Night Poem From Khandro (Wed.)

[Khandro]

American Names

I have fallen in love with American names,
The sharp names that never get fat,
The snakeskin-titles of mining-claims,
The plumed war-bonnet of Medicine Hat,
Tucson and Deadwood and Lost Mule Flat.

Seine and Piave are silver spoons,
But the spoonbowl-metal is thin and worn,
There are English counties like hunting-tunes
Played on the keys of a postboy’s horn,
But I will remember where I was born.

I will remember Carquinez Straits,
Little French Lick and Lundy’s Lane,
The Yankee ships and the Yankee dates
And the bullet-towns of Calamity Jane.
I will remember Skunktown Plain.

I will fall in love with a Salem tree
And a rawhide quirt from Santa Cruz,
I will get me a bottle of Boston sea
And a blue-gum *** to sing me blues.
I am tired of loving a foreign muse.

Rue des Martyrs and Bleeding-Heart-Yard,
Senlis, Pisa, and Blindman’s Oast,
It is a magic ghost you guard
But I am sick for a newer ghost,
Harrisburg, Spartanburg, Painted Post.

Henry and John were never so
And Henry and John were always right?
Granted, but when it was time to go
And the tea and the laurels had stood all night,
Did they never watch for Nantucket Light?

I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.
I shall not lie easy at Winchelsea.
You may bury my body in Sussex grass,
You may bury my tongue at Champmédy.
I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.


Stephen Vincent Benét

[woofgang]

That is so musical

[margarettom]

Liked that except the verse about Henry and John. Didn’t understand that bit.

[JimF]

The final line has found its way into the American collective consciousness. The poem itself is no longer on any high school curriculum because of its overt racism - the asterisked word begins with 'n' and rhymes with 'digger'.

[Khandro]

jimF, Yes from today's perspective it jars badly, but it is never the less a lovely poem. Benét was born in the 19th cent. & died during the 2nd World War during which period it was in common use, & was even used as a term of affection, as with the pilot Douglas Bader's dog, & my mother used it for the colour of materials & cottons without any racial overtones whatsoever.

[Theland]

A darn site better than that rubbish spewed out by Zephaniah.

[allenlondon]

You CAN’T divorce words like (-)igger from its awful origins.

Douglas Bader, Khandro’s mother, whoever, many of AB’s correspondents, anyone in fact who thinks that word is somehow ‘neutral’, should try walking in a black person’s shoes for a while.

[douglas9401]

I'm sure Baldric does that from time to time.

[Khandro]

//try walking in a black person’s shoes for a while.//

A whiff of virtue signalling there perhaps?

[iluvmargie]

Another brilliant poem.

[margarettom]

What’s the Henry and John reference though Khandro?

[Khandro]

I really don't know Margaret. Henry James would have been one of his contemporaries (just), he was the great American author who loved Europe & in fact became a British citizen - it might be a dig at him.

John? dunno; Benét wrote a novel called 'John Brown's Body', but I've haven't read it.

[margarettom]

Henry and John appear to be a mystery, judging by my research on Google. The poem would be much better for me without that verse. A pity, because it’s a great poem otherwise.

[Khandro]

The more I think about it, & I hadn't before, "Henry" would most likely be Henry James, he would be most apt within the context of the poem.

[Khandro]

Margaret: My curiosity aroused about your 'Henry & John' question, I contacted a friend who is extremely knowledgeable about poetry & literature (& much else!) & he agrees with me about about Henry James, and on 'John' says, "Possibly the novelist John Dos Passos, who was a contemporary of Benét, and travelled a lot in Europe after the Great War."

That's about the best we can do.