Authors: Lorine Niedecker
The first version of the poem appears in EA without the subtitle and with the following variants (listed by section numeral):
I, stanza 2, line 5: of society's
I, stanza 5, line 4: I'd be now a rich man
I, stanza 6, lines 2-4:
Item—I work in—sabots
and blouse
in the dye-house
I, stanza 7, line 3: I enjoy the indigo vats
II, stanza 1, line 2: by religion—slow
III, stanza 2, line 1:
growing here—Please do not mow
In
Origin
ser. 3, 19 (Oct. 1970): 51-53, with the following variants:
I, stanza 2, line 5: of society's
I, stanza 5, line 4: I'd be now a rich man
I, stanza 6, line 3: and blouse—
The
Origin
version serves as copytext for
BC
(1976).
LN to CC, May 7, 1969: “I'm absorbed in writing poems—sequence—on William Morris. I know how to evaluate—Ruskin, etc., their kind of socialism—paternalism—but the letters of William Morris have thrown me. Title will be His Carpets Flowered. I can't read his poems. I'd probably weary of all those flowery designs in carpets, wall papers, chintzes…but as a man, as a poet speaking to his daughters and his wife—o lovely” (
BYHM
188).
DARWIN
Unpublished [VV, H&SF].
Completed Aug. 18-24, 1970 (
BYHM
230-31). VV excerpts only the following:
His holy
slowly
mulled over
matter
LN gave Gail and Bonnie Roub an undated draft of
“DARWIN”
(possibly in Aug. 1970) with the following variants (listed by section numeral):
III, stanza 3:
the earthquake—
Talcahuana Bay drained out—
an all-water wall
thrown up from the ocean
III, stanza 4, lines 1-2:
Six seconds
and the town demolished
III, stanza 8, lines 2-3:
Penguins and seals
those cold-sea creatures
III, stanza 9, line 1: For FitzRoy it was Hell
IV, stanza 3, line 1: Brought Drosera home
IV, stanza 4, line 4: till he published it
V, stanza 2:
Tierra del Fuego's
shining glaciers—
translucent blue
clear down to the indigo sea
V, stanza 3, line 3: that anyone should care
V, stanza 6, line 4: with the details left
V, stanza 7, line 1: to the working out of chance
CC's transcription of the tape recording was published posthumously in
BC
(1976) and in
Montemora
2 (Summer 1976). A collation of the Roub draft and the tape recording was subsequently published in
Origin
ser. 4, 1 (Oct. 1977): 54-58.
Prose and Radio Plays
1937
UNCLE
Unpublished in book form.
New Directions
2 (1937): n.p. Much of the story is autobiographical: the characters of Great Uncle Gotlieb and Great Aunt Riecky Beefelbein are based on LN's maternal grandparents, the Kunzes. The “two hundred acres owned by the family” is a reference to the property on Black Hawk Island that passed from the Kunzes to Henry and Daisy Niedecker at the time of their marriage. The character of Uncle John has some of Henry Niedecker in him: his ownership of the hotel, his carp fishing, his sale of the land, and his too-generous nature. The character of Matty is partly based on the neurasthenic Daisy Niedecker.
1951—1952
SWITCHBOARD GIRL
Unpublished in book form.
The first trace of this prose piece is the poem MS “Titillated flip Switchboard girl,” dated Feb. 27, 1951.
Titillated flip switchboard girl
on the tide of the red-lit plug-in are you high
with those whose bag is full—“Get me a single”
“Good, I like to sleep close”—or low with those
who must be jazzed Honeypot switchboard girl
hand em your line they'll slip you more nylons
than you can use Yes Go ahead switchboard lust
takes love out of life Lewd sings cuckoo
A second draft is dated March 5, 1951:
Are you high
with those whose bag is full—
“Get me a single”
“Good, I like to sleep close”—
or low
with those who must be jazzed
honeypot
switchboard girl
hand em your line
they'll slip you more
nylons
than you can use
yes
go ahead
lewd sings cuckoo
The prose MS
“SWITCHBOARD GIRL,”
dated April 16, 1951, has the following variants: par. 3: “in America they gear civilization to the seventeen-year-old” replaces the present “in America…to the seventeen-year-old”, and six lines from the end:
“Whom did they say they wanted? Somebody by the name of Christ.”
“Human materiel obsolescing. Boy, pass the blood.”
replaces the present “What was the name…obsolescing.”
New Directions
13 (1951): 87-89.
The piece relates her search for a job when her poor eyesight made proofreading too difficult.
The evening's automobiles… Unpublished.
MS dated June 15, 1951, with appended “Notes” addressed to LZ:
all about the virgin is out! Too pretentious—you saw that.
No title as yet—your “The Evening's Automobiles”—well, something like that along line of
moving
, something that has to do with mind moving so as to unite all time etc…
or: ‘Brute Goodness’ or Renaissance…
I feel queer too as a man! I could print it under a man's name! No.
1. “Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle a man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.” (This is Yeats, but I wdn't credit him, I guess?) [Refers to p. 338, line 25.]
2. It was abrupt you said with just saying “and said”—I don't feel that's so—it wouldn't be in poetry necessarily. But maybe you like this better. [Refers to p. 339, line 12.]
3. Some things in life are not credible as fiction! She actually did carry milk bottles for that purpose, she said. A great many things about her I can't tell—just wouldn't be believed. [Refers to p. 340, lines 1-2.]
4. I've used spaces to give the eye the confusion in her mind. [Refers to p. 340, lines 20-25.]
5. Here's my “brute goodness,” won't use it if I use it as title. [Refers to p. 341, line 4.]
6. This maybe I'd better omit—she was socially unacceptable, taking a laxative and then f—ting all afternoon. Or it could be interpreted differently and melt in with the rest of that paragraph's horror. [Refers to p. 341, lines 4-7.]
Nevermind spelling—my dictionary says dead line, two words—I always look [up] everything before I send em out [ ]
Thanks—I know you're busy [ ]
Lorine
This piece adopts a male persona but the content is thinly veiled autobiography. It begins as LN leaves her job at Hoard's and returns home to Black Hawk Island.
AS I LAY DYING
Unpublished.
A 17-page radio script of William Faulkner's
As I Lay Dying.
MS dated Jan. 11, 1952. A page of revisions dated Jan. 28, 1952.
LN to LZ, Jan. 23, 1952: “I don't write a terribly conventional radio script (not good radio they'll say) because I like to take hunks from the printed page and plunk em down in radio” (
NCZ
188-89).
from
TASTE AND TENDERNESS
Unpublished.
A typescript of the complete two-act script for radio about the James family went to LZ for Valentine's Day in 1952.
Only Act 1, scene 3 survives in MS sent to Dahlberg on Aug. 30, 1955.
LN to LZ, Feb. 14, 1952: “Radio
should
be a good medium for poetry—speech without practical locale. Stage with all its costumes and place and humans tripping about too distracting sometimes. Poetry and poetic drama—suggestion—the private printed page plus sound and silence” (
NCZ
191).
Listed here are the contents of those collections—published or unpublished—that are not represented in the text in their original sequence. Alternate titles and first lines are enclosed in brackets.
My Friend Tree (Edinburgh: Wild Hawthorn Press, 1961)
My friend tree
You are my friend—
The young ones go away to school
There's a better shine
Black Hawk held: In reason
I'm a sharecropper
Remember my little granite pail?
Paul/when the leaves
Along the river
Old man who seined
Don't shoot the rail!
He built four houses
Not feeling well, my wood uncut.
My man says the wind blows from the south,
Well, spring overflows the land,
The clothesline post is set
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Gift-book for Cid Corman, Oct. 1964)
Consider at the outset:
Ah, your face—
Alcoholic dream
To my pres- /sure pump
March
Something in the water
Santayana's
If only my friend
Frog noise/suddenly stops
Laundromat
In the transcendence
Is there someone [To whom]
Margaret Fuller
Watching dan-/cers on skates
Hospital Kitchen
Chicory flower/on campus
Fall
(“Early morning corn”)
LZ's
Ian's [Letter from Ian]
Some float off on chocolate bars
I knew a clean man
Scythe
So he said/on radio
I visit/the graves
For best work
The radio talk this morning [The obliteration]
Spring
The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”
Who was Mary Shelley?
Ruskin found wild strawberries [Wild strawberries]
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Gift-book for Jonathan Williams, Xmas 1964)
Consider at the outset:
Ah, your face
Alcoholic dream
Something in the water
To my pres- /sure pump
Laundromat
Santayana's
If only my friend
Frog noise / suddenly stops
In the transcendence
Margaret Fuller
Watching dan- /cers on skates
Chicory flower/on campus
Fall (“Early morning corn”)
LZ's
Ian's [Letter from Ian]
Some float off on chocolate bars
I knew a clean man
Spring
The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”
Who was Mary Shelley?
So he said/on radio
Scythe
The radio talk this morning
Wild strawberries
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Gift-book for Louis Zukofsky, Xmas 1964)
Consider at the outset:
Ah, your face
Alcoholic dream
To my pres- /sure pump
Laundromat
March
Something in the water
Santayana's
If only my friend
Frog noise /suddenly stops
In the transcendence
Someone?—[To whom]
Margaret Fuller
Watching dan- /cers on skates
Hospital Kitchen
Chicory flower/on campus
Fall
(“Early morning corn”)
LZ's
Ian's [Letter from Ian]
Some float off on chocolate bars
I knew a clean man
Spring
The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”
Who was Mary Shelley?
Wild strawberries
T&G: The Collected Poems
(1936-1966)
(Penland, N.C.:
The Jargon Society, 1969)
NEW GOOSE/MY FRIEND TREE
There's a better shine
My friend tree
Black Hawk held: In reason
Remember my little granite pail?
Ash woods, willow, close to shore,
Audubon
Gen. Rodimstev's story/(Stalingrad)
Bombings
My coat threadbare
She had tumult of the brain
To see the man who took care of our stock
The museum man!
Mr. Van Ess bought 14 washcloths?
We know him—Law and Order League—
Don't shoot the rail!
Not feeling well, my wood uncut.
Grampa's got his old age pension,
My man say the wind blows from the south,
Asa Gray wrote Increase Lapham:
I'm a sharecropper
That woman!—eyeing houses.
van Gogh
The clothesline post is set
He built four houses
Well, spring overflows the land,
Pioneers
Old man who seined
You are my friend—
Along the river
FOR PAUL
Nearly landless and on the way to water
What bird would light
Dear Paul:
O Tannenbaum
Dear Paul /now six years old:
Some have chimes
If he is of constant depth
Tell me a story about the war.
Laval, Pomeret, Pétain
How bright you'll find young people,
Not all that's heard is music. We leave
The young ones go away to school
Paul/when the leaves
BALLADS
Sorrow moves in wide waves,
Old Mother turns blue and from us
He lived—childhood summers
A student
In Europe they grow a new bean while here
What horror to awake at night
Depression years
European Travel/(Nazi New Order)
Don't tell me property is sacred!
You know, he said, they used to make
Wartime
Brought the enemy down
To Paul now old enough to read:
Keen and lovely man moved as in a dance
I knew a clean man
Jesse James and his brother Frank
Who was Mary Shelley?
THE YEARS GO BY
In the great snowfall before the bomb
Swept snow, Li Po,
March
Two old men—
My father said I remember
Dead
Mother is dead
The graves
He moved in light
Shut up in woods
To Aeneas who closed his piano
I am sick with the Time's buying sickness.
Hi, Hot-and-Humid
Horse, hello
Energy glows at the lips—
Happy New Year
I've been away from poetry
On hearing/the wood pewee
I rose from marsh mud,
February almost March bites the cold.
IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU
Hear
How white the gulls
New-sawed
Springtime's wide
Lights, lifts
Beautiful girl—
July, waxwings
If only my friend
Popcorn-can cover
O late fall
People, people—
HOME/WORLD
My life is hung up
Get a load
Easter
Dusk—
River-marsh-drowse
Linnaeus in Lapland
In Leonardo's light
Art Center
Club 26
My mother saw the green tree toad
The men leave the car
Something in the water
Now in one year
Watching dan- /cers on skates
Letter from Ian
As I paint the street
Grandfather
[Poet's work]
The Badlands
To foreclose
To my small/electric pump
I visit/the graves
Scythe
Fall
(“Early morning corn”)
Chicory flower/on campus
The wild and wavy event
Bird singing
CHURCHILL'S DEATH
To my pres- /sure pump
Consider at the outset:
Alcoholic dream
Some float off on chocolate bars
Spring
As praiseworthy
The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”
My Life by Water:
Collected Poems, 1936-1968
(London: Fulcrum Press, 1970)
MY LIFE BY WATER
My Life by Water
PAEAN TO PLACE
NEW GOOSE AND MY FRIEND TREE
There's a better shine
My friend tree
Along the river
Black Hawk held: In reason
Remember my little granite pail?
My coat threadbare
She had tumult of the brain
Ash woods, willow, close to shore,
Audubon
Gen. Rodimstev's story/(Stalingrad)
Bombings
To see the man who took care of our stock
The museum man!
Mr. Van Ess bought 14 washcloths?
Don't shoot the rail!
Asa Gray wrote Increase Lapham:
Not feeling well, my wood uncut.
Grampa's got his old age pension,
My man says the wind blows from the south,
I'm a sharecropper
We know him—Law and Order League—
That woman!—eyeing houses.
van Gogh
The clothesline post is set
He built four houses
Well, spring overflows the land,
Pioneers
Old man who seined
You are my friend—
FOR PAUL
Nearly landless and on the way to water
What bird would light
Dear Paul:
O Tannenbaum
Paul/now six years old:
Some have chimes
If he is of constant depth
Laval, Pomeret, Pétain
Tell me a story about the war.
How bright you'll find young people,
Not all that's heard is music. We leave
The young ones go away to school
Paul/when the leaves
BALLADS
Sorrow moves in wide waves,
Old Mother turns blue and from us,
What horror to awake at night
To Paul now old enough to read:
In Europe they grow a new bean
European Travel/(Nazi New Order)
Depression years
Wartime
Brought the enemy down
Jesse James and his brother Frank
A student
Keen and lovely man moved as in a dance
He lived—childhood summers
You know, he said, they used to make
Don't tell me property is sacred!
Who was Mary Shelley?
I knew a clean man
THE YEARS GO BY
In the great snowfall before the bomb
Swept snow, Li Po,
March
Two old men—
My father said “I remember
Dead
Mother is dead
The graves
I've been away from poetry
He moved in light
I rose from marsh mud,
On hearing/the wood pewee
My mother saw the green tree toad
Shut up in woods
To Aeneas who closed his piano
I am sick with the Time's buying sickness.
Hi, Hot-and-Humid
Horse, hello
Energy glows at the lips—
February almost March bites the cold.
I lost you to water, summer
Birds' mating-fight
Happy New Year
T. E. Lawrence
IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU
Hear
How white the gulls
New-sawed
Popcorn-can cover
Beautiful girl—
Lights, lifts
If only my friend
O late fall
Springtime's wide
July, waxwings
People, people—
HOME /WORLD
My life is hung up
Easter
Get a load
Now in one year
Dusk—
Something in the water
River-marsh-drowse
Letter from Ian
The wild and wavy event
Linnaeus in Lapland
Club 26
Art Center
In Leonardo's light
The men leave the car
Bird singing
As praiseworthy
Watching dan-/cers on skates
As I paint the street
Some float off on chocolate bars
Poet's work
To my pres- /sure pump
The Badlands
Chicory flower/on campus
They've lost their leaves
Sky
Nothing to speak of
I visit/the graves
To my small/electric pump
To foreclose
Scythe
Alcoholic dream
Consider at the outset:
Alone
Alliance
CHURCHILL'S DEATH
The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”
Swedenborg
Young in Fall I said: the birds
Spring
NORTH CENTRAL
LAKE SUPERIOR
TRACES OF LIVING THINGS
WINTERGREEN RIDGE
“The Earth and Its
Atmosphere”MS (June 1969)
There's a better shine
My friend tree
Black Hawk held: In reason
Along the river
Remember my little granite pail?
She had tumult of the brain
Don't shoot the rail!
Not feeling well, my wood uncut.
My man says the wind blows from the south,
To see the man who took care of our stock
That woman!—eyeing houses.
The graves
from
Pioneers
Ash woods, willows close to shore,
The museum man!
van Gogh
The clothesline post is set
Well, spring overflows the land,
He built four houses
February almost March bites the cold.
Old man who seined
You are my friend—
IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU
Hear