Wednesday, April 23, 2014
"Mantis," A Misinterpretation
Zukofsky wrote a sestina called "Mantis" and a poem explaining it called "'Mantis,' An Interpretation." I don't think he knew anything about the mantis as a source of Chinese martial arts, and I know he didn't know anything about the Marvel Comics character who became the Celestial Madonna in Avengers. However, he does refer to his mantis as a "prophetess." In another of his poems he used the word "inhuman." Thinking about writing this blog today, that word made me think of the Inhumans in the Marvel universe. When I read the word "overweening" it made me think of my friend Michael's blog.
Reading Zukofsky makes me think of listening to Bach. Right now I have Bach playing, thinking about reading Zukofsky.
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I still don't have _A_, so I don't have A clue.
ReplyDeleteWhen listening to Bach, I have become increasingly successful at not whistling while I'm pissing. Ask me how!
Q: How?
A: I usually listen for the secondary dominant as a pivot toward modulation, usually to the key a perfect 5th higher than the previous key, but often times Papa Bach is screwing with my head on those, and I love Him for it.
You have a better ear than I do. I will have to work at hearing things like secondary dominants if I keep teaching music theory.
ReplyDelete"Mantis" and its interpretation don't appear in "A". They do appear in various collections of Zukosky's shorter poetry. I first read them in All: The Collected Short Poems. They also appear in Complete Short Poetry, which includes all of All as well as the Zukofsky's translations of Catullus and 80 Flowers, etc. , plus a great intro by Bob Creeley. Both of those books have gone out of print, but in 2011 a new book came out called Anew: Complete Shorter Poems of Louis Zukofsky. It seems like it has mostly the same stuff as The Collected Shorter Poems. I don't have Anew. I do love the other two collections of his non-"A" poetry. Thanks for the comment.