American Poetry Now: Pitt Poetry Series Anthology

From The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser

 4 MurieL rukeyser Muriel Rukeyser,who died in 0,was a Guggenheim Fellow and a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies, a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets award, and president of PEN American Center, among many other honors. She also was oneof thejudgesforthePittPoetrySeries’sfirstbookcontests.Itisn’teasytomake a short selection of her work since many of her best and most characteristic poems arequitelong,butIthoughtitwasimportanttoincludehervoiceinthisanthology. She was enormously influential for many of the poets who came of age during the 0s and 0s—particularly those influenced by second-wave feminism—and those poets in their turn influenced a younger generation.Erica Jong called Rukeyser “themotherof usall.” More particularly,over the course of a long life in poetry,Rukeyser wrote powerful and groundbreaking examples of the “political”poem.Since the 0s,when Senator Joe McCarthy conducted witch hunts against supposed communists in government, the universities, and the arts, through the present, when prominent members of a proudly right-wing regime suggest that protest against the use of torture and the doctrine of unprovoked war is somehow un-American,the political poem has been in critical eclipse.In the middle of the last century the most influential academic critics airily dismissed the possibilities of the political poem.Rene Wellek and Austin Warren wrote,“literature is no substitute for sociology or politics .Ithasitsownjustificationandaim”(Theoryof Literature).CleanthBrookswrote that if “truth”is what we expect from poetry,we could “argue with the Marxist criticsof thethirtiesforapropagandaart”(“Keats’sSylvanHistorian”). These “new critics” were concerned with investigating and describing the structural principles of literature, and their work in that area is still valuable. But their prejudice against “political” subjects seems illogical unless we view it as a reflection of the political reaction of their time. Why should an elegy for a young, middle-class girl (John Crowe Ransom’s “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter,” a good poem widely admired by such critics) be a proper subject for a poem,but an elegyforthevictimsof theMyLaimassacrenotbe?Inanyevent,manyof themajor poets of the twentieth century—Pablo Neruda,Bertolt Brecht,and Adrienne Rich, forexample—havewrittenaboutpoliticalandsocialissues,asdomanyofthepoets FROM THE COLLECTED POEMS OF MURIEL RUKEYSER in this anthology and other contemporaries.The antipolitical bias of last century’s academics is still strong among some conservative critics, but—increasingly—it seemsalmostquaint. Rukeyser’s reputation, however, suffered because of that bias. Her courage in thefaceof itisonereasonthepoetStanleyKunitzcalledheroneof thebulwarksof twentieth-centuryAmericanpoetry. The poems in this section appear in The Collected Poems of Muriel Rukeyser,ed.Janet Kaufman and AnneHerzogwithJanHellerLevi(Pittsburgh:Universityof PittsburghPress,00).  4 MurieL rukeyser  4 MurieL rukeyser Poem Ilivedinthefirstcenturyof worldwars. MostmorningsIwouldbemoreorlessinsane, Thenewspaperswouldarrivewiththeircarelessstories, Thenewswouldpouroutof variousdevices Interruptedbyattemptstosellproductstotheunseen. Iwouldcallmyfriendsonotherdevices; Theywouldbemoreorlessmadforsimilarreasons. SlowlyIwouldgettopenandpaper, Makemypoemsforothersunseenandunborn. InthedayIwouldberemindedof thosemenandwomen Brave,settingupsignalsacrossvastdistances, Consideringanamelesswayof living,of almostunimaginedvalues. Asthelightsdarkened,asthelightsof nightbrightened, Wewouldtrytoimaginethem,trytofindeachother. Toconstructpeace,tomakelove,toreconcile Wakingwithsleeping,ourselveswitheachother, Ourselveswithourselves.Wewouldtrybyanymeans Toreachthelimitsof ourselves,toreachbeyondourselves, Toletgothemeans,towake. Ilivedinthefirstcenturyof thesewars. The Bill (from “The Book of the Dead”) Thesubcommitteesubmits: Yourcommitteeheldhearings,heardmanywitnesses;finds: THATtheHawk’sNesttunnelwasconstructed DennisandRinehart,Charlottesville,Va.,for NewKanawhaPowerCo.,subsidiaryof UnionCarbide&CarbonCo. THATatunnelwasdrilled app.dist..mis. todivertwater(fromNewRiver) tohydroelectricplant(GauleyJunction).  4 MurieL rukeyser THATinmostof thetunnel,drilledrockcontained 0—evenpercentpuresilica. Thisisafactthatwasknown. THATsilicaisdangeroustolungsof humanbeings. Whensubmittedtocontact.Silicosis. THATtheeffectsarewellknown. Diseaseincurable. Physicalincapacity,casesfatal. THATtheBureauof Mineshaswarnedfortwentyyears. THATpreventionis:wetdrilling,ventilation, respirators,vacuumdrills. Disregard:utter.Dust:collected.Visibility:low. Workmenleftwork,whitewithdust. Airsystem:inadequate. Itwasquitecloudyinthere. Whenthedrillsweregoing,inallthesmokeanddust, itseemedlikeagangof airplanesgoingthrough thattunnel. Respirators,notfurnished. Ihaveseenmenwithmasks,butsimplyontheirbreasts. Ihaveseentwowearthem. Drills:drydrilling,forspeed,forsaving. Afellowcoulddrillthreeholesdryforoneholewet. Theywentsofasttheydidn’tsquareatthetop. Locomotives:gasoline.Sufferingfrommonoxidegas. Therehavebeenmenthatfellinthetunnel.Theyhad tobecarriedout. Thedrivingof thetunnel. Itwasbegun,continued,completed,withgravestdisregard. Andtheemployees?Theirhealth,lives,future? Resultsandinfection. Manydied.Manyarenotyetdead. Of negligence.Wilfulorinexcusable.  4 MurieL rukeyser Furtherfindings: Prevalence:manyStates,mine,tunneloperations. Agreatestmenace. Wesuggesthearingsberead. Thisisthedark.Lightsstrungupalltheway. Depression;and,drivendeeperin, byhunger,pistols,anddespair, theytookthetunnel. Of thecontractingfirm P.H.Faulconer,Pres. E.J.Perkins,Vice-Pres. havedeclinedtoappear. Theyhavenoknowledgeof deathsfromsilicosis. However,theirfirmpaidclaims. Iwanttopointoutthatunderthestatute$00or $000,butnomore,mayberecovered. Werecommend. Bringthem.Theirbooksandrecords. Investigate.Require. Candonomore. ThesecitizensfrommanyStates payingthepriceforelectricpower, ToBeVindicated. “If bytheirsufferinganddeaththeywillhavemadeafuturelifesaferfor workbeneaththeearth,if theywillhavebeenabletoestablishanew andgreaterregardforhumanlifeinindustry,theirsufferingmaynot havebeeninvain.” Respectfully, GlennGriswold Chairman,Subcommittee VitoMarcantonio W.P.Lambertson MatthewA.Dunn Thesubcommitteesubcommits. Wordsonamonument. Capitolinethunder.Itcannotbeenough. Theoriginof stormsisnotinclouds, ourlightningstrikeswhentheearthrises, spillwaysfreeauthenticpower: deadJohnBrown’sbodywalkingfromatunnel tobreakthearmoredandconcludedmind. Bubble of Air Thebubblesinthebloodsprangfree, cryingfromroots,fromDarwin’sbeard. Theangelof thecentury stoodonthenightandwouldbeheard; turnedtomydreamof tearsandsang: Woman,American,andJew, threeguardianswatchoveryou, threelionsof heritage resisttheevilof yourage: life,freedom,andmemory. Andallthedreamscriedfromthecamps andallthesteelof torturerang. Theangelof thecentury stoodonthenightandcriedthegreat notesGiveCreateandFight— whilewar runsthroughyourveins,whilelife abubbleof airstandsinyourthroat, answerthesilenceof theweak: Speak! Children, the Sandbar, that Summer Sunlightthetallwomenmayneverhaveseen. Men,perhaps,goingheadfirstintothebreakers, Butcertainlythechildrenatthesandbar. Shallowglintsinthewavesuspended Weknewatthebreakerline,runningthatshore Atlowtide,whenitwassafe.Thegrasseswhipped  4 MurieL rukeyser [3.140.242.165] Project MUSE (2024-04-26 13:05 GMT...