Miltonic Psalm Notations

March 19, 2018Simon Pettet

[ Portrait of John Milton –  (circa 1803) – by William Blake]

Allen Ginsberg’s 1980 Basic Poetics class (at Naropa) – continuing from here

AG: So, the next experiment I did (was) with Miltonics – Milton. This is my Miltonics. It was pretty sick Miltonics.  Because what it is,  is a total – 1949 -it’s a.. I think I was either coming or..  going to-and-fro from.. Bedlam – New York State Psychiatric Institute, and I was convinced that there was a supernatural consciousness that I had to achieve and I was not achieving it, and that I wouldn’t achieve … Read More

Sir John Suckling – 1

December 6, 2017Simon Pettet

[John Suckling (1609-1641)]

Allen’s 1980 Naropa class on Basic Poetics continues

AG: Let’s start in the anthology with Sir John Suckling  (page three forty-nine),  with the poem called “Song”, which my father used to stomp around the house and recite when he was  teaching it in high school all the time  because it’s a charming poem, and, apparently, it was very popular among the lyric poets of the 1920s as a model example of all-time great top-ten lyric out of English history. And it fitted in with the tuneful cynicism of the ‘twenties, like (the) Floradora Sextette and the Flappers, … Read More

Ginsberg Reads Milton – 2

October 26, 2017Simon Pettet

[William Blake – Satan Watching The Endearments of Adam and Eve (1808)]

Continuing from yesterday, 1980 audio recording of Allen Ginsberg reading from Book Nine of John Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”

AG: What I like is the sound of it. I’m imitating the sound of this in “Plutonian Ode”, that whole trick of name-dropping – Pluto and Demeter and..

where we are.. what line are we on? -“maugre” – meager – despite of – what is maugre? – “despite of” – yeah (Allen continues the reading here the poem)

“By night he fled, and at midnight returned/From compassing the … Read More

Ginsberg Reads Milton – 1

October 25, 2017Simon Pettet

We have already featured Allen Ginsberg reading the opening of Paradise Lost. Here, continuing in his 1980 Naropa “Basic Poetics’ class, he recites (and passingly annotates) long sections of Book Nine of the poem

The audio begins here, approximately fifty-seven and-three-quarter minutes in

AG: So it  (Book Nine of Paradise Lost)  begins:

“No more of talk where God or Angel guest/With Man, as with his friend, familiar us’d, To sit indulgent, and with him partake/Rural repast; permitting him the while/Venial discourse unblam’d. I now must change/Those notes to tragic; foul distrust, and breach Disloyal on the part of … Read More

Allen Ginsberg and Tom Schwartz on John Milton – 7

October 24, 2017Simon Pettet

[Charles Grignon after Francis Hayman, (1749) illustration to Book IX of John Milton’s Paradise Lost]

AG: So, the question is, what are we going to do with this big clunky Paradise Lost. I’d like to read a page and then turn it over to someone else to read some more. But, oratory, as oratory – “The Argument” – will somebody read “The Argument” here of Book 9. (The “Argument” here means, “this is the plot”..So,  page three-twenty-seven. The reason I’d like to begin.. to read the beginning pages at least is, he does take up, again, the subject of … Read More

Allen Ginsberg and Tom Schwartz on John Milton – 6

October 23, 2017Simon Pettet

[Portrait of John Milton painted by William Blake for William Hayley’s library in his home near Felpham, England]

Allen and Tom Schwarz have just previously been discussing the influence of Latin syntax on the poetry of John Milton.

AG: So okay, what’s the point of all this. The point is that the Latin has a different order of words, that you could have, that the…verb comes at the end and that the arrangement of the nouns, the subject and the object might be in a different order. So dig now this opening line here – like “Of arms and … Read More

Allen Ginsberg and Tom Schwartz on John Milton – 5

October 19, 2017Simon Pettet

[“Priscian, or the Grammarian”  (the Latin teacher) – marble cameo panel (dated 1437-1439), from the bell tower of Florence, Italy. – Luca della Robbia – Museo dell’Opera del Duomo]

Allen Ginsberg and Tom Schwartz on John Milton’s poetry continues 

AG: So, the other thing is, do you know anything about the syntax?  the Latin, the effect of Latin on his (Milton’s) syntax?

TS: No not really, except for a (quality) of many of these versions.

AG: Well, do you know Latin at all?

TS: No.

AG: Has anybody studied Latin? – Could you explain Latin? ..oh – {to two students] … Read More

Allen Ginsberg and Tom Schwartz on John Milton – 4

October 18, 2017Simon Pettet

Allen Ginsberg and Tom Schwartz 1980 Naropa class on John Milton continuing from here

TS: Let’s see …”But oh the heavy change, now thou art gone -/Now thou art gone and never must return!” }  –   If you can find those lines..  I’m not sure if it’s that…

AG: In “Lycidas“?

TS; In “Lycidas”.  This passage may be choral or chanted.as a Greek chorus, there’s no specific indication that it is solo, and there’s,,

AG: Okay, that’s line thirty..  that’s page three oh seven, line thirty-seven –  “But oh the heavy change, now thou art gone -/Now … Read More

Allen Ginsberg and Tom Schwartz on John Milton – 3

October 17, 2017Simon Pettet

[Bartholomeo Better (1639-1699) – oil on canvas – “Still Life With Instruments and Books”]

Allen Ginsberg’s 1980 Naropa class on John Milton (with assistance from Tom Schwartz) continues from here.

AG: I want to read one thing I’ve got here – [reads] –  “One needs scarcely elaborate on Milton’s use of music or on his father’s musical accomplishment, He had contact with the most prominent musicians in England (both in English and Italian) through his father with Nicholas Lanier,  (Thomas) Ravenscroft, (Alfonso) Ferrabosco, through the Comus production with Henry Lawes‘  – (he one long…he made … Read More

Allen Ginsberg and Tom Schwartz on John Milton – 2

October 12, 2017Simon Pettet

[William Blake – The Temptation and Fall of Eve. (1808) – illustration of Milton’s Paradise Lost]

Allen’s 1980 Naropa Basic Poetry class continues – {Allen is joined by his friend Tom Schwartz in a discussion of the poetics of John Milton and the opening of Paradise Lost]

AG: So..what’s it? – the first lines are. “Of Man’s first Dis-“, – (that’s.., the accent falls on the fourth syllable)  – Then  “Of that forbid-den tree”- (four syllables)  – “Brought death into the World” – (six. syllables) – “With loss of E-den” – (four syllables) – till one greater Man/Restore us, and … Read More