Allen Ginsberg, 1991, on William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence continues from here
“The Owl that calls upon the Night/Speaks the Unbelievers fright”
So there’s some people like naturalists, the song of the owl – “Hoot Hoot Hoot” is, you know, is the mating song, you know what it is, or whatever song it is, whereas other people say, “Oh, there’s an owl, help! Frankenstein‘s coming up. The vampire, Dracula!”
Now, here’s one:
“He who shall hurt the little Wren/ Shall never be belovd by Men”
That’s a pretty good one. So, what kind of girl would go around smashing wrens, you know, throwing stones at a wren, and how could she relate with a human being anyway? And then,
“He who the Ox to wrath has movd/ Shall never be by Woman lovd”
Now that’s a great one. Some kind of guy that would go around abusing an ox, or making an ox angry, to be so provocative and so mean to a stupid ox that it would get the ox angry, how’s he going to treat a woman? If he’s so insensitive to this big helpful beast that’s under his power, how he’s going to deal with the feminine, how is he going to deal with his mate, how’s he going to deal with his girlfriend? This is the ultimate mockery of machismo, the ultimate mockery of male chauvinism, and it’s the nub of it all, really. He who’s insensitive won’t be, won’t get any sensitivity back, won’t … but it’s nice: “He who the Ox to wrath has movd/Shall never be by Woman lovd.” Now, every man wants to be, almost every man, wants to be loved, certainly. Every man-man wants to be loved by women, certainly. So that’s the highest thing you can attain if you’re a man-man-man – is to have a woman love you, and yet if you’re such a man-man-man that you go around kicking oxes and hitting them on the head and beating them and abusing them, you’re not going to get what you want. In other words, the very macho aggression that messes up your relations with the ox will certainly mess up your relations with a woman, and nobody could get near you. So, that’s a, that’s a very interesting one because it puts the whole sex complex together, or the whole love complex, sex complex, macho masculine and feminine principles together, and points out what is the center of it all, the heart of it all, which is compassionate sensitivity. Empathy, compassionate sensitivity, affection. Affection. Well, you’re not going to be affectionate to your girlfriend if you aren’t affectionate to your ox. Well, yeah! If you’re not affectionate, if you’re not affectionate you’re not affectionate. It’s as simple as that. If you’re affectionate, you’re affectionate; if you’re not affectionate, you’re not affectionate. And generally it’s pretty hard to compartmentalize affection. ‘Cause compartmentalized affection generally turns out to be manipulativeness. Which is another little notion. You know, if you’re compartmentalizing or separating out your affections and reserving your flattery for one and your affections for the one and then taking it out on the other, there’s always going to be a spat somewhere in the middle of it all.
“The wanton Boy that kills the Fly/ Shall feel the Spiders enmity?”
So, he’ll be scared of a spider, I guess. A spider kills a fly, generally, but the wanton.. but the boy who kills it wantonly without any purpose just to enjoy his power to go splat.
“He who torments the Chafers sprite/Weaves a Bower in endless Night”
I don’t know what a Chafer is. It’s a little bird?
Student: It’s a beetle.
AG: Ah. Okay. The spirit of the Chafer. He who torments the beetle’s spirit weaves a bower in endless night. So I guess it’s a beetle that weaves a little web or something; weaves its cocoon or beetle that weaves its nest in a tree. But weaves a bower in endless night. Well, he’s weaving himself in, like a closure of his own mind, so it’s endless night.
to be continued