George Herbert Selections

A little out-of-order this – but here’s Allen’s George Herbert selection – remember George Herbert?)  (and some concluding remarks to his (April 1980) Naropa class)

AG: Okay, so next, I would have… (George) Herbert (page 285), check out Mr Herbert, similar to Herrick, as interesting as Herrick, but it’s a little more laden with God there, but some very amazing emotions come through, particularly, “The Collar”‘ (check out “The Collar”, the form), Check out the form of “Easter Wings” on page 285 as a precursor of shaped poetry, of what do you call it nowadays?  the…Concrete…pardon me? – Concrete poetry. “Easter Wings” page 285.. and, well, if you want a sample of that S & M thing you’ve got “Denial” (page 289),  “Virtue” (page 291), a really interesting verse-form, “Life” (page 292) “The Collar” (page 294), “The Pulley” (page 295) “Discipline” (page 298), and a really great one, (where he gets Shakespearean (page) 299 – the poem on Death – “Death thou wast once an uncouth hideous thing,/ Nothing but bones” – (it’s a great beginning) – “The sad effect of sadder groans:/ Thy mouth was open, but thou couldst not sing” –  (that’s a great beginning) . and then “Love” .

(and then we’ll go on to James Shirley – “The glories of our blood and state…”, that I was just quoting, about ‘Scepter and crown/ Must crumble down”. Shirley is great and then Thomas Carew‘s song has one of the prettiest cadences (page 301). So we’ll do that next time. We’re going very slow. We’ll probably get to (William) Blake  by the end of the term, probably.

Okay. And the next meeting Monday is in the auditorium? Is that where we had it last time? Is Jerry Rizzo (sic) still in town, does anybody know?- I think we’re still working on the iron heart death lyrics!

[Audio for the above may be heard here, beginning at approximately ninety-one minutes in and concluding at the end of the tape]

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