Authors: Lorine Niedecker
Asa Gray wrote Increase Lapham:
pay particular attention
to my pets, the grasses—
on these lie fame.
In fact, the poem was not included in
MFT
, and the above version was never published.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 6.
Pioneers NG, T&G, MLBW
[EA].
In
NG
and
T&G
, the two halves of the poem are divided by three bullets.
Excerpted in EA: Between fighting…swayed back and forth from food-lack. (“Food-lack” is an EA revision of “lack of food.”)
Well, spring overflows the land,
NG, MFT, T&G, MLBW
[EA].
Audubon NG, T&G, MLBW.
The present text uses the line 5 of
NG, T&G
, and
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 4.
MLBW
variant line 5: with fear
van Gogh NG, T&G, MLBW
[EA].
NG
variant line 1: I have at times to sit in the dunes
Revised to the present text for
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 4.
What a woman!—hooks men like rugs,
NG.
The brown muskrat, noiseless,
NG.
The broad-leaved Arrow-head
NG.
“NEW GOOSE” MANUSCRIPT
The 29-poem typescript, dated 1945 (although the opening letter/poem is dated 1943), remained unpublished in LN's lifetime.
To a Maryland editor, 1943: Unpublished.
MacCloud is Norman MacCleod, who in 1943 ran the Creative Writing Department at the University of Maryland and edited the
Maryland Quarterly
(first issue 1944).
Summer's away, I traded my chicks for trees Unpublished.
An undated letter from LZ to LN has high praise for this poem. He cautions her not to change anything saying there's no need to embellish a poem so instinctively right.
She was a mourner too. Now she's gone Unpublished.
Seven years a charming woman wore Unpublished.
The land of four o'clocks is here Unpublished in book form.
In the 17-poem group, “
MOTHER GEESE,
”
New Directions
1 (1936): n.p.
Just before she died Unpublished.
An undated letter from LZ to LN comments on the originality of the poem's movement, which he finds to be close to William Blake's “Chimney Sweep.”
Brought the enemy down
T&G, MLBW.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 8.
Nothing nourishing, Unpublished.
The number of Britons killed Unpublished.
Old Hamilton hailed the man from the grocery store: Unpublished.
Motor cars Unpublished in book form.
The present text is a revision of an earlier version in the 17-poem group, “
MOTHER GEESE,
”
New Directions
1 (1936): n.p. Here is the variant second stanza of the earlier version:
Will the sugar bowl
of taffy color
speeding
stop to eat people?
Allied Convoy /Reaches Russia
Unpublished.
Depression years T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].
The “NG” MS version is untitled with variant lines 2-3: I was certified, / then for weeks I raked leaves
Revised to the present text for FPOP (see p. 165) with a variant title,
“Depression ballad.”
In
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 8, the title changes to
“Depression years
.”
Coopered at Fish Creek, Unpublished.
A working man appeared in the street Unpublished in book form.
In
Furioso: A Magazine of Verse
1.1 (Summer 1939): 5, with “We know him—Law and Order League—” under the title “
TWO POEMS FROM ‘NEW GOOSE.’
”
Woman with Umbrella
Unpublished in book form.
Accent
13.2 (Spring 1953): 96.
Automobile Accident
Unpublished.
Look, the woods, the sky, our home. Unpublished.
Coming out of Sleep
Unpublished.
Voyageurs Unpublished.
I walked/from Chicago to Big Bull Falls (Wausau), Unpublished.
See the girls in shorts on their bicycles Unpublished.
An earlier draft version has a variant line 1: These girls ride their bicycles in shorts
When Johnny (Chapman) Appleseed Unpublished.
Tell me a story about the war.
NG, MLBW
[FPOP].
The “NG” MS version is substantially different, reflecting its Mother Goose folk context:
The Marshal of France made a speech,
told the people they were hungry.
The psychologist said: reach a porterhouse steak—
place your ounce of beef on a doll's plate.
The Bishop beseeched the people to sleep.
Revised to the present text for FPOP (see p. 144).
Poet Percival said: I struck a lode Unpublished.
Terrible things coming up, Unpublished.
1937
Unpublished [FPOP].
Untitled in “NG” MS. Revised to the present text for FPOP (p. 164).
Their apples fall down Unpublished.
The government men said Don't plant wheat, Unpublished.
1945-1956
Very little poetry survives from the years 1945 to 1948. In May 1944, LN had begun work as a stenographer and proofreader for Hoard's, the Fort Atkinson printer of the prominent regional journal
Hoard's Dairyman
, and the job and her home life with aging parents claimed all her time. She did recover some independence with her 1946 move from her parents' home to her own newly built one-room cottage.
Many of these poems predate the “
FOR PAUL
” project. Others were written “
FOR PAUL
” groups 1-8 but were not included in FPOP.
New! Unpublished.
MS dated Nov. 22, 1945.
(
L.Z.
) Unpublished.
MS dated 1945.
Chimney Sweep
Unpublished in book form.
MS dated Jan. 1948.
Golden Goose
1 (Summer 1948): 29.
Swept snow, Li Po,
T&G, MLBW.
Two drafts on a single MS page dated Jan. 1948; draft (i) follows:
Home
Swept snow, Li Po,
by dawn's 40-watt moon
to the road that flies
to black office
away from home.
Tended my little oil-burning
stove as one would a cow—
she gave heat—till spring.
River-marsh-frog-clatter—
peace breaks out—
no fact is isolate—
grasses, heron, China,
days of light:
Saturday,
Sunday.
Draft (ii) revises draft (i) as follows:
line 1: Swept my snow, Li Po,
line 9: Now river-marsh-frog-clatter—
line 12: grasses, heron, China, three
lines 14-15:
Saturday, Sunday,
memory.
A third version appeared in
New Mexico Quarterly
20.2 (Summer 1950): 209:
Swept snow, Li Po,
by dawn's 40-watt moon
to the road that hies to office
away from home.
Tended my brown little oil-burning stove
as one would a cow—she gives heat.
Spring—marsh frog clatter
peace breaks out
No fact is isolate
Grasses, heron, China,
light:
Saturday, Sunday.
In the
New Mexico Quarterly
, the above is number “II” of “
TWO POEMS
”—“I” is an untitled version of
“Wartime”
(see p. 172).
Regards to Mr. Glover
Unpublished.
MS dated June 10, 1948.
LN letter to LZ, May 23, 1948: “by the way I had begun something embodying the conversation with Glover, so when you write ‘Regards to Glover’—jiggers, there's my title. [] and now when I see the second line of God LL.D: ‘Only sometimes does one feel that intimate’—Zu could I use it and quote it?” (
NCZ
147).
Sunday's motor-cars Unpublished in book form.
Undated MS, breaks line 6 in two after “waking”.
In “
THREE POEMS,
”
New Directions
11 (1949): 303, with “I rose from marsh mud” and “Don't tell me property is sacred.”
Let's play a game. Unpublished in book form.
Poem XI in “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO
” MS dated Dec. 14, 1950, adds two lines between the present lines 10 and 11:
Trees and stars?
Of course, if they console you.
variant line 14: one constellation is:
LN's annotation: “(constellation simply a child's mispronunciation of consolation—you didn't get that? Believe I'd like ‘Trees and stars? Of course, if they console you’ taken out. Those were the additions. You understand Diddy [Paul] is the speaker on the right side??)”
LN adopts LZ's suggested “console-ation” in line 14.
Revised to the present text on an undated MS and published in “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO,
”
New Mexico Quarterly
21.1 (Spring 1951): 207.
Lugubre for a child Unpublished in book form.
This poem overlaps with and replaces the earlier “You have power politics, Paul” (MS dated Dec. 14, 1950):
You have power politics, Paul,
You have “I'll call you, I'll call—”
which Indians did aptly
and more—in the forest an Indian girl,
her washing spread out on a rock,
let a song fall.
You now see man hide behind
his ribs' loose grates, his kind
eye closed, the other one screwing
the savage sprays
of our steel woods' life-everlasting,
a filing refined.
But wait! In still wilder states
he'll be Needle That Clicks. Rays
will cause counters to sing
counter to sense
and man, the weapon, must obsolesce
as he radiates.
LN to LZ, Dec. 30, 1950: “I figure the Lugubre for a child to take the place of the somewhat crazy You have power politics, Paul. Ah, how does it sound? []” (
NCZ
171).
The first draft of “Lugubre for a child” is poem XV in the “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO
” MS (undated, possibly Dec. 30, 1950):
variant line 6: Some flowers have pistons,
variant line 16: Dear fiddler: how'll you carry
variant lines 19-20: stinging rays/on little whirring things?
LN offers an alternative to line 19 (“rays,” deleting “stinging”) and also alternative lines 18-20:
counter to sense
in the presence
of man's stings?
On the MS, LZ suggests a revision of line 6: “Watch! in some flowers”.
Revised for poem XV of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO,
”
New Mexico Quarterly
21.1 (Spring 1951): 209, where line 6 reflects LZ's revision and lines 19-20 become those of the present edition: rays/on small whirring things
In “Changes in
FOR PAUL
” (Jan. 29, 1955), LN revises line 16 (“Dear Fiddler: How'll you carry”) to the present line 16 and deletes a question mark at the end of the stanza. At this date the poem was still part of the “
FOR PAUL
” project.
Could You Be Right
Unpublished in book form.
Untitled on MS dated Jan. 4, 1951.
variant line 5: But think of Troy, we had the word
MS dated Jan. 16, 1951, adopts LZ's revision of line 5 (“But think of Troy, it was a word”) and revises lines 7-8 as follows:
so go up in a kite.
Still, could she be right?
Accent
13.2 (Spring 1953): 97, adds the title and reverts to the earlier lines 7-8 reflected in the present text. She ignores LZ's suggestion to drop “yet” in line 7.
This poem arises out of LN's debate with LZ over her use of the word “obsolesce” in “You have power politics, Paul” (see pp. 380-81).
Look close Unpublished.
MS dated Feb. 27, 1951.
If I were a bird
Unpublished.
Undated MS. LZ notes alternative title on MS: “Tally of Contemporaries” and also his suggested deletions from stanza 5—line 12: the depths; line 13: and; line 14: cut sky
LN to LZ letter, March 15, 1951: “Yes, I'll use If I were a bird sometime in
FOR PAUL
” (
NCZ
178).
High, lovely, light, Unpublished.
A draft version dated March 30, 1951, titled in LN holograph as “Rondel” with variant lines 5-7:
You at your mountain-height—
your cello plied with Easter
bow lovely, light—
and variant lines 11-12:
sleep? In what season
timed, tuned, tight,
LZ's suggested changes: line 4 deletes “down”; line 11 revises “In” to “To”; line 12 revises “tight” to “bright”.
Revised close to the present text for poem I of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP III
” MS dated Sept. 27, 1951, with a variant line 6: your cello and bow for Easter—
“Changes in
FOR PAUL
” (Jan. 29, 1955) alters line 6 to the present “your cello and bow in Easter's”.
Letter from Paul
Unpublished.
MS dated Sept. 27, 1951.
Poem V of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP FOUR
” MS (undated, probably 1951).
Two old men—
T&G, MLBW.
Poem IV of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP FOUR
” MS (undated, probably 1951).
“Changes in
FOR PAUL
” (Jan. 29, 1955) omits the poem.
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 9.
LN to LZ, July 31, 1951: “Ladwig—yes, an old friend of my father's.…A priceless thing Walter Ladwig said when he was here the last time: ‘I had an old friend in Milwaukee who wanted come and live with me—we'd take turns cooking and washing dishes, he said, we're both alone, it would work out—I said “But our way of living is so different, you spit, I don't spit” and that very night he killed himself—and left $100,000.’ Perfect?” (
NCZ
182).