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AN ORIGINAL POEM: AS THO UNTIL NOW SUCH A MUSIC IMPOSSIBLE, WITH A COMPARISON OP BRC77NING' S "A'BT VCGLER" AND ALLEN GINSBERG'S "TRANSCRIPTION OP ORGAN FUSIC" APPROVED: V essor suiting Professor Jhairman of Graduate Studies in English. l)eanK-&T the Graduate School VilV. Poster, Donald Allen, An Original Poem: As Tho Until Now Such a Music Impossible, with a Comparison of Browning's "Abt Yogler" and Allen Ginsberg 1 s "Transcription of Organ Music." Master of Arts, December, 1972, 65 pp., bibli- ography. The basic theme of the long poem is the gradual self- destruction of the city of Denton—as well as of the Southwest—with no apparent hope for a rebirth. The poem is interwoven with recurrent motifs: the music mentioned in the title, John B. Denton as a misguided seer, the highway as a symbol of both expansion and escape, Ever's Hardware Store as the final link to the past, fame as a means of escape, and Sam Bass as the conscience of the city. The poem builds to the all-important final passages involving Sam Bass, John B. Denton, and Jesse James, by gradually gathering together the various motifs. Fame is the first underlying motif and is used to link escape from the city with the creative forces, mentioning various figures from Denton's past—those who have escaped via fame and those who attempted to do so but could not. None of these figures Y^ere able to "sing," to introduce the music necessary-- the music of the heritage of John B. Denton and Sam Bass, as well as of the land itself—into the mainstream of Denton. The narrator of the poem then, in an effort to reach some valid conclusions about the city, begins a tour of Denton—past and present. He discovers that the city not only is in the wrong hands at the present but that it may never have been in the proper hands. And although the city is indeed "the hub of the universe," it is, none- theless, a stifled city—unconcerned about its past, merciless with its modern creative figures. The narrator, to reach this conclusion, uses several allusions to various poems, songs, movies, and people. The poem culminates with three major figures: Sam Bass, reborn to act as a chorus; Jesse James, a mere handy man in the modern world; and John B. Denton, the inveterate seer still preaching his gospel of expansion. Bass symbolises the past that still lives, that can be reborn yet; Jesse James represents the transitional figure, a man with a name as famous.as that of Bass but who is lost in the modern world, unable to understand the messages around him; and John B. Denton, unchanged, representative of the men in control who expand territories at any cost. To augment the poem, a short study of two other poems is included. The conclusions reached by the'two poems—that music is able to summon the heavens—somewhat correspond to the positions put forward in the long poem preceding the study. The original poem concluded, as did the poems in the study, that only certain men are called to create. But the narrator of the original poem more pessimistically concludes that such creators are ignored and are replaced by visionless men in power. AN ORIGINAL POEM: AS THO UNTIL NO?J SUCH A MUSIC IMPOSSIBLE WITH A COMPARISON OP BROWNING'S "A3T YOGLER" AND ALLEN GINSBERG'S "TRANSCRIPTION OP ORGAN MUSIC" THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS By Donald Allen Foster, B. A. Denton, Texas December, 1972 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PART I. AS THO UNTIL NOW SUCH A MUSIC IMPOSSIBLE 2 PART II. A COMPARISON OF BROWNING'S "ABT VOGLER" AND ALLEN GINSBERG'S "TRANSCRIPTION OF ORGAN MUSIC 60 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........... i 66 PART I AS THO UNTIL NOW SUCH A MUSIC IMPOSSIBLE febb insists on the 98th meridian as the turning point, as the gateway which swings open like a bardoor "between the plains and the eastern hills—what then Denton, on the 97th, a clue to its dynamics--a different dynamic from that advertised on absurd billboards outside town—home of the winds; they gobble in old hide- outs, change their skins and shake their moneymakers to different degrees— the 98th as the true dividing line, the true magnet, then Denton on its very outskirts, the magnetic pull slightly less—this then the cause of growth— once here impossible to leave--the pull of the 98th—this keeping the populus safe within its grounds—beyond, all points out, the trouble begins—mountainous cold--flat deserts—California insanities originally caused by fever—or to the north, northeast—swamps—open cold, straining cities—and on both sides the water inviting the sailors on out to the end—• Denton a stop then, a true settling, beyond which there is no reason to search-- Williams it took two hundred pages and more and it was only beginning Olson nearly two hundred that not 'finished either the life rechanneled from the obvious universal, red wheelbarrow, kingfishers, to the particular, the homecity as the universal within the poems but no farther than that only to re-emerge stronger on a higher level, Desert Music, the variable foot lordly and Isolate Satyrs the open field and Olson had the wrong city ' as he discovered too late As tho until now such a music impossible rock and roll on, up and down across, from, in and around every room every porchstep I960 and the Nomads with Denton's plugged guitars every man a rock and roil David lunden nee Furche football and Pontiacs—and yet Where the Sky Meets the Sea Fairpark, the Dallas bigtime for those two weeks over the radio Bill Ham Dream On Cry Cry My Darling but most of all Big Lucas because, on Dot records, it was Pat Boone whistling to end the three minute rumble (Boone himself who briefly attended a city college, remembered in parades occasionally with American Football League heroes uncertain of the wind— who opened his restaurant and was given the royal screwing, now a bank where the brown gravy flowed once thick as the Rio Leon—but most important of all, who in his noted year in school introduced Roy Orbison to Sun Records and Ooby Doobie or John Cundiff and his purple shirts and dyed black hair You Can't Make Me Cry, in his Hank Williams chest fever b/w Mojo Workin' copped from Lightnin' Hopkins—WRR Kats Karav-an Ray Peterson who broke on through kicked open the big time one of the stringers for death songs Tell Laura I Love Her it settles into rock and roll no matter how it's ground but then it re-emerges in all forms orchestrated and danced upon (Giuffre practiced here in the forties, still mentioned in music appreciation classes by those who know this then jazz in the legend Lester Bowie once at the university Bob Dorough it's rumored, M. Peterson jamming with Fharoah Sanders expands into rock and roll—Chessmen Briks after the Beatles tape loops "broken memories Cindy's brother's group, the G-'s cleancut as hell but unsaleable from the rock cup dipped over the swelling folk craze in the fists of Dylan thrown flat against the concrete—Suzanne on KDIT local radio, tape of her two songs—now midground with her analyses of Bram Stoker, Herbie Mann replacing Henske and the others but Fromholz writing literate Colorado-Texas songs from University of Texas in exile—Frummox— trilogies of Kopperl, Fort Worth and Cleburne—evading Denton as Moyers evades it, as McMurtry evades it, Perskin admits it to return with Shiva's Headband to spread the armadillo word from Austin, for no other reason This "boiling for months Thunderbolt cranked by soul Crackling to get out Housebroken on the, page You get it Not to imply, not to insist on Denton as anything except resting place for anonymity a safe place to be killed the moon thru the blinds as honest as possible—it looks the same here as in Killeen maybe not San Francisco Santa Barbara thru the fog but still the Denton moon father, son, and holy wimp the music is incidental in a state of music blind lemon, lightnin', black ace, ernest tubb, sir douglas, fever tree, bruce channel, rondels, freddy fender, mouse, ornette, handy, stardust cowboy the list of course endless 8 Rather, to breathe its air As air, to fling it loose To pop the eardrums like Lost poetry from Teski-Zeiti First mimeo sheet, political Tie-ins, yet there at unexpected Moments "before Dallas Kotes Hawked on every sidewalk, There, at that time, in that space With Gino Clays, Spencer Perskin Saint-Eden—they have all fled In one way or another They got out somehow or were Caught in the hills and wasted Sheldon the editor now wizard In residence at headshop, there In this time, with organic food Communes, and busts--the rag Sheets reappearing—blooms With rust at the center—crap Passed from gun to gun as Poetry--nothing other than warmed Over McCall's with certain words Replaced by revolution while The wages rot at $270 a month, Breaking back and falling off Production--no revolution here— But the occasional flames The pirate presses running Unknowingly attended "by secretaries Of English Department Mysterious handouts with anonymous G-ag lines for authors, titles The streets do not burn Every man a rock and roll Johnson told Moyers to get his ass in high gear "If you want to amount to anything you'd better shag it down to the university of texas"—and he went McMurtry alive and animate in classes on badmen of the west writing segments of Horseman Pass By for student publication—then leaving fast for Kesey, U.T., and two movies later has alienated old professors for his criticism of j.

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