63-07910 821*08 M643w $32!? e'^ Miles, Josephine , 1911- The ways of the poem, Sngle- wood Cliffs, N.J.. PrenticP^ 8a .08 Hiles, Josephine, ^, The ways of the poem. CUffs, N.J., Prentice- ties) literature se f edited by Josephine Miles PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH * UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA N. Englewood Cliffs, J. Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1961 1961 PRENTICE-HALL, INC. ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N, J, This volume, with minor revisions, is a shorter version of The Poem by Josephine Miles 1959 by Prentice-Hall, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NO PART OF THIS BOOK MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM, BY MIMEO GRAPH OR ANY OTHER MEANS, WITHOUT PER MISSION IN WRITING FROM THE PUBLISHERS. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD No.: 61-13262 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 94630- C f^. To like a poem is often to want to talk about it, to learn more about it, to hear it over and think about what is heard. This book begins with the ways and terms of such hearing. Then it proceeds to an abundance of poems of all kinds, com posed from different points of view by a hundred poets of four centuries in England and America. Finally, it considers poets as well as poems and poetry, with the work of five poets in some ways wholly individual and in some ways representative of historical changes in thought and tone. This volume is a shorter version of The Poem by about 100 pages of poetry, but contains the work of as many poets, over as wide a range of type and time, as does the fuller form. Many critical readings of the book have made its completion possible: readings by Maynard Mack of Yale University, George P. Elliott of Barnard College, Richard Worthen of Diablo Valley Junior College, Robert Beloof of the Speech Department and Mark Schorer of the English Department of the University of California. The ideas of students in 106B, 149, 247 at the University of California have aided in the making. Harriet Polt helped in the beginning and Elizabeth Kaupp immeasurably in the completion of the work. Beverly Wilson assisted in the preparation of this shorter version. To all of these, I make grateful acknowledgment. r ^7 7 6 3 7 9 1 JOSEPHINE MILES ^J3 u Acknowledgment is made to 'the following publishers, agents, and individuals who have granted permission to reprint selections from copy righted publications. EARLE BIRNEY for "World Winter." Reprinted by permission of the author. CURTIS BROWN LTD from Pansies by D. H. Lawrence, "Fidelity," copyright 1929 by Frieda Lawrence Ravagli. Reprinted by permission of the author's estate. THE CLARENDON PRESS for "London Snow" and "Nightingales" by Robert Bridges. Reprinted by permission of the Clarendon Press, Oxford. from The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges, "When First We Met." Reprinted by permission of the Clarendon Press, Oxford. DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY from The Waking: Poems 1933-1953 by Theodore Roethke, "The Waking." Copyright 1953 by Theodore Roethke. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc. from Rewards and Fairies by Rudyard Kipling, "The Way Through the Woods," copyright, 1910 by Rudyard Kipling. Reprinted by permis sion of Mrs. George Bambridge and Doubleday & Co., Inc. HANDY BROTHERS MUSIC CO., INC. for "Joe Turner Blues." Copyright 1915 by W. C. Handy. Copyright renewed 1942 by W. C. Handy. Published for U.S.A. by Handy Brothers Music Co., Inc., 1650 Broadway, New York 19, N.Y. Rights outside the U.S.A. controlled by Robbins Music Corporation, 1540 Broadway, New York 36, N.Y. Reprinted by permission. vii viii Acknowledgments HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY from Ceremony and other Poems by Richard Wilbur, "Ceremony," copyright 1948, 1949, 1950, by Richard Wilbur. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Brace and Co., Inc. from Things of This World by Richard Wilbur, "All These Birds," copyright 1956, by Richard Wilbur. Reprinted by permission of Har court, Brace and Co., Inc. from Collected Poems 1909-1935 by T. S. Eliot, "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," "Ash Wednesday," and "The Hollow Men," copy right 1936, by Harcourt, Brace and Co., Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publishers. from Good Morning America by Carl Sandburg, "Redhaw Rain," copy right 1928, renewed 1955, by Carl Sandburg. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Brace and Co., Inc. from Skbs of the Sunburnt West by Carl Sandburg, "Hoof Dusk," copyright 1922, by Harcourt, Brace and Co., Inc., renewed 1950 by Carl Sandburg. Reprinted by permission of the publishers. from Lord Weary's Castle by Robert Lowell, "Colloquy in Black Rock," copyright ,1944, 1946, by Robert Lowell. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Brace and Co., Inc. from Poems 1923-1954 by E. E. Cummings, copyright 1940 by E. E. Cummings. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Brace and Co., Inc. HARMS INC, for "You're the Top" by Cole Porter, copyright, 1934, by Harms, Inc. Reprinted by permission. HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS from The Poems of Emily Dickinson, T. H. Johnson, editor, "Under the Light, Yet Under," "To Flee from Memory," and "To Make a Prairie," copyright 1955, by the President and Fellows of Harvard Col lege. Reprinted by permission of the publishers. THE HOGARTH PRESS LTD for "Hunter," by F. Garcia Lorca, tr. by Stephen Spender and J. L. Gili. Reprinted by permission of The Hogarth Press Ltd. HOLT, RINEHART AND WINSTON, INC. from A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman, Poem XL, and Poem XLIII. Reprinted by permission of the publishers. from Complete Poems of Robert Frost, "Design," "The Oven Bird," "Reluctance," and "The Pasture." Copyright 1930, 1949, by Henry Holt and Co., Inc., copyright 1936, by Robert Frost. Reprinted by permission of the publishers. HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY from Poems: North and South by Elizabeth Bishop, "The Fish." Pub lished 1955, by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the publishers. Acknowledgments ix from Collected Poems: 1917-1952 by Archibald MacLeish, "Empire Builders," "The End of the World," and "Memory Green," published 1952, by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of the publishers. ALFRED A. KNOPF from Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens, "Connoisseur of Chaos," copyright 1942, 1954, by Wallace Stevens, "The Pediment of Appear ance," copyright 1947, 1954, by Wallace Stevens, "The Idea of Order at Key West," copyright 1935, 1954, by Wallace Stevens, and ''The Snow Man," and "Anecdote of Men by the Thousand," copyright 1931, 1954, by Wallace Stevens. Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. from Selected Poems by John Crowe Ransom, "Piazza Piece," copy right 1927, 1945, by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the publishers. LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY for "After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes" by Emily Dickinson, copyright 1929, by Martha Dickinson Bianchi. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown & Co. from Verses from 1929 On by Ogden Nash, "More About People," copyright 1931, by Ogden Nash. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown & Co. LIVERIGHT PUBLISHING CORPORATION from The Collected Poems of Hart Crane, "At Melville's Tomb," "Voyages," (I, II, and III), copyright 1933, by Liveright, Inc. Re printed by permission of Liveright Publishers, New York. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY from Collected Poems by William Butler Yeats, "To the Rose Upon the Rood of Time," "The Lover Mourns for the Loss of Love," "He Bids His Beloved Be at Peace," "The Folly of Being Comforted," "Adam's Curse," "The Wild Swans at Coole," "Her Praise," "A Dialogue of Self and Soul," "The Cat and the Moon," "Byzantium," and "Sailing to Byzantium." Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. from Collected Poems by Marianne Moore, "Wood Weasel" and "The Mind Is an Enchanted Thing." Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. from A Treasury of Russian Verse, Yarmolinsky, editor, "Improvisa tion," by Boris Pasternak, tr. Babette Deutsch. Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. from Collected Poems by Thomas Hardy, "The Oxen," and "Her Dilemma." Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. from Collected Poems by Vachel Lindsay, "The Eagle That Is For gotten." Reprinted by permission of The Macmillan Company. x Acknowledgments NEW DIRECTIONS from The Teeth of the Lion by Kenneth Patchen, "The Origin of Baseball," copyright 1942, by New Directions. Reprinted by permission of New Directions. from New British Poets, Kenneth Rexroth, editor, "On the Pilots who Destroyed Germany in the Spring of 1945" by Stephen Spender. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission of New Directions. from The Selected Writings of Paul Valery, "Helen, the Sad Queen," tr. Janet Lewis, copyright 1950, by New Directions. Reprinted by per mission of New Directions. from Selected Poems by Muriel Rukeyser, "Who in One Lifetime," copyright 1951, by Muriel Rukeyser. Reprinted by permission of New Directions. from Personae by Ezra Pound, "A Pact," and "The Spring" copyright 1926, by Ezra Pound. Reprinted by permission of New Directions. from The Cantos by Ezra Pound, "Canto XVII," copyright 1934, 1937, 1940, 1948, by Ezra Pound. Reprinted by permission of New Directions. from Collected Earlier Poems of William Carlos Williams, "The Yachts" and "Flowers by the Sea," copyright 1938, 1951, by William Carlos Williams. Reprinted by permission of New Directions. from Collected Poems by Dylan Thomas, "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower," "Fern Hill," "In My Craft or Sullen Art," "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London," and "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," copyright 1952, 1953, by Dylan Thomas. Reprinted by permission of New Directions. from The Giant Weapon by Yvor Winters, "By the Road to the Air- Base," copyright 1943, by New Directions. Reprinted by permission of New Directions. W. W. NORTON COMPANY from Translations from the Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, tr.