The Structure of the Ode

June 26, 2017Simon Pettet

Allen Ginsberg’s 1980 Basic Poetics class continues

AG: Strophe (is that pronounced strophee or strophe?)

Student: Strophee, I think

AG: Strophee – or Strophee/Antistrophee maybe – and  Epode. So the anti-strophe or antistrophe would be simply a mirror image of it, perhaps responding, responding to the first statement, and then the epode would be a variation on the form, (not necessarily the same but making use of the similar kinds of lines). And it’s good for certain kinds of formal poems, or occasional poems, or political poems. Like, I wrote Plutonian Ode (but I wasn’t paying attention to the … Read More

Pindaric Odes

June 22, 2017Simon Pettet

[ Pindar (c. 522 – c. 443 BC)]

AG:  So, “..since our dainty age/ Cannot endure reproof,/Make not thyself a page/To that strumpet, the stage/But sing high and aloof,/Safe from the wolf’s black jaw and the dull ass’s hoof “ (that’s the end of that poem (by Ben Jonson) “On Himself” – “Ode to Himself”) – “Safe from the wolf’s black jaw and the dull ass’s hoof” (A lot of elitist poets have always liked that line as being an acme of put-down of vulgar public – it’s on page two-six-two of the..

Then  you studied … Read More

Catching Up – Ben Jonson, John Donne)

June 20, 2017Simon Pettet

[Ben Jonson (1572-1637) & John Donne ( 1572-1631)

1980 -Allen was absent and unable to teach one week, so poet Dick Gallup took over his Naropa “Basic Poetics’ class. Allen, on his return, was eager to find out what happened.

AG: What happened with Dick (Gallup)? How was the class?

Student: It was funny

AG: What did you take up?

Student: Everything.. (John Donne),  (Ben) Jonson….

AG: Did he do the Ben Jonson poem on Shakespeare?

Student: No, no, he gave us some background about their lives.

AG: Good, because I don’t know anything about that.

Student He gave … Read More

Edward Herbert

May 25, 2017Simon Pettet

 

[Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Chirbury (1583-1648) ]

Continuing with Allen’s 1980 Naropa lectures, he seems here under the impression that he’s annotating further the poems of George [sic] Herbert, These next poems , however, are, in fact, from Herbert’s older brother, Edward Herbert, himself  (amongst other achievements) an accomplished poet.

AG: So, then, there’s…in an excellent book, Minor Poets of the 17th Century, an Everyman paperback. There’s a couple of funny things, there’s the little note to Ben Jonson (since we know Jonson reasonably well),  Jonson had translated Horace and learned a good deal from … Read More

More on Meters

April 24, 2017Simon Pettet

AG: So there’s tone and pitch and then there’s the long and short vowel, and then there’s a light and heavy accent. So there’s…  Actually, Greek meters did consist in there.. that’s something interesting, these guys, particularly (Ben) Jonson, knew Greek, Greek meters consisted, as modern classicists classify them, (modern classicists classify them, Greek professors classify them), as – stress, accent and quantity (and that’s a little confusing, what’s stress and what’s accent?) – But, usually.. the terminology which is used nowadays, which has been useful for Greek… terminology used for analyzing Greek poetics (which would be useful to … Read More

More Ben Jonson (“Queen and Huntress”)

April 20, 2017Simon Pettet

[Artemis with a hind, better known as “Diana of Versailles”. Marble, Roman artwork, Imperial Era (1st-2nd centuries CE). Found in Italy]

AG: Okay, well, the next.. next poem,  (Ben Jonson’s) “Queen and Huntress” is total silver horns, really, a meter that’s… this is, I guess, just.. this is the same rhythm as (William) Blake’s “Tyger, Tyger, basically, this is the trochaic meter (that I was pointing out here – [Allen again points to the blackboard ] – “Tyger/Tyger”, or, “Queen And/Hunt-ress”)  – Well, “Queen, and huntress, /chaste and fair” – Got that? – bomb-a bomb-a bomb-a ba –  … Read More

More Ben Jonson (“Our Beauties Are Not Ours”)

April 19, 2017Simon Pettet

[Chinese “life-like” robot, on display at the Tianjin Meijiang Convention Center, China, June 24, 2016 – Photograph via China Daily News]

More Ben Jonson…

AG: “Our beauties are not ours” – that’s really good – that other line following – “Our beauties are not ours” – It’s a great Buddhist line – We don’t own anything. We can’t claim anything. We can’t keep anything. ” Our beauties are not ours” is just the same as “Brightness falls from the air” – [from Thomas Nashe’s “In Time of Plague”] – Brightness falls from the air, it doesn’t stay … Read More

Ben Jonson (“Slow Slow Fresh Fount..”)

April 12, 2017Simon Pettet

AG:  So what do we want now? – (Ben Jonson’s) “Slow slow fresh fount” ,  Some of you here, What did you make of that? – Page two six-six – a couple of really pretty pieces of cadence (here) now.. I’ve never examined this song very carefully, except  a couple of times it’s really struck me as being real..  just totally lovely music..

“Slow slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears;/Yet slower yet, O faintly, gentle springs!/List to the heavy part the music bears” – So it’s all about music, actually – the” division” here (“Woe weeps out … Read More

Ezra Pound Cantos – LXXXI – 1

April 6, 2017Simon Pettet

[Henry Lawes (1595-1662), English composer] – “Lawes and Jenkyns guard thy rest”

Allen Ginsberg, on Ezra Pound in The Cantos….

AG: Now, look what Ezra Pound did with this. [sic- continuing with metrics]  Could.. this is.. just like the other one that you went over with Stanley (Lombardo) last term – “drop drop drop drop” (Ben Jonson’s “slow, slow fresh Fount“) – it’s one of the great classic ear pieces. So, in The Pisan Cantos, referring to the progress of English poetry, (a page that I read last term, when we sort of…  prefatory to going … Read More

Ben Jonson’s Metrics

April 3, 2017Simon Pettet

[ “Or have tasted the bag ‘o the bee?”]

Allen Ginsberg’s Basic Poetics class from 1980 continues from here. Allen, at this time, and throughout his Naropa teaching time, was interested in instilling a basic regard for the rudiments of poetry – metrical analysis – quantitative meter (see, for example, here, here and here) – Such matters lose somewhat in simple unalloyed transcription (it is for this reason that an accompanying audio is provided – see here) – Also, Allen makes much use of the blackboard on this occasion (something, again, obviously, unreproducible in the following notes). … Read More