Ruth Stone |
"Poems" from In the Next Galaxy (2006) On January 5, 2010 Kay Ryan gave her Stanford Poetry Workshop Calvino's Chapter 1 "Lightness" from Six Memos for the Next Millennium to read, she told us to bring in a poem that conveys lightness. I emailed a few friends for suggestions. On January 11, Denise emailed me Rilke's Orpheus II.14 and also a link to Elizabeth Gilbert's video (text) that told about Ruth Stone catching poems in the air. On January 12, Kay gave the class A.E. Housman's The Name and Nature of Poetry (pp. 32-51) to read. I found Housman's 1933 book based on the Leslie Stephen Lecture delivered at Cambridge (May 9, 1933) in the Stanford stacks (PN1111.H7). Next to this slim 50-page volume was Edward Hirsch's Poet's Choice (PN111.H57.2006). Near the end of this book (pp. 399-401), Hirsch says that Ruth Stone's "Poems" is one of his favorites from In the Next Galaxy. This poem tells how Ruth Stone gets inspired by the connection between poetry and birdsong. I'm including it in my anthology on "Lightness in Poetry" for there's an airy quality to this poem. (Peter Y. Chou) |
POEMS
When you come back to me
Edward Hirsch's commentary on Ruth Stone's "Poems" (pp. 400-401)
Over the centuries, poets have often identified with cuckoos ("Sumer is icumen in /
Lhude sing, cuccu!") and mockingbirds, seagulls and herons, owls and nightingales
("Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!"). They have also noted their difference
from us. They have watched them in their backyards (Anthony Hecht's "House Sparrows"
nobly welcomes "these chipper stratoliners,/ Unsullen, unresentful, full of the grace/
Of cheerfulness"), followed them into the woods (Robert Burns, "Address to the Woodlark,"
Amy Clampitt, "A Whippoorwill in the Woods"), and tracked them down to the shore
(May Swenson, "One of the Strangest," Galway Kinnell, "The Grey Heron"). They have treated
them as messengers to and from the beyond, the very embodiment of a transcendent vocation.
Teach me half the gladness ************************************************** Web Links to Ruth Stone
Modern American Poetry: Ruth Stone |
© Peter Y. Chou, WisdomPortal.com P.O. Box 390707, Mountain View, CA 94039 email: (1-20-2010) |