Dear List
I just came across this quote in the Robert Creeley section of
"Understanding The Black Mountain Poets" by Edward Halsey Foster. (page
110)
Concerning Creeley's book of poems, "Pieces", Foster
says:
"The book coheres in much the same way as *Mabel: A Story*:
things are held together not by narrative structure but by one sensibility
expressing its multifold nature." (Pound fans should note the word
'cohere' :>) )
Several times in the past this list
has discussed whether TWL has structure. The above quote
addresses a single poetic entity without narrative structure Of course
many do not even allow TWL one sensibility but what is it about narrative
structure that gives it its preeminence in our recognition of a whole
literary work?
To me TWL seems to have multiple sensibilities gathered
as a constellation around a set of related themes and it is the relationships
between the themes and the relationships between the sensibilities and the
relationships between the sensibilities and the themes and the relationships
between the relationships (ad-nauseam) that give the poem it's unity. It
is a never ending twirl of ideas that somehow have containment within
themselves. I am absolutely unsure as to how TSE and his editor EP
achieved this containment.
I would enjoy discussion upon TWL's
cohesion or containment..
Rick Seddon
McIntosh, NM
