Re: Berryman (for Tim)



Peter J Ross wrote:

On Fri, 10 Feb 2006 20:01:23 GMT, Randy Scop <"
rscop"@lanternslides.net> wrote in rec.arts.poems:



Peter J Ross wrote:


[...] A hoofed pikeman trots behind.
His pike's claw-hammer mocks - in duplicate, inverted -
The pocked, ribbed, soaring crescent of his horn.
A scapegoat aged into a steer; boar-snouted;
His great limp ears stuck sidelong out in air;
A dewlap bunched at his breast; a ram's-horn wound
Beneath each ear; a spur licked up and out
From the hide of his forehead; bat-winged, but in bone;
His eye a ring inside a ring inside a ring
That leers up, joyless, vile, in meek obscenity -
This is the devil. Flesh to flesh, he bleats
The herd back to the pit of being. [...]

- Randall Jarrell (from /The Knight, Death, and the Devil/)



THE METEORITE

Star, that looked so long among the stones
And picked from them, half iron and half dirt,
One; and bent and put it to her lips
And breathed upon it till at last it burned
Uncertainly, among the stars its sisters---
Breathe on me still, star, sister.

---Randall Jarell

Scaling small rocks, exhaling smog,
gasping at game-scents like a dog,
now light as pollen, now as white
and winded as a grounded kite -
I watched the lovers occupy
every inch of earth and sky:
[...]

- beginning of /Central Park/ by Robert Lowell

The first one to quote Mark van Doren loses. Heh.

Now, damn it! You've thrown down the gauntlet! I was just thinking of
posting one of Mark Van Doren's poems. Now I *have* to. So, I guess I
lose. :-D


THERE WAS A CAT THAT CAME


There was a cat that came
One winter to our door.
Every day he came there,
Wild-eyed and thin,
And ate the meat we gave him;
But never walked in.

Never all that winter,
No matter how we coaxed,
Did he as much as promise
That some day he would---
Oh, there were ways he might have
Had he not been afraid

Of something so much older
Than anything we knew,
And wilder, that one day
We said he was a witch.
He listened; and he never
Came again to his dish.

---Mark Van Doren


One of my favorite movies is Quiz Show. The guy who played Mark Van Doren
was very good. But I've nothing to compare his portrayal to. I've never
seen even a film clip of Van Doren.

Mark Van Doren was probably John Berryman's most important mentor. I
think it's fair to say that it was he who first recognized Berryman's
budding genius. And the two continued to correspond over the years, but
Van Doren, like many of Berryman's other friends, eventually became weary
of the friendship. Berryman had a way of unintentionally wearing people
down.







PJ "there are two Rs in 'Jarrell'. Trust me on this." R :-)
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