A Test of Poetry (1948)
Commentary
Corman, Cid. The
Practice of Poetry: Reconsiderations of Louis Zukofsky's A Test of Poetry.
Brattleboro, VT and Kyoto, Japan: Longhouse and Origin, 1998.
Creeley,
Robert. “Foreword” to A Test of Poetry.
Wesleyan UP, 2000. vii-x.
DuPlessis, Rachel Blau. "A Test of Poetry and Conviction" (2004 Online).
Finkelstein, Norman. "Comparisons
and Criteria: Testing the Test of Poetry"
(2004 Online).
Hamilton, Colleen J. “History as Medium, Media
as History: Louis Zukofsky’s A Test of Poetry.” New Definitions of
Lyric: Theory, Technology, and Culture. Ed. Mark Jeffreys. NY: Garland
Publ., 1998. 77-98.
Niedecker, Lorine. “A Review of Louis Zukofsky’s
A Test of Poetry.” Capital Times (Madison, WI) 18 December
1948.
The
origins of this project go back to 1934 when LZ edited a never-published
volume, A Workers Anthology, but
subsequently mostly of the selections for that anthology were absorbed into A Test of Poetry (Scroggins Bio 146-148, see also DuPlessis Online).
For the contents and further details on A Workers Anthology, see below.
In letters to both EP and WCW, LZ indicates that he finished an initial version
of A Test of Poetry by 1937 and the
manuscript is dated 2 Aug. 1937, but he had no luck finding a publisher and
continued to tinker with it until at least until Oct. 1941 (see WCW/LZ 295). In the end the volume was
self-published in 1948 at CZ’s instigation by the resurrected The Objectivist
Press, designating the address of the press as the Zukofskys’ home at 30 Willow
Street, Brooklyn. There were further revisions or additions at the final stage
(see WCW/LZ 399), which included the
incorporation of a passage from WCW, Paterson
II (III.23a), one of LZ’s own poems (I.16c), as well as adaptations from Homer
because of EP’s refusal to grant permission. Aside from EP’s version of Homer
in Canto I and passages from “Homage to Sextus Propertius” (see WCW/LZ 397-398), LZ had also hoped to
include three poems by Emily Dickinson, “To fill a gap“ (#546), “Revolution is
the Pod” (#1082) and “It was not Saint” (#1092), but her estate demanded a $25
fee LZ was unwilling to pay (Penberthy 152-153, WCW/LZ 398). TP was
republished in 1952 by Routlege & Kegan Paul (London), in 1964 by Jargon/Corinth
Books, in 1980 by Celia Zukofsky (CZ Publications) and most recently by
Wesleyan UP, 2000.
Notes to A
Test of Poetry
For the
most part the following notes indicate cross-references with other LZ works.
Part I
Epigraph:
from Michael Faraday (1791-1867), Experimental Researches in Electricity (1844-1855); LZ owned the Everyman
Library edition (1940) of these lectures, also qtd. in epigraph to Part III and
in Bottom 205-206.
1c For hell we launched…: this
passage from Homer, Odyssey XI is adapted by LZ and continues in the
following exhibit 2a. LZ used this version, somewhat abridged, in
“A”-12.215.24-216.2, 218.6-8, 221.22-23 and 223.11-15. See also III.7b.
2a And paid our respects…: see note
at I.1c.
5a Mentula: first line alluded
to at “A”-8.50.9. Mentula means prick or cock. See “A”-18.390.21.
9b love trouthe and . . wed thy folk:
qtd. “A”-13.284.3.
11b When the sheriffe see gentel Robin wold
shoote, held / Up both his hands: qtd. “A”-8.50.17.
12c So distribution should undo excess:
qtd. “A”-8.50.15.
13a Here the anthem doth commence…:
this entire passage qtd. in Bottom 25-26 where it serves as a key text
in the argument; also qtd. “A”-12.170.31-171.3, and alluded to in “A Keystone
Comedy” (CF 186).
16c Little wrists…: in CSP 114.
25b Lollai, lollai, litil child, Whi wepistou so?: qtd. “A”-8.50.8.
Part II
Epigraphs: “. . .
only the primarily beautiful and new (old: new) remaining”: apparently WCW
wrote this as one of two blurbs for 55
Poems, which LZ truncated: “An extraordinary sensitivity. Only the merely
contemporary sloughed off and only the primary beautiful and new (old: new)
remaining” (WCW/LZ 295, 399). “An Extraordinary Sensitivity” is the
title of WCW’s review of 55 Poems published in Poetry in Sept.
1942 (Something to Say 129).
“You will find many pencil marks…: from 9 Dec. 1857 letter to John
Tyndall.
1a-b LZ juxtaposes the same passages in Bottom
352, although he does not quote Pope’s version of the Iliad.
5b My voice is hoarse . . .: qtd. Bottom
355.
10a LZ’s high judgment of this sonnet by Mark
Alexander Boyd echoes that of EP in ABC
of Reading (1934): “I suppose this is the most beautiful sonnet in the
language, at any rate it has one nomination” (134) (Scroggins Bio 146).
11a As ye came from the holy land / Of
Walsinghame…: alluded to at “A”-12.131.8; phrases from last stanza qtd. Bottom
13 and Little (CF 147).
12a I have no way and therefore want no
eyes; / I stumbled when I saw…: qtd. Bottom 10, 91, 312.
14b Things base and vile, holding no
quantity…: qtd. Bottom 9, 16, 18, 19, 20 and “A”-12.132.6-8.
16b Is this a fast…: partially
incorporated into “A”-23.548.34-549.4.
19c
He’s but / A coof for a’ that: qtd. “A”-8.50.11 and
8.50.16.
24b The white chickens of 24b…: part of the comment
on WCW’s poem is incorporated into “A”-17.380.8-11.
25a
I spec it will be all ’fiscated. / De
massa run, ha! ha! De darkey stay, ho! ho!: qtd. “A”-8.50.13.
Part III
Epigraph: from
Michael Faraday (1791-1867), Experimental Researches in Electricity (see
note Part I).
4a
(the crooked bankes much
wondring at the thing…: lines 3-4 qtd. Bottom 93.
5a
LZ used a phrase from the last
line of the original Latin of this famous elegy for the title of the poem, “Atque in Perpetuum
A.W.” (CSP 231).
7b
Tell me, Muse, of that man who
got around…: LZ’s adaptation of the opening invocation of Homer, Odyssey
is incorporated, somewhat abridged, into “A”-12.261.13-20.
10b
What is your substance…: this
sonnet qtd. entire in Bottom 436-437.
13a
Green groweth the holly; so
doth the ivy…: PZ wrote a variation on this poem that is incorporated
into “A”-20.436.29-38.
14a
As virtuous men pass mildly away…:
referred to in “An Objective” (Prep+ 18) and qtd. Bottom 166.
14b
begotten of Despair / Upon
Impossibility…: these lines and also from the last stanza qtd. Bottom
187.
21c
And take upon’s . . / Who loses and who
wins…:
qtd. “A”-13.293.15, Bottom 312 and in “A Statement for Poetry” (Prep+
22).
22a
To the dim light and the large
circle of shade…: this sestina was the formal model for “‘Mantis’” (CSP
65-66), and LZ qtd. from it in “‘Mantis,’ An Interpretation” using a different
translation by P.H. Wicksteed (CSP 69, 73).
23c
That day of wrath…: this
poem, Dies Irae, mentioned in Bottom 411.
A Workers Anthology
(1934-35)
A typescript of A Workers Anthology
exists among Basil Bunting’s papers at the University of Durham, which is a
clean copy of what appears a complete work. This anthology is smaller, less
ambitious and intended for a different readership than A Test of Poetry.
Why A Workers Anthology remained unpublished or even if LZ attempted to
get it published remains unclear, but it is evident that he intended the work
as an assertion of aesthetic as well as political value in response to more
typical worker or protest poetry anthologies published in the late 1920s and
1930s. The poems and passages of A Workers Anthology are dated and
presented in strict chronological order, and the brief preface states that the
anthology depicts the manifestation of “revolutionary struggle and ideas” in
excellent poetry from the past 2000 years. Evoking Lenin in support of art’s
value for the masses, the work’s stated intention is on the one hand to awaken
the artistic in workers and on the other to demonstrate to poets the potential
of excellent poetry intended for the masses. Ten of the selections have short
notes appended to them, usually drawing out the protest dimensions of the
poems. All but five of the 38 selections were subsequently incorporated into A
Test of Poetry, using the same passages taken from longer poems, although
occasionally the versions in the later work were slightly more complete or
extended.
The contents are as follows:
Preface (dated March 8, 1935)
|
42 B.C.-A.D.17
|
Ovid, from Amorum III, Elegia 7, trans. Christopher
Marlowe (TP 51)
|
|
42 B.C.-A.D.17
|
Ovid, from Metamorphoses, Book I, trans. Arthur Golding (TP
7)
|
|
c.1308-1318
|
From a MS. in Anglo-Irish Dialect [“Lollai, lollai, litil
child”] (TP 43-44, 102)
|
|
c.1369
|
Geoffrey Chaucer, from “Nero” [“Now fil it so that fortune…and
hadde a game”], “The Monkes Tale,” The Canterbury Tales
|
|
c.1440
|
possibly by Richard Rolle of Hampole [“Erthe out of erthe is
wondirly wroghte”] (TP 14)
|
|
c.1465
|
Francois Villon, “Epistle in Form of a Ballad to his Friends,”
trans. A.C. Swinburne (TP 15-16)
|
|
15th Century
|
“God be with trewthe where he be! / I wolde he were in this
cuntre” (TP 133)
|
|
15th Century
|
“Carol” [“A Lyke-Wake Dirge”: “This ae nighte…”] (TP 13)
|
|
15th Century
|
Ballad – “Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires” (TP 19)
|
|
15th Century
|
also from “Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires” (TP 19-20)
|
|
1601
|
William Shakespeare, from “The Phoenix and the Turtle” (TP
22)
|
|
1601
|
John Donne, “The Progresse of the Soul (Metempsychosis),”
Stanzas XXXIII & XXXIV
|
|
1607
|
William Shakespeare, King Lear IV.i (TP 21)
|
|
1607
|
William Shakespeare, King Lear IV.vi (TP 116)
|
|
1607
|
William Shakespeare, King Lear III.iv (TP 139)
|
|
1607
|
William Shakespeare, King Lear IV.vi (TP 139)
|
|
1608-1651
|
Thomas Fuller, “The Faithless Minister” (TP 77)
|
|
1647
|
John Fletcher, from “The Beggar’s Bush” (TP 27)
|
|
17th Century
|
Anonymous, “Hic jacet John Shorthose” (TP 27)
|
|
1648
|
Robert Herrick, “To Keep a True Lent” (TP 79-80)
|
|
1662
|
Samuel Butler, from Hudibras (TP 133-134)
|
|
c.1670
|
John Wilmot (Earl of Rochester), from “Ode to Nothing” (TP
30)
|
|
c.1670
|
John Wilmot (Earl of Rochester), from “A Letter from Artemisa in
the Town, To Chloe in the Country” (TP 82-83)
|
|
1687
|
Philip Ayres, “On a Fair Beggar” (TP 136)
|
|
1784
|
Robert Burns, from “Holy Willie’s Prayer” (TP 34-35)
|
|
1786
|
Robert Burns, from “Address to the Devil” (TP 34)
|
|
1794
|
William Blake, “The Little Vagabond,” Songs of Experience
|
|
1794
|
William Blake, “London,” Songs of Experience
|
|
1795
|
Robert Burns, “Is there for honest Poverty” [“For A’ That and A’
That] (TP 88-89)
|
|
1810
|
George Crabbe, from “The Borough,” XVIII (TP 135 (“Here
is no pavement…dubious aid”), 32)
|
|
1840
|
Thomas Hood, from “Miss Kilmansegg and Her Precious Leg” (TP
10)
|
|
1841
|
Robert Browning, from Pippa Passes, Act II (TP 39,
95)
|
|
c.1841
|
Walter Savage Landor, “Epithalamium” (TP 93-94)
|
|
1865
|
H.C. Work, “The year of Jubilee” (TP 43, 102)
|
|
1868-9
|
Robert Browning, from The Ring and the Book II (TP
93)
|
|
1830-1886
|
Emily Dickinson (first published 1929), “Revolution is the pod /
System”
|
|
1898-1918
|
Guillaume Apollinaire, an arrangement from the poems, trans.
L.Z.
|
|
1919
|
André Salmon, an arrangement form “Prikaz,” trans. L.Z
|
Additional Notes:
•LZ includes Catullus CXV in the prose
translation of F.W. Cornish (TP 10) in a note comparing it with the
selection from Thomas Hood’s “Miss Killmansegga and Her Precious Leg.”
•In a note to a song in Anglo-Irish dialect,
“Lollai, lollai, litil child,” LZ makes comparison with the African-American
song, “Forty-leben days gone by” included in TP 150. LZ found this song
in New Masses, in an article including various song texts by Lawrence
Gellert (1898-1979), an important pioneering collector of black folk music:
“Negro Songs of Protest,” New Masses (Jan. 1931): 6-8.
•Snippets from both the John Donne and Emily
Dickinson selections, neither of which made it into TP, appear in “A”-8
(50.11, 50.12-13 and 51.30).
•The arrangement of poems from Apollinaire
selects lines and short passages from six poems, which appear in The
Writings of Guillaume Apollinaire—a few of the same selections show up in Arise,
Arise (23, 25, 26).
•The arrangement of poems from André Salmon’s
“Prikaz” consists of the same passages and in the same order as those that
appeared in René Taupin’s essay, “Three Poems by André Salmon,” translated by
LZ and published in Poetry 37.5 (Feb. 1931): 289-293 and 37.6 (March
1931): 333-339 (the passages from “Prikaz” appear on pages 292-293, 334-337
respectively).
