnder, tao. 1 think. And they also had a party for Aldous Huxley. Huxley was in England at the time, but they had the party anyway! LONDRY: [laughs] KOCH: Yeah, 1 thi& it was funny. LONDRY: They'd asked him to come but .. . KOCH: 1 don't even know if they'd P;PIIQQ him. Tbey just had a party. 1 that was it But 1remember king at the piuty with Auden. I iewmbcr king very shy and 1was & to ask Auden a question, to falk to him. 1couldn't ihinL of anytaing to ask him, and 1 got dnïnler and àrunker, and 1 pess so did be. Rnally toward the end of the evening 1 said, "MrAuden, could 1 ask you a question?" He said, "Yes, yes, of course." And 1said, "I've been trying to write verse plays and 1dm't find the iamôic pentameter line satisfactory" [laughs]. He said, Try syllabic verse." And that was the end of that. Has John told you the story about when we were in the café at Hward? We were in some di5near Harvard Square playing a phball machine one &y-we lkdta play pinball-and Auden came in and sat down and had a cup of coffee and maybe a sandwich and lef~Mter be left Jobn said, "He didn't even gotice us-" And 1 said, "John, we're unknown undergraduates, why would W.H. Auden notice us?" And John said, "Well, you'd thïdc he would have kgown!" [laughs ioudly]

LONDRY: [Laughs]As if Auden had some kind of radar for talented young poets!

KOCH: 1 thought that was very, very funny. Wedid bath get to know him afterwards, but he didnt notice us then. These two babies playing pinbal1 machines-how couid he notice us?

LONDRY: Did you attend the reading chat Auden gave before the party, if he did give a reading Morethe party? KOCH: 1 think I was at whatever Auden did, but 1 don't remcmber anything spedic about that one. 1al= remember Stephen Spender, whom 1 thought was so glamomus. 1 was very impssed by Stephen Spender because he's somebody who got to me when 1 was seventeen or eighteen: lines like "more beautiful and soft than any moth." He jwt seemed . .. . He was up there in Poetry Heaven. So I remember 1 saw him walLing amund the streets of Cambridge. He was vey tall and 1 foilowed bim for a couple of Mocks thinking that maybe I'd get a chance to ask him some idiotic question, but 1didn't. LONDRY: Thanks so much for chatîïng with me today. KOCH: It was fun.