1' PAGE TI O THE MICHIGAN ifAIL 1'F TA7I A~~z1n~IIRMACI 10P A1ZVjI1 long PAGETWO - k.. .... 'in ls1A1.#US1S1M1 r niuAi. iu mAKutt 1y65 Contemporary Poetry Highlights Creative Arts Festival A I 4 Filling her compact and delicious body with chicken paprika, she glanced at me twice. Fainting with interest, I hungered back and only the fact of her husband and four other people kept me from springing on her or falling at her little feet and crying 'You are the hottest one for years of night Henry's dazed eyes have enjoyed, Brilliance.' I advanced upon (despairing) my spumoni.-Sir Bones: is stuffed, de world, wif feeding girls. -Black hair, complexion Latin, jewelled eyes downcast ... The slob besides her [feasts ... What wonders is she sitting on, over there? The restaurant buzzes. She might as well be on Mars. Where did it all go wrong? There ought to be a law against Henry. -Mr. Bones: there is. From 77 Dream Songs -JOHN BERRYMAN f FOR SALE Poor sheepish plaything, organized with prodigal animosity, lived in just a year- my Father's cottage at Beverly Farms was on the market the month he died. Empty, open, intimate, its town-house furniture had an on tiptoe air of waiting for the mover on the heels of the undertaker. Ready, afraid of living alone till eighty, Mother mooned in a window, as if she had stayed on a train one stop past her destination. From Life Studies -ROBERT LOWELL :I t John Berryman Robert Lowell :.. , .. ...._ 1 ' .. t Explore Poetry of Lowell, Berryman, Penn Warren And-now We see, below, The delicate landscape unfurled: A world Of ripeness blent, and green: The fruited earth, Fire on the good hearth, The fireside scene. (Those people have no name, Who shall know dearth And flame.) It is a land of corn and kine. Of milk And wine, And beds that are as silk. The gentle thigh, The unlit night-lamp night. This much was prophesied: We shall possess; And abide --Nothing less. We many not be denied. The inhabitant shall flee as the fox. His foot shall be among the rocks. From History --ROBERT PENN WARRREN EDITOR'S NOTE: The recent flood of breaking local news has created a shortage of space in The Daily which forced the delay of this feature page. It was scheduled to run yesterday before the Robert Penn warren poetry reading. Across Campus, the daily calendar, appears on Page 5. By KAY HOLMES In an age which denies absolutes and defies definition, it is not surprising that the perception of the contemporary poet negates the optimism and the ephemeral world of the romantics. The present is their perspective; the past is barely a heritage, the future is unknown or unknowable. It is this world of the contemporary poet, and the conflicts and quests it holds in relation to his perception of it, that was dis- cussed in the "Panel on Contemporary Poetry" Tuesday evening. An introduction to the three major poets who wil take part in the Creative Arts Festival,-Robert Penn Warren, Robert Lowell, and John Berryman-the poetry symposium was given by Peter M. Wyman, Generation editor George Abbott White, '66, and Tony Stoneburner of the English department. Robert Penn Warren Discussing the work of Robert Penn Warren, Wyman, writer and proprietor of Ann Arbor's poetry bookstore, characterized him as "the rhetorician of the fall of man." For Warren, "the fall" explains the comlexities of experience and the loss of certainty of individual will. In "this fallen world, poetry must be earned and the poet must prove his vision." Poetry for Warren is motion brought to a point of rest; but to be of moment it must be resisted, Wyman said. "This re- sistance to oneness, to God"' embodies the desperate metaphysics of Robert Penn Warren. For him a fine autumn day is "poised between summer's lust and winter's harm." Thus "Promises," written in a year when promises were broken, finds that despite the imbalance, man may obtain a pre- carious poise, Wyman noted. Behind the poise looms the abyss, seen in the images of motion in these "journey poems." Compare Warren, Lowell Comparing Lowell and Warren, Wyman described the former as "escaping into freedom," while Warren "moves from liberation to constriction." Christian innocence can't be purchased by Christ's blood; redemption is an anachronism and man must pay for his sins, for his identity, with his own blood. Hardly "a lyricist of innocence," Warren believes that man's quests are feeble, ren- dered in wasted motion. Discussing Warren's poem "History," Wyman said that "his- tory has nothing to tell us"; all isunfilled, "a seed flung in the wind." The image of motion is countered with transcendent still- ness; in leaving the world of motion, stasis is correlated to iden- tity. The act, the moment alone is pure, for it is static. The quest of the ancestors is similar to the search of modern man; however, for him the pure act is not available, he can but look for its meaning. For him there is no myth of the chosen people; le can't escape the langor for "Time falls, but has no end." Petitions Available for 1966 MICHIGANENSIAN Staff Available in 'Ensian Office, 420 Maynard Due: Saturday, March 20, by noon Interviews to be held Sunday, March 21 For information call: The quest for permanence is the true vocation of mankind," Wyman interpreted. 'T'he absolute is necessary and the absolute is impossible: that is the fall of man." Robert Lowell White characterized the work of Robert Lowell as "written in the midst of action from the world of experience." A "poetry of rebellion," Lowell's works deal with "the conflicts and agonies of coming to terms with contemporary existence." Through the Christian, and New England myths, power reverberates outward and universality is achieved in his regionalism. In his "harsh, rattling style" Lowell evidences a "profound dissatisfaction with humanity and the universe," White said. "The landscapes are strewn with rubble and decay; human successes and conventional love have no place" in his poetry. Lowell's re- volt is complete; however it is against the existent pressures, not against reality itself. "Although Lowell stares into the void, and leans into the abyss, he comes out," White said, and his "poetry reflects acclamation." Lowell's poetry evidences progress because of the myth he em- ploys and because of his growing maturity, White said. His poetry is dense, fragmentary, and moves through powerful allusions. He changes from traditional to naked speech for at the crux of poetry is experience; the rhythm is but the person himself. Lowell's Progression Discussing Lowell's progression, White said that his poetry becomes increasingly specific and concrete. "As the geographical limits contrast the images turn inward," and his poetry becomes an emotional reaction to people and situations. "The revolt has now mellowed to rebellion, and there is a note, of compromise," White said. Life Studies represents. Lowell's "election to reality," White said, "in a rigorous attempt to find out who he is and what he is." In the rejection of one tradition, Protestant heritage, he adheres to another, Catholicism. Similarly, his poetry of rebellion is done in traditional form, and this revolt becomes a rebellion which culminates in acceptance. John Berryman Stoneburner, poet-critic-teacher, characterized John Berry- man's works as that of dislocation and frustration. Frustrated by the quirks of living and society's attempts to deny him, the poetry of Berryman contains a unique combination of humor and terror. The Dispossessed contains brief patches of Yeatsian splendor and juxtaposed wrenching lines, which systematically disappoint one's expectations, Stoneburner said. Metrically symptomatic, for Berryman'never attempts free verse, he illustrates in these poems that "poetry can no longer be one rising splendor," for he inserts "cinders without modulation." Stoneburner described "Homage to Mistress Bradstreet" as a love poem between a 20th century man and a 17th century woman, in which Berryman uses this "science fiction device" of one mind sharing the conscious of two. In this poem "the body is the clue to everything," Stoneburner said. In 77 Dream Songs. Berryman carries the wrenching effect further, in the form of split-level poems, Stoneburner said. Perhaps in using this device of emerging, unconcluded dialogue, Berryman means to illustrate that men are split level, that life is frustrating and unfulfilling. However, the risk of split-level poems, the handful of fragments, is that sometimes they cancel each other out, Stone- burner said. In his reading of Berryman's poetry, Stoneburner demons strated the humor and terror connotations. "The high ones die, die, they die" evidences the complete frustration, the sense of nothing left that some of Berryman's works bear. However, this terrifying void is at other times filled with humor: "Life is boring . . . we must not say so My mother told me, repeatedly That tQ say so means one has no inner resources. I conclude now I have no inner resources." FESTIVAL CALENDAR The following is a calendar of coming events in the Creative Arts Festival: TODAY 8 p.m.-Claudel's drama "L'Annonce Faite a Marie" will be performed in Trueblood Aud. SATURDAY, MARCH 20 8 p.m.-Robert Lowell will read from his poetry in Hill Aud. SUNDAY, MARCH 21 3 p.m. --John Berryman will read from his poetry in the Michigan Union ballroom. TUESDAY, MARCH 23 8 p.m. - Jerome Badanes will read from his poetry in the Union ballroom. FRIDAY, MARCH 26 8 p.m.-Shepherd Mead will lecture on "mass culture" in the Union ballroom. SATURDAY, MARCH 27 8:30 p.m.-The University Mens' Glee Club will perform An Hill Aud. SUNDAY, MARCH 28 3 p.m.-A panel discussion on "In White America" will be held in the Union ballroom. TUESDAY, MARCH 30 8 p.m.-"In White America" will be performed in Trueblood Aud 8:30 p.m.-I Solosti di Zagreb, chamber orchestra, will per form in Rackham Aud. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31 8 p.m.-"In White America" will be performed in Trueblood Aud" 8dp.m.-The Gilbert and Sullivan Society will present "Yeo- men of the Guard" in Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre. iir :i::::"i r%?ir4 ii 'r :iyi{;'S ?{{;:X:' 4 0 . I I Robert Penn Warren I Dioa 662-6264 For the best in Buy at BOOKS FOLLETT'S State Street at N.U. * I '; There will be ; 2nd WEEK AAMM Shows Start at 1 :05-3-5-7 and 9:05 Feature Starts 30 Minutes Later Office Phone . Mike Galle .... Marcia Eiduson . Bruce Anderson Karen Margolis Lois Karch .... 764-0561 663-4877 663-2929 665-6115 662-3225 764-0762 r I t _ 1 11 r zI I I r;I no showings at CINEMA GUILD Friday and Saturday I. I 1 I' CONTINUOUS POPULAR PERFORMANCES I PRICES I STANLEY KRAMER "I'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, ?ANAVISIorM ECHNICOLMW UNITED ARIISIS WORLD" Prices This Attraction Only Matinees $1.25 Eves. & Sun. $1.50 Shows at 1:00 -3:40 -6:25 -9:10 I GUILD HOUSE 802SMonroe NO LUNCHEON THIS FRIDAY By student decision We invite you to participate on the picketline at iI a M COWBOY will be. Q shown on Sunday ----- ---- ---- ---- iir MASS MEETING Newman Center, 331 Thompson Friday, March 19th-8:00 P.M. i AND Z-1 1 Ed A 17-J's U me(& I h, , I a 01 I