James Merrill

390 JAMES MERRILL JAMES MERRILL The lucky 18th century reader - having read literally tous les livres - could be trusted to catch every possible allusion. This is no longer the case; some of us substitute word-play to make our texts resound. Or else the mere tone of knowing does the trick. Proust is apt to speak of 'certain works by Poussin' or 'certain minerals whose properties include phosphorescence' when what he means, seeing that he isn't about to name them, is uncertain works and minerals. It makes him sound more authoritative than precise reference could possibly do. Some readers (I am among them) are flattered by an author's assumption that they've read the same poems as he, or know by heart the same music. Others complain of elitism. This means we can't expect them to consult a reference book. The kind of allusion I hope to chance upon lifts the original into a context hitherto unforeseeable. Here is W.H. Auden (in The Changing Light at Sandover) on his own death: MY DEMISE A FORM OF LEAD POISONING: I WENT OFF TO MY ROOM TIDDLY THAT NIGHT BUT HAD IN MIND TO SCRIBBLE A NOTE TO C[hester], & AS I'D DONE SINCE CHILDHOOD SUCKED ON A PENCIL THINKING. NEXT I KNEW, AN ICY SUN SHONE IN UPON THE DEAD WEIGHT OF MY FEATHER QUILT But how does lead Destroy the soul? OJ: They don't use lead Graphite in pencils. LET THE FACT REMAIN (OR FABLE!) THAT I SIPPED IT GRAIN BY GRAIN. OVER THE YEARS ANYTHING FROM AN X RAY TO THE COSMIC RAYS WE'RE ALL EXPOSED TO WD RESIDE UNDISSIPATED IN MY BLOOD & VITAL ORGANS: I BECAME A WALKING NON-CONDUCTING LEADEN CASKET THESE PARTICULAR DESTRUCTIVE ENERGIES HAD FILLED WITH RADIANT WASTE Dear God... & NO BLOND BLUEEYED LATTERDAY BASSANIO TO LIFT THE LID. WE MAKE OUR DEATH MY DEARS. In our Ouija transcripts WHA left it at RADIANT WASTE, in terms made, I thought at first, sufficiently resonant by allusion to 'certain' bits of upto -date science. But of course LEADEN CASKET rang a further bell, and I had no choice but to bring the dear dead poet's trope - of the self imprisoned for lack of a lover's touch - to full ripeness by putting the last lines into his mouth myself. ...