AMERICAN POETRY THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

VOLUME TWO E. E. Cummings to May Swenson

THE LIBRARY OF AMERICA Contents

E. E. CUMMINGS (1894-1962) "All in green went my love riding," 1 "in Just- / spring when the world is mud-," 2 "Tumbling-hair / picker of buttercups," 3: "Humanity i love you," 3 "O sweet spontaneous," 4 "stinging / gold swarms," 5 ' "between green / mountains," 6 "Babylon slim / -ness of," 6 "ta / ppin / g / toe," 7 "Buffalo Bill 's / defunct," 7 "the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls," 8 "god pity me whom(god distinctly has)," 8 "Dick Mid's large bluish face without eyebrows," 9 "Spring is like a perhaps hand," 9 POEM,OR BEAUTY HURTS MR. VINAL, 10 "she being Brand," 12 "on the Madam's best april the," 13 MEMORABILIA, 14 "next to of course god america i," 15 "lis / -ten // you know what i mean when," 15 "my sweet old etcetera," 16 "Among / these / red pieces of," 17 "in spite of everything," 18 "since feeling is first," 18 "i sing of Olaf glad and big," 18 "twi- / is :Light bird," 20 _ "a clown's smirk in the skull,of a baboon," 20 "somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond," 21 "r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r," 22 "the boys i mean are not refined," 22 "as freedom is a breakfastfood," 23 "anyone lived in a pretty how town," 24 "my father moved through dooms of love," 25 "plato told," 27 "pity this busy monster,manunkind," 28 "a grin without a," 29 xi xii CONTENTS

H. L. DAVIS (1894-1960) Proud Riders, 30

ROLEE HUMPHRIES (1894-1969) Europa, 31 Test Paper, 32 From the Green Book of Yfan, 33

EUGENE JOLAS (1894-1952) Mater Dolorosa, 35

H. PHELPS PUTNAM (1894-1948) Words of an Old Woman, 36 Hasbrouck and the Rose, 37 Bill Gets Burned, 39

CHARLES REZNIKOFF (1894-1976) "On Brooklyn Bridge* I saw a man drop dead," 42 "I met in a merchant's place," 42 "The shopgirls leave their work," 42 "How shall we mourn you who are killed and wasted," 42 "My work done, I lean on the window-sill," 43 "In the shop, she, her mother, and grandmother," 43 The Idiot, 43 "She who worked patiently," 43 Epidemic, 43 "Her work was to count linings—," 43 "The house-wreckers have left the door and a staircase," 44 Aphrodite Vrania, 44 April, 44 "Out of the hills the trees bulge," 44 "How difficult for me is Hebrew," 44 "I have learnt the Hebrew blessing before eating bread," 44 "After I had worked all day at what I earn my living," 44 "The Hebrew of your poets, Zion," 45 "Though our thoughts often, we ourselves," 45 "Among the heaps of brick and plaster lies," 45 Epitaphs, 45 Millinery District ["The clouds . . . "], 46 "A dead gull in the road," 47 "I like this secret walking," 47 Rainy Season, 47 "Of course, we must die," 48 CONTENTS Xlll My grandfather, dead long before I was born," 48 "A grove of small trees, branches thick with berries," 48 Millinery District ["Many fair hours . . . "], 48 Similes, 49 Epitaph, 49 Free Verse, 49 from Early History of a Writer, 50

BESSIE SMITH (1894-1937) Empty Bed Blues, 57

GENEVIEVE TAGGARD (1894-1948)1 Everyday Alchemy, 59 Thirst, 59 To One Loved Wholly Within Wisdom, 59 To Mr. Maunder Maunder, Professional Poet, 60 To the Powers of Desolation, 61 To the Natural World: at 37, 61 Try Tropic, 62 , . All Around the Town, 63 Bounding Line, 64 Hymn to Yellow, 64 The Weed, 65 Fructus, 66

JEAN TOOMER (1894-1967) Reapers, 68 ' Cotton Song, 68 Georgia Dusk, 69 Nullo, 70 Evening Song, 70 •. 1 Portrait in Georgia, 71 Seventh Street, 71 Storm Ending, 72 Her Lips Are Copper Wire, 72 Gum, 73 The Gods Are Here, 74

MARK VAN DOREN (1894-1972) This Amber Sunstream, 75 Axle Song, 75 The Near House, 76 ' ' Midland, 77 Xiv CONTENTS

So Simple, 77 . ,-,..- Where I Saw the Snake, 77 . .• . The First Poem, 78 ,

ALTER BRODY (1895-1979) Lamentations, 79 Winter Nocturne: The Hospital, 80 '

BABETTE DEUTSCH (1895-1982) "To an Amiable Child," 81 . Creatures in the Zoo, 82 • •

ABRAHAM LINCOLN GILLESPIE (1895-1950) A Purplexicon of Dissynthegrations, 84

OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II (18957-1960), , . Ol' Man River, 87

LORENZ HART (1895-1943) Little Girl Blue, 89 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered, 90

ROBERT HILLYER (1895-1961) Dead Man's Corner, 92

EDMUND WILSON (1895-1972) Epitaphs, 93 A House of the Eighties, 94 • , . The Omelet of A. MacLeish, 95

JOHN DOS PASSOS (1896-1970) • - Newsreel LIII, 99

THOMAS HORNSBY FERRIL (1896-1988) Waltz Against the Mountains, 101 Something Starting Over, 104 Noon, 106 " ., •

IRA GERSHWIN (1896-1983) I Can't Get Started, 107 They All Laughed, 109

RAMON GUTHRIE (1896-1973) Elegy for Melusine from the Intensive Care Ward, in Red-Headed Intern, Taking Notes, 113 Scene: A Bedside in the Witches' Kitchen, 113 CONTENTS XV

E. Y. HARBURG (1896-1981) Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?; 115

ISIDOR SCHNEIDER (1896-1977) Insects, 117 A History of the Caesars, 117

LOUISE BOGAN (1897-1970) Medusa, 119 Knowledge, 120 Women, 120 The Alchemist, 121 My Voice Not Being Proud, 121 Men Loved Wholly Beyond Wisdom, 122 Sub Contra, 122 ' Cassandra, 123 Winter Swan, 123 Dark Summer, 123 Late, 124 Song, 124 Short Summary, 125 Roman Fountain, 125 Evening-Star, 126 Baroque Comment, 126 Kept, 127 Heard by a Girl, 127 Several Voices Out of a Cloud, 128 Musician, 128 Zone, 129 Night, 129 Morning, 130 The Dragonfly, 131

EMANUEL CARNEVALI (1897-1942?) Sermon, 132 Serenade, 132 Kiss, 133 Almost a God, 134

BLIND LEMON JEFFERSON (1897-1929) Long Distance Moan, 135 XVI CONTENTS

WALTER LOWENFELS (1897-1976) from Elegy in the Manner of a Requiem in Memory of D. H. Lawrence, 137

DAVID MCCORD (1897-1997) Waiter, 140 History of Education, 140

JOHN WHEELWRIGHT (1897-1940) Slow Curtain, 141 Why Must You Know?, 141 Would You Think?, 142 Fish Food: An Obituary to Hart Crane, 143 Come Over and Help Us, 144 Anathema. Maranatha!, 147 In the Bathtub, to Mnemosyne, 148 Esprit d'Escalier, 149 Cross Questions, 149

STEPHEN VINCENT BENET (1898-1943) from John Brown's Body, 150 American Names, 154 Cotton Mather, 156 Daniel Boone, is6 Metropolitan Nightmare, 157

MALCOLM COWLEY (1898-1989) Winter Tenement, 160 Ernest, 161

HARRY CROSBY (1898-1929) Vision, 162 Photoheliograph, 165

HORACE GREGORY (1898-1982) from Chorus for Survival, 166 The Cage of Voices, 168

MELVIN B. TOLSON (1898-1966) from Libretto for the Republic of Liberia, 170 from Harlem Gallery, 176

LEONIE ADAMS (1899-1988) April Mortality, 183 Ghostly Tree, 183 CONTENTS XV11

The Rounds and Garlands Done, 184 The Moon and Spectator, 185 Fragmentary Stars, 185 The Horn, 186 The Figurehead, 187 Grapes Making, 187

HART CRANE (1899-1932) Chaplinesque, 189 For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen, 190 Voyages, 194 Repose of Rivers, 199 The Wine Menagerie, 199 At Melville's Tomb, 201 The Bridge, 202 O Carib Isle!, 242 The Broken Tower, 243

THOMAS A. DORSEY (1899-1993) Take My Hand, Precious Lord, 245

HiLDEGARDE FLANNER (1899-1987) Dumb, 246 Moment, 246 Fern Song, 246 Frog Song, 247 True Western Summer, 248 JANET LEWIS (1899-1998) from The Indians in the Woods, 249 Girl Help, 251 The Reader, 252 Winter Garden, 252 Helen Grown Old, 253 For the Father of Sandro Gulotta, 254 The Ancient Ones: Betatakin, 255 Garden Note I, Los Altos, 256 Garden Note II, March, 256 JOSEPH MONCURE MARCH (1899-1977) from The Wild Party, 257 VLADIMIR NABOKOV (1899-1977) from Lolita, 263 On Translating "Eugene Onegin," 265 XV111 CONTENTS

LYNN RIGGS (1899-1954) ,\ ... . Santo Domingo Corn Dance, 266

ALLEN TATE (1899-1979) Mr. Pope, 269 Ode to the Confederate Dead, 269 The Twelve, 272 Last Days of Alice, 273 The Wolves, 274 Aeneas at Washington, 275 The Ivory Tower, 276 The Mediterranean, 277 Sonnets at Christmas, 279 The Swimmers, 280

EDWARD DAHLBERG (1900-1977) > February Ground, 283

Walt Whitman, 285 r

YVOR WINTERS (1900-1968) Two Songs of Advent, 288 '•'••' The Magpie's Shadow, 288 The Solitude of Glass, 291 October, 292 ' ' Vacant Lot, 292 The Cold, 293 " Nocturne, 294 The Barnyard, 294 ., ..-,-• ., - , •.',,. Wild Sunflower, 295 ,.., • (. The Realization, 296 •,.._, , Apollo and Daphne, 296 , The Fable, 297 . . . . • The Fall of Leaves, 297

The Slow Pacific Swell, 298 , • ; . To a Young Writer, 299 By the Road to the Sunnyvale Air-Base, 300 Elegy on a Young Airedale Bitch Lost Two Years Since in the Salt-Marsh, 300 ' ' On Teaching the Young, 301 Time and the Garden, 301 • , . > . . • In Praise of California Wines, 302 ; • To the Moon, 303 . .. • • CONTENTS XIX

STERLING A. BROWN (1901-1989) Long Gone, 304 Scotty Has His Say, 305 ' Sister Lou, 306 Southern Road, 308 Memphis Blues, 309 Ma Rainey, 311 Slim in Atlanta, 313 • - Children's Children, 314 Chillen Get Shoes, 315 Sporting Beasley, 316 Cabaret, 318 Old Lem, 321 .

ROBERT FRANCIS (1901-1987) A Broken View, 323 Onion Fields, 324 Earthworm, 324 • Slow, 325 By Night, 325 The Curse, 326 While I Slept, 326 The Sound I Listened For, 326 As Easily As Trees, 327 Waxwings, 327 Pitcher, 328 Cypresses, 328 Swimmer, 329 Farm Boy After Summer, 329 Museum Vase, 330

LINDLEY WILLIAMS HUBBELL (1901-1994) Ordovician Fossil Algae, 331 Sounds, 331 A student who sat facing me on the Osaka express, 332 Beer Bottles, 332 Waka, 334 , '

LAURA RIDING (1901-1991) An Ancient Revisits, 335 • As Well As Any Other, 335 Prisms, 336 Lucrece and Nara, 336 XX CONTENTS

O Vocables of Love, 337 Faith Upon the Waters, 338 Sea, False Philosophy, 339 The Map of Places, 339 Chloe or . . . , 340 Take Hands, 341 The World and I, 341 The Wind, the Clock, the We, 342' Nothing So Far, 343 Divestment of Beauty, 344 Because of Clothes, 345 With the Face, 346

ARNA BONTEMPS (1902-1973) Reconnaissance, 347 Southern Mansion, 348 Dark Girl, 348 A Black Man Talks of Reaping, 349

KENNETH FEARING (1902-1961) Green Light, 350 Evening Song, 351 1933, 352 Escape, 354 Dirge, 356 Portrait, 357 American Rhapsody (4), 358 Literary, 359 How Do I Feel?, 360 Art Review, 361 Reception Good, 361 Beware, 363 4 A.M., 363 Bryce & Tomlins, 365

LANGSTON HUGHES' (1902-1967) The Negro Speaks of Rivers, 367 Aunt Sue's Stories, 367 When Sue Wears Red, 368 Young Prostitute, 369 My People, 369 Dream Variations, 369 Subway Face, 370 CONTENTS XXI

I, Too, 370 Suicide's Note, 371 Summer Night, 371 Strange Hurt, 372 A House in Taos, 372 Railroad Avenue, 374 Sea Calm, 375 Drum, 375 Cubes, 375 Little Lyric (Of Great Importance), 377 Evil, 377 Songs, 377 Luck, 378 Curious, 378 American Heartbreak, 378 from Montage of a Dream Deferred, 379

OGDEN NASH (1902-1971) Spring Comes to Murray Hill, 396 Reflection on Ice-Breaking, 396 The Terrible People, 397 Song of the Open Road, 398 - Very Like a Whale, 398 A Necessary Dirge, 399 . Portrait of the Artist as a Prematurely Old Man, 400 The Germ, 402 Glossina Morsitans, or, the Tsetse, 402 Samson Agonistes, 402 • Inter-Office Memorandum, 403 Which the Chicken, Which the Egg?, 404

EVE TRTEM (1902-1992) For Paul, 405

COUNTEE CULLEN (1903-I946) Yet Do I Marvel, 406 Atlantic City Waiter, 406 Incident, 407 : Heritage, 407 For My Grandmother, 411 • For a Lady I Know, 411 < -, For One Who Gayly Sowed His Oats, 411 XX11 CONTENTS

For Hazel Hall, American Poet, 411 From the Dark Tower, 412

EDWIN DENBY (1903-1983) The Subway, 413 A New York Face, 413 "I had heard it's a fight. At the first clammy touch," 414 "Smelling or feeling of the several holes," 415

DUDLEY Frrrs (1903-1968) "Ya se van los pastores," 416

BREWSTER GHISELIN (b. 1903) Shore Bird, 417 Bath of Aphrodite, 417 The Food of Birds, 419 The Net Breaker, 419 ' Learning the Language, 420

LORINE NlEDECKER (1903-1970) ,, : "Remember my little granite pail?" 421 "The clothesline post is set," 421 "There's a better shine," 421 -, "What horror to awake at night," 421 • , "Paul / when the leaves / fall," 422 . • . • "The death of my poor father," 422 "Woman in middle life," 423 "He lived—childhood summers," 423 "I rose from marsh mud," 424 The Graves, 424 "My friend tree," 425 . ' • "The men leave the car," 425 "My life is hung up," 425 "Get a load / of April's," 425 Poet's Work, 426 "I married," 426 : • • • . My Life By Water, 427 "Far reach / of sand," 428 "Stone / and that hard / contact—" 428 Sewing a Dress, 429 Paean to Place, 429 "Not all harsh sounds displease—" 436 Darwin, 436 ' CONTENTS XXU1

CARL RAKOSI (b. 1903) The January of a Gnat, 441 Amulet, 441 Figures in an Ancient Ink, 442 The Lobster, 443 Lying in Bed on a Summer Morning, 444 Young Girl, 445 Americana 3, 447 To an Anti-Semite, 448 Discoveries, Trade Names, Genitals, and Ancient Instruments, 448 Two Variations on a Theme, 449 Instructions to the Player, 449 The Avocado Pit, 450

R. P. BLACKMUR (1904-1965) Redwing, 451 "One grey and foaming day," 452 Mirage, 453 Seas Incarnadine, 453 Since There's No Help . . . , 454 The Communiques from Yalta, 454 Sunt Lacrimae Rerum et Mentem Mortalia Tangunt, 455

RICHARD EBERHART (b. 1904) This Fevers Me, 456 The Groundhog, 457 'I Walked Over the Grave of Henry James,' 458 The Fury of Aerial Bombardment, 458 On a Squirrel Crossing the Road in Autumn, in New England, 459 La Crosse at Ninety Miles an Hour, 460 Gnat on My Paper, 461

JOHN HOLMES (1904-1962) The Old Professor, 463 • ; Four and a Half, 463

Louis ZUKOFSKY (1904-1978) I Sent Thee Late, 465 Poem beginning "The," 465 "Not much more than being," 477 "Cocktails," 477 xxiv CONTENTS

Ferry, 478 Tibor Serly, 479 "in that this happening," 481 "To my wash-stand," 481 "When the crickets," 483 "It's hard to see but think of a sea," 484 "The lines of this new song are nothing," 485 "Can a mote of sunlight defeat its purpose," 485 (Ryokan's scroll), 485 Xenophanes, 486 "As To How Much," 486 Shang Cup, 487 "A" 11, 488 from "A" 12, 489

HOWARD BAKER (1905-1990) Advice to a Man Who Lost a Dog, 496 Sappho's Leap, 497

FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS (1905-1987) Christ Is a Dixie Nigger, 498 Sam Jackson, 499

DOROTHY FIELDS (1905-1974) I Can't Give You Anything But Love, 500

STANLEY KUNITZ (b. 1905) The Science of the Night, 501 The Dragonfly, 502 The Testing-Tree, 504 The Catch, 507 The Quarrel, 508 Route Six, 508 Touch Me, 510

PHYLLIS MCGINLEY (1905-1978) Twelfth Night, 511 Spring Comes to the Suburbs, 512 The 5:32, 512 Portrait of Girl with Comic Book, 513

KENNETH REXROTH (1905-1982) Spring, Coast Range, 514 Andree Rexroth, 515 CONTENTS XXV

The Signature of All Things, 515 Lyell's Hypothesis Again, 518 It Is a German Honeymoon, 519 On Flower Wreath Hill, 521 . from The Love Poems of Marichiko, 527

BYRON VAZAKAS (1905-1987) The Pavilion on the Pier, 533 Epitaph for the Old Howard, 533

ROBERT PENN WARREN (1905-1989) The Return: An Elegy, 535 Bearded Oaks, 538 Where the Slow Fig's Purple Sloth, 539 Audubon: A Vision, 540 Birth of Love, 557 Evening Hawk, 559 Heart of Autumn, 560 Vision, 560 Muted Music, 562

STANLEY BURNSHAW (b. 1906) End of the Flower-World, 564 Bread, 564

WARING CUNEY (1906-1976) No Images, 566 The Death Bed, 566 Conception, 567

JOSEPH KALAR (1906-1972) Papermill, 568

RICHMOND LATTIMORE (1906-1984) North Philadelphia Trenton and New York, 569 Vergil Georgics 1.489-514, 570

HELENE JOHNSON (1907-1995) Bottled, 571 Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem, 572 Magalu, 573

LINCOLN KIRSTEIN (1907-1996) Gloria, 574 P.O.E., 580 XXVI CONTENTS

CONSTANCE CARRIER (1908-1991) A Point of View, 581 Clause for a Covenant, 582 Elegy, 582 Laudare, 583 > • Helianthus, 584

ALTON DELMORE (1908-1964) The Girl by the River, 585

JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN (b. 1908) • Poems for My Cousin, 587 Yellow, 590

GEORGE OPPEN (1908-1984) Discrete Series, 591 Eclogue, 601 . . • Image of the Engine, 602 , , 1 : From Disaster, 604 Psalm, 605 The Occurrences, 606 Route, 606 But So As By Fire, 615 In Memoriam Charles Reznikoff, 616

THEODORE ROETHKE (1908-1963) The Heron, 617 The Bat, 617 . ' Cuttings, 618 Cuttings (later), 618 •, -• Root Cellar, 618 Old Florist, 619 Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, and Frau Schwartze, 619 My Papa's Waltz, 620 The Lost Son, 621 Four for Sir John Davies, 626 Elegy for Jane, 630 The Waking, 630 I Knew a Woman, 631 A Walk in Late Summer, 632 The Rose, 633 The Thing, 637 In a Dark Time, 638 CONTENTS XXV11

RICHARD WRIGHT (1908-1960) I Have Seen Black Hands, 639 The FB Eye Blues, 641 Selected Haiku, 642 HELEN ADAM (1909-1993) Mune Rune, 646 The Huntsman, 647 Shallow-Water Warning, 649 JAMES AGEE (1909-1955) "Not met and marred with the year's whole turn of grief," 651 "So it begins. Adam is in his earth," 651 "Now stands our love on that still verge of day," 652 "This little time the breath and bulk of being," 652 To Walker Evans, 653 "Wake up Threeish," 654

MARY BARNARD (b. 1909) Shoreline, 655 Logging Trestle, 656 The Field, 657 Static, 658 The Solitary, 658 Probably Nobody, 659 The Pleiades, 659 • , • • Lethe, 660 JOHNNY MERCER (1909-1976) , Blues in the Night, 661 Midnight Sun, 662 ELDER OLSON (1909-1992) The Four Black Bogmen, 664 EDWIN ROLFE (1909-1954) Casualty, 666 Paris—Christmas 1938, 666 First Love, 667 BUKKA WHITE (1909-1977) Fixin' to Die, 669 ROBERT FITZGERALD (1910-1985) Manuscript with Illumination, 670 Horae, 671 XXV111 CONTENTS

Et Quidquid Aspiciebam Mors Erat, 673 Farewell, 675 Mutations, 676 History, 676 Souls Lake, 677 South Side, 678 Spring Shade, 679

FRANK LOESSER (1910-1969) Luck, Be a Lady, 680

ROSALIE MOORE (b. 1910) The Mind's Disguise, 682 Memory of Quiet, 682 Height, 683

CHARLES OLSON (1910-1970) La Preface, 684 These Days, 685 In Cold Hell, in Thicket, 685 The Moon Is the Number 18, 691 Merce of Egypt, 692 As the Dead Prey Upon Us, 694 Variations Done for Gerald Van De Wiele, 702 from The Maximus Poems Letter 3, 706 Maximus, to himself, 710 The Ocean, 712 "flower of the underworld," 714 "I live underneath / the light of day," 714

WiNFIELD TOWNLEY SCOTT (191O-I968) Crocus Air, 716 Flowering Quince, 716 The U.S. Sailor with the Japanese Skull,1717 Winslow Homer, 718

BEN BELITT (b. 1911) The Orange Tree, 719 Kites: Ars Poetica, 720

ELIZABETH BISHOP (1911-1979) The Map, 721 The Man-Moth, 722 Sleeping on the Ceiling, 723 CONTENTS XXD

Roosters, 724 The Fish, 728 ' Over 2000 Illustrations and a Complete Concordance, 730 The Bight, 732 At the Fishhouses, 733 The Prodigal, 736 The Shampoo, 736 Song for the Rainy Season, 737 The Armadillo, 739 Sestina, .740 Sandpiper, 742 Twelfth Morning; or What You Will, 742 In the Waiting Room, 743. . . Crusoe in England, 746 One Art, 751 Sonnet, 752 '••'

J. V. CUNNINGHAM (1911-1985) Dream Vision, 753 A Moral Poem, 754 For My Contemporaries, 755 Montana Pastoral, 755 Selected Epigrams, 756 To What Strangers, What Welcome, 758 ROSE DRACHLER (1911-1982) The Evening of the Sixth Day, 764 PAUL GOODMAN (1911-1972) The Lordly Hudson, 766 ROBERT JOHNSON (1911-1938) Stones in My Passway, 767 Hellhound on My Trail, 768 Me and the Devil Blues, 769 JOSEPHINE MILES (1911-1985) Housewife, 771 All Hallow, 771 Sale, 772 "After noon I lie down," 772 Album, 773

KENNETH PATCHEN (1911-1972) Street Corner College, 774 XXX CONTENTS

Religion Is That I Love You, 774 23rd Street Runs into Heaven, 775 The Figure Motioned with Its Mangled Hand Towards the Wall Behind It, 776 The Horses of Yilderlin, 777 The Origin of Baseball, 777 The Lions of Fire Shall Have Their Hunting, 778 Lonesome Boy Blues, 779

HYAM PLUTZIK (1911-1962) The Airman Who Flew Over Shakespeare's England, 780 Winter, Never Mind Where, 781 For T.S.E. Only, 781 As the Great Horse Rots on the Hill, 783

ANNE PORTER (b. 1911) Consider the Lilies of the Sea, 785 Winter Twilight, 785 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1911-1983) The Beanstalk Country, 786 JOHN CAGE (1912-1992) 2 Pages, 122 Words on Music and Dance, 787 from Composition in Retrospect, 788 ' WILLIAM EVERSON (1912-1994) Muscat Pruning, 792 " * Tor House, 792 Rainy Easter, 793 A Canticle to the Waterbirds, 793 Gale at Dawn, 797 Stone Face Falls, 798 JEAN GARRIGUE (1912-1972) Song in Sligo, 800 The Grand Canyon, 801 Grenoble Cafe, 804 WOODY GUTHRIE (1912-1967) Dust Storm Disaster, 805 Talking Dust Bowl, 807 Vigilante Man, 808 LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS (1912-1982) Death Bells, 810 . . CONTENTS XXXI

MAY SARTON (1912-1995) Moving In, 811 •• The Snow Light, 812 , February Days, 813 ' •'

VIRGINIA HAMILTON ADAIR (b. 1913) Buckroe, After the Season, 1942, 814 Exit Amor, 815

CHARLES HENRI FORD (b. 1913) The Fox with the Blue Velvet Band, 816 The Overturned Lake, 816 I Wouldn't Put It Past You, 817 ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1980) •;•. Those Winter Sundays, 818 .,.• . . 1 • . Homage to the Empress of the Blues, 818 Middle Passage, 819 • " Runagate Runagate, 825 Soledad, 827 The Night-Blooming Cereus, 828 ' Ice Storm, 830 J Bone-Flower Elegy, 831

JOHN FREDERICK NIMS (1913-1999) The Evergreen, 832 ; MURIEL RUKEYSER (1913-1980) The Book of the Dead, 835 , Ajanta, 839 '.''',. The Outer Banks, 844 The Speed of Darkness, 850 The Poem as Mask, 853 Myth, 854 . DAVID SCHUBERT (1913-1946) Monterey, 855 It Is Sticky in the Subway, 856 Prospect'Park, 856'.- Victor Record Catalog, 857 A Successful Summer, 858 No Title, 859 DELMORE SCHWARTZ (1913-1966) In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave, 861 Sonnet: The Beautiful American Word, Sure, 862 XXX11 CONTENTS

Far Rockaway, 862 Tired and Unhappy, You Think of Houses, 863 In the Slight Ripple, the Mind Perceives the Heart, 864 The Ballet of the Fifth Year, 864 Do the Others Speak of Me Mockingly, Maliciously?, 865 The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me, 866 Darkling Summer, Ominous Dusk, Rumorous Rain, 867 The Mind Is an Ancient and Famous Capital, 868 Lincoln, 869 KARL SHAPIRO (b. 1913) Auto Wreck, 871 University, 872 Troop Train, 873 Full Moon: New Guinea, 874 Homecoming, 875 • The Alphabet, 876 The Confirmation, 877 . ; The First Time, 878 • I Am an Atheist Who Says His Prayers, 879 The Funeral of Poetry, 881 MAY SWENSON (1913-1989) Question, 882 The Centaur, 883 Almanac, 885 Riding the "A," 886 Distance and a Certain Light, 887 Colors Without Objects, 887 Unconscious Came a Beauty, 889 The Shape of Death, 890 , Electronic Sound, 891 How Everything Happens (Based on a study of the Wave), 892 Bronco Busting, Event #1, 893 One of the Strangest, 893 Shu Swamp, Spring, 894 Staring at the Sea on the Day of a Death of Another, 895 Biographical Notes, 899 Note on the Texts, 951 Acknowledgments, 965 Notes, 974 Index of Titles and first Lines, 990 Index of Poets, 1008