Paterson (Revised Edition) (34 page)

G.S.     not in the original—which also ends here.

WCW omits all but two lines of the first two pages. Other differences between the original and the
Paterson
text of this edition (almost all with their source in the transcription):

dolla, two dolla/dollah, two dollah

shit/sh—

fills … the … guitar soaked night air/fills the dust of air and corners, fills the dust and guitar-soaked air of night. WCW marks the omissions and changes. He also omits the next, two-line, paragraph, and following “the house” omits fourteen lines in which the narrator takes in “the wild incredulous scene,” and sits down with a beer.

against a door/against the door

all white/all in white

white … bride … Both ellipses are in Sorrentino’s original

and find her/and you find her

and smile/and smilesmile Revised by WCW, Za190.

a buttock/buttock

please and/please

Between “twice” and “I go twice” WCW omits “… you go twice? And smile yes yes twice”

213     the birds… also     Possibly WCW’s prose. The description is of the second of the unicorn tapestries, see note to p. 206.

214     One warm … away     Probably WCW’s prose. In earlier typescripts “Willow Point” reads “Santiago Grove” and “San Diego Grove” (in Rutherford), while the initials G.B. and L.M. are late substitutions for the initials of the actual persons. A staff memorandum in the New Directions files dated 3/3/58 reads “Wittenberg thought long about the short passage in PAT V … and suggested that I talk again with W.C.W. about the presumed death of the lady. He also suggested that we change some of the details, but we both thought that ‘Sandy Bottom’ should not be molested. I called W.C.W. this morning…. and Bill said to change the initials … and we agreed to change ‘San Diego Grove’ to ‘Willow Point.’ We also changed the initials of the young sailor. Bill said, by the way, that the lady and all her family had been dead for 30 years.”

214     “Loose your love to flow”     From WCW’s poem “The Wind Increases” (CP1 339).

215     “I am … A.P.     A.P. is Levi Arnold Post (1889–1971), then Emeritus Professor of Greek at Haverford College. WCW told his friend Charles Abbott, the librarian at the University of Buffalo, on November 3, 1956, that he had received the letter Post had written to Abbott, and “his opinion of the writings of Sappho, that which makes her verse distinctive in quality, fascinates me, it is just what I wanted to find out” (Buff F 985). WCW and Post exchanged correspondence in 1957 and 1958, and WCW told Abbott on Jan 1, 1958, that in
Paterson
he was quoting from Post’s “letter to me which I can no longer find” (Buffalo F989). But these lines are not in the two Post letters to WCW filed among WCW’s uncatalogued correspondence at Yale, and may be from Post’s letter to Abbott. WCW and Post met briefly at the wedding of Abbott’s son David, and when WCW read at Haverford. Post was editor of the Loeb Classical Library. See also Weaver 217–18.

215     Peer of … dying     A translation of Sappho’s Fragment 31. In 1957 WCW published a slightly different version as a separate poem, see CP2 348 and accompanying note.

215–216     13 Nv …??????     A 1956 letter from Ezra Pound to WCW (Yale uncat.). In a letter to New Directions on 25 February 1958 Pound expressed concern about the letter’s planned inclusion in
Paterson
in the light of efforts to have him released from St. Elizabeths (which happened in May 1958): “it may be o.k. or it may be MOST untimely to release it/no need to protrude my blasted nekk any FURTHER at this time…. Bill dun’t mean no harm, but I am gittin tired of incarceration, gap cd/be left for later edition/soz not to afflict his artistik cawnscience” (ND Archives). And Pound wrote to WCW on 27 February 1958, “I dunno that I can afford to be quoted at this time. especially as yu indicate the expressed emotion has not been Wordsworth’d in tranquility” (Yale uncat.). Somewhat irritated, WCW was ready to cut the entire letter out, but Pound subsequently made some cuts and revisions—noted below—and WCW accepted the emendations for the first edition. And see Mariani 713–14.

The cuts were restored in the 1963 printing, when some further changes were made to bring the text closer to the original letter, although some differences remained. In keeping with the principles for Book V laid out in “A Note on the Text,” I have generally followed WCW’s probable transcription typescript, filed with
Za190
, and note below the verbal differences with the original, the first edition and the post-1963 printings. Where the transcription reflects a probable misreading of EP’s handwriting, I have followed the original. Most of the changes are introduced through the various retypings, including the copy prepared for Pound that carries his revisions.

my BilBill/by BilBil     IST, change occurs in draft for EP

vide/Vid     IST and transcription—misreading of EP’s script, I follow the original

makes/make     IST, change occurs in draft for EP

they offered/was offered     IST and transcription, misreading of EP’s script, I follow the original

economics/econ     1963 and original, I follow the transcription

dunghill FDR     Omitted IST, one of EP’s deletions. In the 1963 printing although the material was restored, the ellipsis periods were retained in error.

and the stink that elevated him     Omitted IST, not on draft sent to EP

to Rapallo     Omitted IST, one of EP’s deletions

still want/want     1963 and original, I follow the transcription

the book/his book     1963 and original, I follow the transcription

educ/educate     IST, I follow the original and the transcription

buzzards/old buzzards     IST, added in draft for EP, I follow the original and transcription

shittahd aaabull     I follow the original and transcription. IST has shitta daaabull, an EP revision, 1963 has shittad aaabull

Some additional verbal differences from the original remain:

for SIX/or SIX     Transcription has “(f)or”; EP amends

don’t/dont     Difference is on transcription

re Beum/re …     All printings. EP removes the name. Robert Lawrence Beum was editor of the magazine
The Golden Goose.

I found/I have found     Difference is on transcription

217     us of/of     
Spectrum
(1958)

219     Knocking around … eat     From Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow and Bernard Wolfe,
Really the Blues
(New York, 1946), p. 53.

The text was changed with the 1963 printing to read as the source, although two minor punctuation differences remained. In keeping with the principles for Book V laid out in “A Note on the Text,” I have generally followed WCW’s probable transcription typescript, filed with Za190, and note below the verbal differences with the original, the first edition and the post-1963 printings. Most of the changes from the original are introduced in one of the later Za190 drafts. WCW’s transcription accurately recorded the two minor punctuation differences not restored in 1963.

Rapp/the Rapp     IST

be/begin     IST

know that/know why     IST

mournful/moanful     Original and 1963, I follow the transcription,

patterns/patters     IST

even/not even     Original and 1963,I follow the transcription.

219–221     Satyrs dance … beasts     These lines appear as part of WCW’s 1955 poem “Tribute to the Painters,” see CP2 296–98 and accompanying note.

220     abstraction/abstractions     
New World Writing
(1955)

was aware     WCW’s typescripts read “was ware,” as do all non
-Paterson
printed versions of these lines. The change is made by an editor on the Harvard printer’s typescript, possibly with WCW’s approval.
prey on/prey upon     
New World Writing
A letter/the letter     
New World Writing

221     a Minotaur/the Minotaur     
New World Writing

Fifth/9th     
New World Writing.
WCW realized he had the wrong symphony, see note on CP2 494.

tail/back     
New World Writing

had not/has not     
New World Writing

The
New World Writing
version omits “comforting/his companions.”

221–222     (Q. Mr…. difficulty     The first two-thirds of an interview with Mike Wallace as printed in “Mike Wallace asks William Carlos Williams Is Poetry a Dead Duck?” in the
New York Post
, October 18, 1957, p. 4.6. Thirlwall’s note on a typescript at Yale identifies this as an interview carried on the television program
Night Beat
, and the annotation has misled some commentators. But a recording of the program now at the Rutherford Public Library does not include these exchanges, and WCW is not interviewed there by Wallace. Mike Wallace confirms, letter to Christopher MacGowan, April 30, 1991, “The
New York Post
piece with William Carlos Williams was done
only
for print, and
only
for the
New York Post
and the syndicated papers that carried it.”

“2 partridges … Denmark …”     From WCW’s poem “Two Pendants: For the Ears” see CP2 208.

Robert MacGregor, vice-president of New Directions, in telling WCW on March 13, 1958, that E.E. Cummings wanted $25 for use of his poem in
Paterson,
also reported a visit to Cummings to check the manuscript’s version with him. “He said it was not right at all and took it upstairs and then came back with it retyped somewhat differently…. He … evidently had seen the interview as reported in the
New York Post.
He said that what you should have replied was that this was not a poem at all, ‘and it isn’t.’ I told him that this is all very well for the author to say, but that you, as a defender of modern poetry, had to defend it, no matter if you didn’t see much sense in it. He wants to see proof, too.” This letter, and Cummings’ typescript, are in the New Directions files. Cummings adds an “I” to the Post’s “FalleA” and adds the stanza breaks. In Cummings’
Collected Poems
(1968) the poem has another six lines.

Verbal differences from the
New York Post
, all present on early typescripts:

here’s part/here’s a part

that it is/that it’s

of poetry and the sense/between the essence of poetry and the sense

ignore sense/ignore the sense

I have retained the
Paterson
punctuation. All ellipses are in the source except the final one.

223     a Nativity/     
The Adoration of the Kings
, 1564, in the National Gallery, London.

223     got to/get to     
The Nation
(1958)

225     we have come/have come     All printings. A possible uncaught error on the galleys, I have restored the reading of all typescripts, including the Harvard printer’s typescript.

226     The Gospel … heart     With the 1963 printing the passage was changed to bring it closer to the King James version, although “Miriam” and two other differences (“to him” for “unto him” and “just man” for “just
man
”) were allowed to remain. A footnote added in the 1963 printing and keyed to “Miriam” reads: “The King James version, of course, reads “Mary,’ but it is recalled that Dr. Williams often referred to the mother of Jesus as Miriam. Cf. the Hebrew Miryām as root for both names.—ED.”

In keeping with the principles for Book V laid out in “A Note on the Text,” I have followed WCW’s probable transcription typescript, filed with Yale Za190, and note below the verbal differences with the first edition and the post-1963 printings.

found/found to be     IST

/files/08/76/29/f087629/public/publick     1963

privately/privily     1963

And Mary/But Mary     1963

sayings, pondering/things, and pondered     1963. The transcription typescript has no comma, added later.

Luke     From St. Luke 2:19

226–227     Dear Bill … Edward     From a letter to WCW from Edward Dahlberg, September 20, 1957 (Yale uncat.), the second of two letters from Dahlberg in
Paterson
, see note to p. 28. WCW omits the first page and the final page and a half of the letter. This first page, which asks whether any of WCW’s letters to Dahlberg were included in WCW’s
Selected. Letters
(1957)—none were—is also omitted by Dahlberg in his
Epitaphs of Our Times: the Letters of Edward Dahl-berg
(New York, 1967) 182–85, although he does include most of the final page and a half omitted in
Paterson.

The text of this prose was checked against the original letter by the New Directions staff in February 1958, anticipating possible concerns of Dahlberg’s, and with WCW’s approval; however, some differences remain between the quoted text and its source, as noted below. The origin of the differences is WCW’s apparent transcription typescript filed with
Za190,
unless otherwise noted. There are no verbal differences between the first edition and the 1963 printing.

G.D./     Georges Duthuit

had returned/had to return

enclose/inclose

influenced/could influence

Following “is cheap” WCW added “(in Majorka)” but this is cut on the Harvard printer’s typescript.

Dahlberg continued to be no fan of
Paterson
, telling Josephine Herbst of Book V that he “could not refrain from feeling that the only good thing in Williams’ last poem is your letter, and all those winged and almost bird-like delights in the honey of flowers,”
Epitaphs of Our Times
158.

227     “. the unicorn … background,.”     The seventh tapestry of the Unicorn series, see note to p. 206.

227     There’s … to talk to     Recorded as WCW’s prose by an editorial note on a Harvard typescript.

gets courage/get courage     IST,
Poetry
(1958)     Typing error in later typescripts

228     “That slepen … yë”     Line 10 of the “General Prologue” of
The Canterbury Tales.

228     beside the purple … threads besides/besides the purple … threads besides 1ST,
Poetry
/beside the purple … threads beside 1963. Possible error on the galleys. I follow the Harvard and earlier typescripts.