TOP45-DES42
This Old Poem #45:
The Poets Laureate Special Edition #5:
Richard Wilbur’s Signatures
Copyright © by Dan Schneider, 1/19/03
‘Will-Bur!’
was the sound often heard in the old TV sitcom Mr. Ed, bellowing from the
titular horse toward his owner, especially when the equus was peeved at him. Of
course, Wilbur was a smiling idiot- not too unlike the hero of this opining.
Yes, Richard Wilbur was American Poet Laureate from 1987-1988. So what?
In the 1950s
he gained fame as 1 of the leading neo-fos of Modern Poetry. What’s a neo-fo?
These are the folk who believe that ‘real poetry’ must adhere to classical
dictates & have a formal structure & thema. Unfortunately this has often
meant style over substance- this being true of both RW’s corpus & that of
the neo-fos in general. Whether essaying a sonnet, a villanelle, a sestina, a
pantoum, etc. RW would consistently show that he had reasonable competence
formally- but absolutely nothing to say. It’s amazing how little a purview on
the cosmos RW has in his poetry. His work almost seems to be that of someone
emergent from a time machine & trying to convince the world of the uniquity
of his neo-fo razzmatazz.
In later
years RW did what most budding DWM poetasters do: he went ‘Eastern’- or Zen,
if you prefer. He discovered….c’mon, you know what mamby-pamby MFA-fed
literatistas lose their loads over….the haiku! RW has played around with the
haiku in more than just its singular form. Trust me, there is no singular haiku
that I would bother writing an essay on. But RW has written poems that employ
the haikuvian 5-7-5 syllabic format. 1 of his better known poems is the titular
poem. Let’s look at what it shares in common with the haiku, what it does not
share, & what else he has done with it all.
Signatures
False Solomon's Seal—
So called because it lacks a
Star-scar on the heel,
And ends its arched stem
In a spray of white florets,
Later changing them
To a red, not blue,
Spatter of berries—is no
Falser than the true.
Solomon, who raised
The temple and wrote the song,
Wouldn't have dispraised
This bowed, graceful plant
So like an aspergillum,
Nor its variant
With root duly scarred,
Whose bloom-hung stem is like the
Bell-branch of a bard.
Liking best to live
In the deep woods whose light is
Most contemplative,
Both are often found
Where mandrake, wintergreen, and
Dry leaves strew the ground,
Their heads inclining
Toward the dark earth, one blessing
And one divining.
OK- the
commonality? The 5-7-5 syllabic form. What else? Well, not much. I mean, there
is some nature imagery. What’s not in common? Well, the bad dangling line
breaks- no good haiku does this. I mean- a haiku cannot demand a bad line break
for the rhyme- so why is it so difficult for RW, & 1000s of other
poetasters, to realize this? The very infusion of rhyme not only breaks the
classical haiku form (which can be done, if done well), but almost invites the
poor word choices. Also the sustained narrative. What else is there? Well, he
does have some nice numerology going on: haikus are 3 lines, 3 x 3 = 9- the # of
stanzas, 9 x 3 = 27, the # of lines. But the actual poem, aside from the
numerology? I’ve underlined the clichés- abysmal is the word. Some are
stand-alone clichés- what is enunciated, while others are specific to the
‘flower poem’ theme: the arched stem, the spray of flowers, contemplation,
& leaves strewing the ground- these being thematic clichés. The title is
meant to underscore this poem’s attempt at depth. The plural hinting at
commonalities to be found in those things spoken of, as well as those implied.
This is a piece of tripe on a clichéd subject- expounding on a flower,
& ends with the horrid cliché of a deep moment. You’re really
moved- ain’t you?
Let’s
rewrite this:
Often Found
False Solomon's Seal—
so called because white florets,
red, not blue. The true
Solomon, who raised
the temple and wrote the song,
wouldn't have this plant,
its variant, root
bloom-hung stem, mandrake. Their heads
inclining and divining.
The new title
is taken from a discarded line, & is more original, & less pompous than
the original’s. We get that this is a poem on a flower by line 2- this theme
is so familiar that any reader of poetry is already lugging around most of the
clichés the original so unnecessarily foists. But instead of steering us toward
a predictable end we get a poem 1/3 the original’s length, while also keeping
the numerology of 3. Yet this poem is so much richer. We don’t need a total
description- just a hint will suffice. & look how the poem ends. The
inclining & divining, which in the original is a banal religious moment. has
now been dramatically transformed in to a singular moment which can be seen in
the clichéd manner, but also as sheer description- which ties back to the new
title, meaning that such acts often occur in nature- a much more intriguing
thought, & ending. The plodding end rhymes & poor line breaks have been
replaced by tighter lines, & a music brought foth by alliteration,
assonance, & internal rhymes that come quickly. The excessive need to
describe, in the original, is now merely stark description- a plainer, more
haikuvian speak.
Yet, this
approach to culling the worst of formalism, & doing nothing with it is this
PL’s forte. Let’s gander at his bio:
RW was born in 1921 in NYC. He edited his college newspaper in 1942. He
served in the European theater of WW2. He went to Harvard & got an M.A. in
1947- the year his first book was published. He taught at Wesleyan University,
founding Wesleyan University Press- the poetry series that plagued modern
poetry with such sub-stellar brown dwarves as Robert Bly, James Wright, James
Dickey, Richard Howard, & others. In 1987 snagged the Poet Laureateship of
the U.S., yet RW has remained a neo-fo, aligning himself as an heir to Wallace
Stevens, claiming to have poems rich in diction, urbane, yet formal &
incredibly dull. His 3rd book, Things of This World (1956),
won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
RW became the leading light of the neo-fo movement in the 1950s &
60s. Even as he butted heads with the Confessionalist & Beatnik
propagandists, RW won a coterie of devoted, if myopic, cultists. The titular poem
has had its share of apologiae. Apologists gush over its absolute uniquity- even
as the 27 line original is larded with- um, 9 clichés, plodding end rhymes,
& forced word choices due to the rhyme scheme. This is, of course,
attributed as extraordinarily skilled. Critic Thomas Carr praises the poem in
this manner: ‘apprehended by this most original poet's extraordinary close
looking at small natural phenomena, are made meaningful through unexpected
associations with the largest human concerns. And all of this in the context of
a tactful, self-effacing presentation.’ OK, to be self-effacing means be
modest- that is the poet does not want to draw attention to himself or the
poem’s artifice. How does he do that with cliché & poor music? Hmmm….Of
course, these sorts of words are routinely used in kiss-ass reviews that mean
nothing. But it sounds like the poet must be doing something remarkable to have
such a critically non-sequitured term hurled at the reader. Look also at the
attempt to subliminally indoctrinate 1 to the idea that this poet & critic
are deep: apprehended, original (yes, clichés are always original),
extraordinary, natural, phenomena, meaningful, unexpected, associations,
concerns, context, tactful, self-effacing. Yet, this snippet says absolutely
nothing- read alone you would be clueless as to RW’s strengths &
weaknesses as a writer. Excelsior! (See, I can toss big words around, too- but
with humor!)
TC later confesses that he was bowled over by the poem because it was
presented to him as a Xmas card, ‘handsome type on special paper, with a
colored drawing of a blooming stem of False Solomon's Seal. Though many
gardeners and flower lovers are familiar with both Solomon's Seal and False
Solomon's Seal, I had never encountered either of these wildflowers—or if I
had, while walking in woods, I hadn't known their names.’ Yet, despite the
poem’s execrable dullness & plodding, TC raves: ‘a three-beat meter
quickly made itself felt and would contribute powerfully to the poem's
musicality. Only in the final stanza, as the poem achieved its culmination,
would the first and third lines be felt clearly as two-beat lines, providing a
closure both modest and firm.’ Sorry Charlie, er- Tommy,
but RW does hew close to the haikuvian form- the ‘beat’ TC senses is
of his own desire to impose strictures on a bad poem by his hero. TC then tries
to explain the poem: ‘What is False Solomon's Seal? How is it identified?
How does it differ from a variant, the "true" Solomon's Seal? What are
the signatures of the two "deep woods" flowers?
The poet lists them. The heal, or root, of False Solomon's
Seal is different from the heal of Solomon's Seal because it does not have a
star-shaped marking which resembles the six-pointed symbol associated with King
Solomon. Then, False Solomon's Seal has red berries rather than blue ones.
Finally, its flowers form like a cloud of tiny droplets rather than as
bell-shaped blooms. (I learned these things from a dictionary and illustrations
in a book on wild- flowers.) But the two flowers are equally "true."
Their differences give neither flower precedence, we learn, as the poet
identifies each with a high calling—a priestly vocation for one, a vocation as
prophet and poet for the other.
The identification is made by an
astonishing leap backward to Biblical times where King Solomon himself is
recognized in each of these roles as the person "who raised the temple and
wrote the song." The builder of the Temple in Jerusalem and the traditional
poet of the Songs of Solomon "wouldn't have dispraised" either of the
flowers bearing his name.’
TC drones on in this fashion. You see, he does not trust his readers to
discern this most manifest poem. Look at how many words he uses to discern the
obvious. Of course, nothing is uttered of the actual phraseology being
atrocious. Later, TC conflates this poem with William Blake’s visionary
nature. He ends his musing with this gem of critical penilingus: ‘Richard
Wilbur's tone in the poems looked at here is more modest, but the utterance is
as intense. The bard we hear speaks quietly, but the extraordinary care with
which he organizes his rhythms, syllables, and symbols conveys an equal
earnestness. Few poets have brought home such a harvest from a flowered spot in
deep woods or a field of cornstalks.’ Note the use of subliminal code
words, with nothing of note really being uttered.
Fellow producer of bad verse, Donald Hall once opined, ‘The typical ghastly
poem of the fifties was a Wilbur poem not written by Wilbur, a poem with tired
wit and obvious comparisons and nothing to keep the mind or the ear occupied.’
Reread the last ½ of that statement & you have a description of RW’s
original- to a T. Of course, DH, as usual, was whiffing on the real target of
those disses. Fortunately, RW’s verse has been attacked critically, but for
all the wrong reasons- because of its neo-fo status, & his lack of dealing
with the real world- aka being apolitical- a mortal sin in this PC
Elitist Purgatory of the last few decades. Other critics have chided him with
what is known, to some, as the John Ashbery critique: ‘Among minor poets he
is allowed to be most major, but among major poets he is not even considered the
most minor.’ Yet, I guess there is something to be said for such petty
sniping- at least with neo-fos the Academic hierarchy can exhibit
some spleen. But I can do better- to hell with the lot of them. RW- please wake
me when he’s dead!
Final Score: (1-100):
Richard Wilbur’s Signatures:
45
TOP’sOften Found: 85
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