THE BOOK OF IRISiiAMERICAN from the Eighteenth Century to the Present editedby DANIEL TOBIN University of Notre Dame Press Notre Dame, Indiana CONTENTS Introduction: Irish American Poetry and the Question of Tradition xxxiii PART ONE. A FLUENT DRIFT GEORGE BERKELEY (1685-1753) Verses on the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America 3 MATHEW CAREY (1760-1839) (from) The Porqupiniad 5 JAMES ORR (1770-1816) Song Composed on the Banks of Newfoundland 10 THOMAS BRANAGAN (1774-1843) (from) Avenia 12 JAMES MCHENRY (1785-1845) The Haunts of Lame 29 SARAH HELEN WHITMAN (1813-1878) Don Isle 31 HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862) I Am the Little Irish Boy 33 WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892) Old Ireland 35 ALICE CARY (1820-1871) The Bridal Veil 36 Snowed Under 38 CHARLES G. HALPINE (1829-1868) (from) On Raising a Monument to the Irish Legion 39 JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY (1844-1892) At Fredericksburg 41 The Exile of the Gael 43 Crispus Attucks 45 JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE (1847-1908) Persepolis 50 Netchaieff 51 DANIEL O'CONNELL (1848-?) Monterey 53 The Workers 54 JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY (1849-1916) John Boyle O'Reilly 56 MAURICE FRANCIS EGAN (1852-1924) Maurice De Guerin 57 LOUISE IMOGENE GUINEY (1861-1920) Gloucester Harbor 58 An Epitaph for Wendell Phillips 60 Two Irish Peasant Songs 60 The Wild Ride 62 Monochrome 63 KATE MCPHELIM CLEARY (1863-1905) The Fettered 64 EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON (1869-1935) Shadrach O'Leary 65 A Song at Shannons 66 The Dark Hills 66 The Sheaves 67 PADRAIG O'HEIGEARTAIGH (1871-1936) Ochon! A Dhonncha (My Sorrow, Donncha) 68 viu PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR (1872-1906) John Boyle O'Reilly 72 PART TWO. MODERN TIDE LOLA RIDGE (1873-1941) (from) The Ghetto 75 Brooklyn Bridge 80 The Edge 81 To Larkin 82 (from) Death Ray 83 ROBERT FROST (1874-1963) The Cow's in the Corn 84 OLIVER ST. JOHN GOGARTY (1878-1957) To a Friend in the Country 86 WALLACE STEVENS (1879-1955) Our Stars Come from Ireland 87 The Irish Cliffs ofMoher 89 PADRAIC COLUM (1881-1972) Hawaiian 90 A Rann of Exile 91 JOHN GOULD FLETCHER (1886-1950) (from) Sand and Spray: A Sea Symphony 92 (from) Elegy in a Civil War Graveyard 94 SHAEMUS O'SHEEL (1886-1954) They Went Forth to Battle hut They Always Fell 95 ROBINSON JEFFERS (1887-1962) Continent's End 96 Shane O'Neill's Cairn 97 The Broadstone 97 Antrim 98 Iona: The Graves of the Kings 99 An Irish Headland 100 The Stone Axe 100 Carmel Point 103 Patronymic 103 MARIANNE MOORE (1887-1972) The Fish 105 The Pangolin 107 Spenser's Ireland 110 ERNEST WALSH (1895-1926) Irish 113 Saint Patrick's Day, 1926 116 Poem 117 Poem for a Negro Voice 118 LOUISE BOGAN (1897-1970) Medusa 120 Women 121 Cassandra 122 Hypocrite Swift 122 Zone 123 HORACE GREGORY (1898-1982) Longface Mahoney Discusses Heaven 125 Among the Shades I Heard My Father's Father 127 (from) Fortune for Mirabel 128 Seascape at Evening: Cape Ann 129 On a Celtic Mask by Henry Moore 130 ROBERT FRANCIS (1901-1987) The Celt 131 Hermit 131 Ireland 132 Cromwell 133 Sf. Brigid's 133 KAY BOYLE (1902-1992) A Poem of Gratitude 136 The New Emigration 137 To America 139 ROBERT FITZGERALD (1902-1985) Phrase 140 Atlantic Song 141 History 142 BRIAN COFFEY (1905-1995) from Missouri Sequence Nightfall, Midwinter, Missouri 144 Muse, June, Related 150 Missouri, Midsummer, Closure 152 PHYLLIS MCGINLEY (1905-1978) June in the Suburbs 155 Blues for a Melodeon 156 Louis MACNEICE (1907-1963) Last before America 157 JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN (1908-2003) Mr. Mahoney 158 First Woman 159 Voyage 160 THEODORE ROETHKE (1908-1963) Gob Music 161 The Shy Man 163 CHARLES OLSON (1910-1970) Pacific Lament 164 Enniscorthy Suite 165 The Grandfather-Father Poem 168 J.V. CUNNINGHAM (1911-1985) Agnosco Veteris Vestigia Flammae 1 "You Have Here No Otherness" 175 Montana Fifty Years Ago 176 CZESLAW MlLOSZ (19H-2OO5) To Robinson Jeffers 177 XI JOHN BERRYMAN (1914-1972) (from) The Dream Songs 179 RANDALL JARRELL (1914-1965) A Rhapsody on Irish Themes 185 JAMES LAUGHLIN (1914-1997) Martha Graham 189 EUGENE MCCARTHY (1916-2005) No Country for the Young 190 THOMAS MCGRATH (1916-1990) Ode for the American Dead in Asia 192 The End of the World 193 Columbus 194 The Topography of History 195 Love in a Bus 197 GWENDOLYN BROOKS (1917-2000) Bronzeville Woman in a Red Hat 198 ROBERT LOWELL (1917-1977) For Eugene McCarthy 201 Milgate 202 REED WHITTEMORE (1919- ) The Storing of the Soul 204 Let It Blow 205 ANN DARR (1920- ) Gaelic Legacy 207 Flying the Zuni Mountains 209 JAMES SCHEVILL (1920- ) For the Old Yeats 211 DANIEL BERRIGAN (1921- ) The Big Wind 212 Dachau Is Now Open for Visitors 213 Immanence 213 Xll HAYDEN CARRUTH (1921- ) Her Song 214 ALAN DUGAN (1923-2003) The So-Called Wild Horses of the Water 215 Mockery Against the Irish Censorship 216 Sailing to Jerusalem 217 On Voyage 218 Note: The Sea Grinds Things Up 218 JOHN LOGAN (1923-1986) At Drumcliffe Churchyard, County Sligo 220 Dublin Suite: Homage to James Joyce 222 JAMES SCHUYLER (1923-1991) Our Father 228 Poem 230 Salute 231 Louis SIMPSON (1923- ) The Peat-Bog Man 232 The Middleaged Man 233 PHILIP WHALEN (1923-2002) Homage to St. Patrick, Garcia Lorca, & the Itinerant Grocer 234 PADRAIC FIACC (1924- ) Our Father 235 Brendan Gone 236 Old Poet 237 A.R. AMMONS (1926-2001) The Pieces of My Voice 240 Hymn 241 Expressions of Sea Level 242 Passage 245 Easter Morning 246 Night Finding 249 Feel Like Traveling On 250 ROBERT CREELEY (1926-2005) Theresa's Friends 251 An Irishman's Lament on the Approaching Winter 252 Water 252 For Ted Berrigan 253 America 254 For My Mother: Genevieve Jules Creeley 254 FRANK O'HARA (1926-1966) A Note to Harold Fondren 259 Walking with Larry Rivers 260 On a Passage in Beckett's Watt & About Geo. Montgomery 261 Ode: Salute to the French Negro Poets 261 The Day Lady Died 263 GALWAY KINNELL (1927- ) Goodbye 264 (from) The Avenue Bearing the Initial of Christ into the New World 265 The Shoes of Wandering 269 LEO CONNELLAN (1928-2001) York Maine 274 Jazz 275 Oscar Wilde Lament 276 Dark Horses Rushing 278 X.J. KENNEDY (1928- ) In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day 280 Aunt Rectita's Good Friday 282 Celebrations After the Death of John Brennan 282 Ool About to Proclaim a Parable 286 THOMAS KINSELLA (1928- ) The Good Fight 287 JOHN MONTAGUE (1929- ) The Cage 299 A Muddy Cup 300 xiv A Christmas Card 303 A Flowering Absence 304 The Locket 307 All Legendary Obstacles 309 NED O'GORMAN (1929- ) Looking Upward at a Waterford Glass Chandelier 310 The Harvesters' Vase 311 Wittgenstein Reads Finnegans Wake in Provence: A Pauline Reflection 312 The Five Seasons of Obsession 312 DIANA O'HEHIR (1929- ) Spell for Not Dying Again 314 Empty God 315 Some of Us Are Exiles from No Land 315 KNUTE SKINNER (1929- ) The Cold Irish Earth 317 Location 318 The Beautiful White Cow 319 JOHN ENGELS (1931- ) Walking to Cootehill 321 Saying the Names 323 The Storm 325 TED BERRIGAN (1934-1983) Frank O'Hara 327 Heloise 328 CATHARINE SAVAGE BROSMAN (1934- ) Indian Paintbrush 329 Into the Wind 330 Sunset, with Red Rain 331 JAMES LIDDY (1934- ) A White Thought in a White Shade 333 I Hear the Wife of the Governor of Wisconsin Singing 334 Lines for Gareth and Janet Dunleavy 336 xv Wonderful Tennessee 338 Gold Set Dancing 339 JERI MCCORMICK (1934- ) The Magpies of Dublin 340 WALT MCDONALD (1934- ) My Father on His Shield 342 The Waltz We Were Born For 343 Heirlooms 344 TED MCNULTY (1934-1998) Good Sweat 346 The Immigrant 347 GEORGE STANLEY (1934- ) In Ireland 348 Veracruz 350 JEAN VALENTINE (1934- ) Pilgrims 351 The River at Wolf 352 To Ireland 352 Eighteen 353 ROBERT KELLY (1935- ) Haruspex 355 A Woman from Connaught 356 Towards the Day of Liberation 358 Poem for the Jews 360 ANNE KENNEDY (1935-1998) With One Continuous Breath 361 Burial Instructions 362 JAMES J. MCAULEY (1936- ) A Famine Field 364 Sea Writer: Sands 365 xvi PART THREE. FURTHER HARBORS BRENDAN GALVIN (1937- ) My Grandmother Steals Her Last Trout 369 A Holy Well 370 Carrowkeel 372 Hearing Irish Spoken 373 1847 374 Brother Francisco Anthony Eats an Apple yj RENNY GOLDEN (1937- ) Letter to Maryknoll 379 SUSAN HOWE (1937- ) (from) Hinge Picture 382 Closed Fist Withholding an Open Palm 383 SABRA LOOMIS (1938- ) The Alphabet of Singing 386 Etruscan 387 The Ship 388 MICHAEL COADY (1939- ) The Letter 389 PHILIP DACEY (1939- ) Inheriting the Gift of Blarney 393 Why Jesus Was Crucified 394 Portrait, with Lightning Rod 396 SUSAN DONNELLY (1939- ) The House of My Birth 397 The Tile Setter 399 The Gospel Singer Testifies 401 STEPHEN DUNN (1939- ) Regardless 402 The Resurrection 403 Oklahoma City 404 xvii Something Like Happiness 405 Afterlife 406 IRENE MCKINNEY (1939- ) Twilight in West Virginia: Six O'clock Mine Report 408 Visiting My Gravesite: Talbott Churchyard, West Virginia 409 JAMES MCMICHAEL (1939- ) (from) The Begotten 410 PETER COOLEY (1940- ) Ararat 415 The Soul 416 For Jay Gatsby 417 JOHN DONOGHUE (1940- ) Revision 418 Space 419 FANNY HOWE (1940- ) Seven Poems 420 FRED MARCHANT (1940- ) Directions Down 423 The Afterlife on Squaw Peak 424 St. John's Point 425 SEAN O'DWYER (1940- ) The Big House 427 TOM SEXTON (1940- ) The Alaska Range 432 Homecoming 433 RICHARD TILLINGHAST (1940- ) A Quiet Pint in Kinvara 434 A Backward Glance at Galway 435 KAREN BRENNAN (1941- ) My Mother and the Shepherdess 437 Grandfather 438 xvin TOM CLARK (1941- ) The Black Weir 440 Prolepsis 440 BILLY COLLINS (1941- ) Tourist: Dromahair, Co.