Ginsberg on Shelley continues from here
AG: What else? What did you not cover? You had the “Ode to the West Wind,” didn’t you?
Student: Yes. (We) read through those ..
AG: Great. Last stanza “Mont Blanc.” Did you go through the whole of “Mont Blanc”?
Student: No.
AG: “Stanzas Written in Dejection..“, “(Ode to the) West Wind,” “Ode to Heaven,” “To Night,“ “When the lamp is shattered,” “Lines Written in the Bay of Lerici..“- is that… – ” A Defence of Poetry.” Okay. Well, there are a couple of other things that….
Student: How about … what about “Ozymandias“?
AG: Um, well, most people know it. You know “Ozymandias,” the sonnet? Everybody…. Well, there’s one thing that I did want to take up, the stanzas from “Hellas” – the choruses from “Hellas.“ Because there’s something really amazing about that – that’ s (page) seven-four-three. In the Norton it’s (page) seven-four-three. The play is “Hellas” and it’s choruses from “Hellas.” It’s 1822, so close on his death. Are those in the…? So I think it’s later than “Ode to the West Wind” …
Student: Yes.
AG: … and it’s later than “Adonais.”
Student: Yes.
AG: And “Hellas” is 1822. No, 1821 – 1821 is same year as the “West Wind,” as “Adonais.”
Student: Published 1822
AG: Well, published 1822, but on the left-hand side 1821.
AG: Has everybody got it? H-E-L-L-A-S, and it’ll be choruses from it. Those who have the complete Shelley will get stuck with the whole play. Is anybody lacking? You got it?
Student: I’ll just listen.
AG: Pardon me?
Student: I’ll just listen.
AG: Do you have a book?
Student: I’ve got one but it doesn’t have that in it.
AG: Could I see? Maybe pass it on and I’ll see if I can find it. Which one is this now?
..Oh, yes, Marius Bewley‘‘s book.
Student: It didn’t have … what was that first one we had?, “Dejection.”?
AG: Oh, “Dejection, an Ode.” (“Stanzas Written in Dejection”)
Student: Yeah.
AG: Yeah, well, they … well I guess they have … okay. Well, you can listen.
Student: You can sometimes pick up a little bit more if you just listen.
AG: Yeah.
Student: Yeah, it’s in there.
AG: Is that…?
Student: Here, you got it. I got another copy.
Student: Thank you.
AG: Is that two copies you got of that book? Which one is that?
Peter Orlovsky: I think he’s got yours.
AG: Oh, okay.
Oh, okay
“Worlds on worlds are rolling ever/From creation go decay,/Like the bubbles on a river/Sparkling, bursting, borne away./But they are still immortal/Who through Birth’s orient portal/And Death’s dark chasm hurrying to and fro,/Clothe their unceasing flight/In the brief dust and light/Gathered around their chariots as they go;/New shapes they still may weave,/New Gods, new Laws receive,/Bright or dim are they as the robes they last/On Death’s bare ribs had cast.” – (The robes on “Death’s bare ribs” would be their own lives, I guess. Or the “New shapes,” and “New Gods,” and “new Laws.”) – “A Power from the unknown God,/A Promethean Conqueror, came;/ Like a triumphal path he trod/The thorns of death and shame./A mortal shape to him/Was like the vapour dim/Which the orient planet animates with light;/Hell, Sin, and Slavery came/Like bloodhounds mild and tame,/ Nor preyed, until their Lord had taken flight..” – (That would be Christ, I guess) – “The moon of Mahomet/Arose, and it shall set,/ While blazoned as on Heaven’s immortal noon/The cross leads generations on…” – (That’s a very English view, actually. The Mahomet sun will set while the British cross and the English version of God will go on and on) – “Swift as the radiant shapes of sleep/From one whose dreams are Paradise/Fly, when the fond wretch wakes to weep,
That’s another echo of Shakespeare – Caliban’s speech – “Be not afeard, the isle is full of music, sometimes in my ears I hear a thousand twangling strings.” Then he’s got a line about how it’s as if the heaven’s “ope’d” to shower the music down till “when I woke I cried to sleep again.” “I cried to dream again.” “And when I woke I cried to dream again.”
… when the fond wretch wakes to weep,/And Day peers forth with her blank eyes;/So fleet, so faint, so fair,/The Powers of earth and air/Fled from the folding star of Bethlehem:/Apollo, Pan, and Love,/And even Olympian Jove/Grew weak, for killing Truth had glared on them;/ Our hills and seas and streams,/Dispeopled of their dreams,/ Their waters turned to blood, their dew to tears,/Wailed for the golden years..” – (So, actually, he’s regretting Christ’s triumph)
to be continued
Audio for the above can be heard here, beginning at approximately fifty-six minutes in and concluding at approximately sixty-two-and-a-quarter minutes in