Okay, so I've been using a supposed Auden quote for nearly half a decade now... I shared it with Rob who, in a little less toned-down way, said Auden's philosophy was "self indulgent" (ha ha ha, Robby Z!). So, I'm going to retell the story that my poetry professor told me about the fellow and then discuss it.
I've often quoted the poet man as saying that poetry is playing with words. That is a rough summery of this story:
When Auden was teaching at some university (he taught at several including that big Blue one), a student showed up in his office and said, "I want to write poetry."
To which Auden replied, "How come?" and the student said,
"Because I have something to say."
And Auden said, "Then go ahead and say it."
Another student comes into his office and said the same thing. "I want to be a poet.
Auden says, "How come?"
The student says: "I like to play with words."
And Auden says, "Sit down."
Or maybe it was told to me that the student said, "I like words."
So, that's the idea that was put in my head by my poetry-as-lit-professor, Professor Powers while I was simultaneously taking my first poetry/fiction CW class. I liked this idea a lot--that poetry was separate from other writing forms because the author pays more attention to the words, their form, the way they sound--and not just the idea he's trying to convey.
(I don't think this story actually happened. It may have, but has the structure of a joke. I just enjoy the idea)
Rob's argument was that all writing is supposed to communicate, if not, it's masturbating. I agree with him on this--but i think both ideas are correct. I think Auden's poetry is a fine sample of wordplay and profound communication of ideas. I guess what I want to be, as a poet, is someone who can communicate and play at the same time. I think Shakespeare is one of the best at this, that I know anyway, at choosing words that convey ideas in their meaning and their sound. For example, in the Henry V prologue:
"Can this Cockpit hold the vasty fields of France?"
(meaning, can this theater hold the french fields we're trying to portray. Look guys! A reference to cockfighting! Where's the Cadieux?)
Can-This-Cockpit is abrupt sounding, limited sounding, if you will. And "Vasty Feilds of France" sounds huge--especially if you're trying to say it out loud, and the rhythm slows down.
So do you get what I'm saying? Anyway, I love discussing this stuff, and as many of you are poets, I'd like to know your thoughts.
7 comments:
i love reading and writing poetry because i remember my father quoting robert service at the dinner table and because lorca makes me want to learn spanish and because harrison includes a recipe for menudo in his poetry and because sometimes self indulgent writers are Brilliant!! hooray for Wystan Hugh!!!
I always confuse Auden and Houseman. I think it's because they're both two-initial-then-last-name poets. (But I don't confuse them with e.e. cummings or t.s. eliot...huh) Which reminds me have you read "The Invention of Love" yet?
The Auden story is so true, and I'd bet the "play with" wasn't actually part of it. I wouldn't be able to write at all unless I wasn't completely in love with language.
--Eric F-H
Hey Nora, I don't think I have your post-umich email address. Alex and I are going to be up in MI Dec 29-Jan 2 and are hoping to catch up with old friends. Can you email me at eloney (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll pass along the party invite.
Thanks!
Emily
Nora Jean - I love this story. I think it clicks with me because so often I don't know that I have anything to say - until words convince me I do. My initial writing process consists of scribbles in my journal, which I go back to later and say, "Huh. Interesting." And the scribble goes from there.
I think beauty is never separate from meaning. And what is true is always beautiful. I don't think Auden was prioritizing beauty over meaning; I think he was recognizing that attempts to create something beautiful lead a person on a process of discovery, a process which usually produces a greater, deeper meaning than the process which begins with an absolute, and a refusal to be creative: "I have this to say, and I'm not going to say anything else."
I write for totally selfish reasons. I can't say I'm concerned with bettering the world, or educating the reader. Why do I make those first scribbles in my journal? Out of a desperate need to mean...
"In many ways, writing is the act of saying I..." -- Joan Didion
Tell him to read some Auden, and then come back and say if he still thinks Auden's philosophy of writing is self-indulgent. I think what Auden was referring to was not the attitude you have about the product or effect of your writing, but the spirit of experimentation and creation with which you approach writing, the genesis. If each time I sat down to write I said to myself, "I'm sitting down to write because I Have Something to Say," I would never write anything at all. What if I'm a child, and I don't have a lot of experience or "wisdom" to communicate? What if I just write down a funny litle idea every once in a while that I don't want to forget, and maybe sometimes it turns into a poem? So what is this elusive "Something" that we have to be saying? Something uplifting? Redeeming? Moral? Entertaining? Why does art have to shoulder this burden? Of course a message emerges of its own accord--we all have joy and pain and struggle to communicate, connections we want to cast out into the world--but starting out with such an axe to grind is so paralyzing to me.
I tried to see if I could find confirmation of your Auden anecdote on the internet but all I could find were stories of him taking down curtains and carrying rugs upstairs to put on his bed when he was staying at peoples houses and that he was very ciritical of other's cooking.
Also I agree with Rachel. In fact nothing can be so self indulgent as thinking one has "something to say" or at least that others want to hear it. Sure art is communication but in a way wholly different than "saying something." Like Mamet says about drama, if you try to make a play that says racism is bad your audience will will come away thinking, that play validated what I already thought, aren't I great. Good drama however, he says, leaves us feeling that there is something greater than ourselves and that comes not from any noble message but an understanding of our need for drama. It is you that hath made us and not we ourselves.
In closing here's a chorus from a Wynonna Judd song, surely the Auden of her generation.
"I said, hey hey, ole Wynonna's got something to say
Oh, oh, you know I know what I'm talkin' about
There's two ways to take what this old life's gonna throw at you
You can choose to win or lose, it's all about attitude"
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