Autobiography (1970) and Other
Selected Poems
Although
published only under LZ’s name, this is actually another collaboration with CZ,
consisting primarily of a selection of short poems accompanied by CZ’s musical
settings. CZ began composing music to short poems in 1940 (“Motet”, included in
I’s (pronounced eyes)) and by 1952 had done all the 22
settings to 18 poems that make up the bulk of Autobiography. In 1967 LZ was asked to write a brief biographical
statement, which became the short remarks distributed through Autobiography (Scroggins Bio 410). It is not clear when LZ first
conceived of this as a publishable project, but the introduction is dated 17
Feb. 1962, which was also the period during which the two were working on Catullus together and when LZ began
taking every opportunity to make public CZ’s collaborative efforts. Autobiography was published in an
attractive design, with the musical scores in light brown print, by Grossman in
1970, and has never been reprinted. A performance of Autobiography took
place in Lincoln Center, NYC on 31 March 1971, in which LZ’s reading of all the
poems was followed by a performance of CZ’s scores sung by professional singers
with LZ reading out the autobiographical prose passages as interludes. The
recording of this performance can be heard at PennSound.
The poems
included were all written between 1930 and 1952, but are not arranged in
chronological order.
The poems
are as follows:
Motet [Some Time]
Song 11 [55 Poems]
Song 8 (2
musical settings) [55 Poems]
#5 [Anew]
Song 22 [55 Poems]
Light:
#10 [Some Time]
Song 21 [55 Poems]
Song 16 [55 Poems]
Song 13 [55 Poems]
#36 [Anew]
A Song
for the Year’s End: #1 [Some Time]
#29 [Anew]
que j’ay
dit devant: #1 [Some Time]
So that
even a lover: #1 [Some Time]
Xenophanes
[Some Time]
“As to
how much” [Some Time]
To My
Valentines [Some Time]
Old [Some Time]
Other volumes of selected poems
In
addition to the Autobiography, LZ
and/or CZ made and published several selections of poetry during the 1960s.
Also in 1960 LZ made an interesting “Choice of Favorites” for an Academy of
American Poets publication, whose contents I will list below
16 Once Published
(Edinburgh, Scotland: The Wild Hawthorn Press, 1962)
This selection
made by CZ and apparently included an introduction consisting of excerpts from
“Poetry / for my son when he can read,” but at LZ’s request not bound into the
book and inserted loose-leaf (Booth 40).
Passing
tall (55 Poems)
Run on,
you still dead to the sound of a name (55
Poems)
PROP. LXI
(55 Poems)
It’s a
gay li – ife (55 Poems)
No One
Inn (55 Poems)
Che di lor suona su nella tua vita (Anew)
It’s hard
to see but think of a sea (Anew)
No it was
no dream of coming death (Anew)
Strange (Anew)
The world
autumn (Anew)
Xenophanes
(Some Time)
Air (Anew)
Shang Cup
(Anew)
An
Incident (Anew)
The green
leaf that will outlast the winter (Barely
and widely)
Ashtray (Barely and widely)
Found Objects (Georgetown, Kentucky: H.B. Chapin, 1964), A
Blue Grass Book.
The Ways
(After I’s)
Stratford-on-Avon
(Barely and widely)
The
Guests (Some Time)
Michtam (Some Time)
You
three: —my wife (Anew)
“One oak
fool box”; —the pun (Anew)
1892-1941
(Anew)
“Mantis”
(55 Poems)
“Specifically,
a writer of music” (55 Poems)
Song—3/4
time (55 Poems)
To my
wash-stand (55 Poems)
Poem
beginning “The” (55 Poems)
“A” Libretto (NY:
privately printed [mimeographed], 1965)
Composed
of selections from all movements of “A”
through “A”-17 plus “A”-20, except “A”-15; almost certainly made by CZ.
“Choice
of Favorites,” Poetry Pilot, Academy of American Poets (Jan. 1960):
4-14.
For this gathering, LZ chose favorite poems that in all but one case were
translated or adapted by himself and all of which are included in his previous
books.
William Shakespeare, from Pericles, the
Prologue to Act III spoken by Gower. LZ notes that he is using the 1st Quarto
text (a couple lines from this prologue are quoted in Bottom 422).
Homer, The Odyssey, Invocation of Book I
(LZ’s adaptation as it appears in TP 117 (7b) and at the conclusion of
“A”-12.261.123-20).
Xenophanes (in Some Time, CSP
123).
Catullus IV (CSP 246-247).
Catullus V (CSP 247).
Lucretius, from De Rerum Natura, Book V
(as adapted in “A”-12.165.1-19).
Machault, “Ballade: Plourères, dames” (in Anew, CSP 86-87).
Spinoza, Ethics and tractatus de
intellectus emendatione (various passages as adapted in “A”-12.174.8-175.3)
Psalms 16 (as adapted in “A”-12.144.7-22).
