Parallax

by Nancy Cunard

Appearing for the first time in digital format, "Parallax" (1925) by Nancy Cunard is a largely forgotten and under-appreciated long poem from the modernist era. Although it was greatly inspired by T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" (1922), "Parallax" is far more nuanced. Cunard refers to and toys with Eliot's pessimistic and bleak worldview, with multiple references, metaphors, and layers upon layers of meaning.

The word "parallax" is defined as "the effect whereby the position or direction of an object appears to differ when viewed from different positions, e.g. through the viewfinder and the lens of a camera." A fitting title for such a carefully crafted poem.

Some of the references within the poem may have been addressed to other writers, not only Eliot, for Cunard was a lover and a muse to many of her contemporaries.

The poem is faithfully all the spelling, formatting, and punctuation have been preserved just as they appeared in the first edition printed in 1925. "Parallax" is impressive, starkly beautiful, and an unjustly ignored masterpiece of modern literature. Everyone, from an average person to a scholar, will find something moving and beautiful within its words.

Nancy Cunard (10 March 1896 – 17 March 1965) was a British writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class, and devoted much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the 20th century's most distinguished writers and artists, including Wyndham Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Tristan Tzara, Ezra Pound and Louis Aragon—who were among her lovers—as well as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Langston Hughes, Man Ray and William Carlos Williams. MI5 documents reveal that she was involved with Indian socialist leader V. K. Krishna Menon.

Genres: Poetry

19 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1925

About the author

Nancy Clara Cunard was a writer, heiress and political activist. She was born into the British upper class but strongly rejected her family's values, devoting much of her life to fighting racism and fascism. She became a muse to some of the 20th century's most distinguished writers and artists, including Wyndham Lewis, Aldous Huxley, Tristan Tzara, Ezra Pound and Louis Aragon, who were among her lovers, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Langston Hughes, Man Ray, and William Carlos Williams.

She moved to Paris in the 1920's, where she became involved with literary Modernism, Surrealists and Dada. In 1928 she set up the Hours Press. Cunard wanted to support experimental poetry and provide a higher-paying market for young writers; her inherited wealth allowed her to take financial risks that other publishers could not. Hours Press became known for its beautiful book designs and high-quality production. It brought out the first separately published work of Samuel Beckett, and also Ezra Pound's Draft of XXX Cantos. Cunard published old friends like George Moore, Norman Douglas, Roy Campbell, Harold Acton, Brian Howard, and Robert Carlton Brown.

In 1928 she began a relationship with Henry Crowder, an African-American jazz musician. She became an activist in matters concerning racial politics and civil rights in the USA. In 1934 she edited the massive Negro Anthology, collecting poetry, fiction, and non-fiction primarily by African-American writers. In the mid-1930s she took up the anti-fascist fight as well, writing about Mussolini's annexation of Ethiopia and the Spanish Civil War. During World War II, Cunard worked, to the point of physical exhaustion, as a translator in London on behalf of the French Resistance.

In later years, Cunard suffered from mental illness and poor health, worsened by alcoholism, poverty, and self-destructive behaviour. She was committed to a mental hospital after a fight with London police; but, after her release, her health declined even further. In 1965, she was found penniless on the streets, her weight having dropped to 60 pounds. She was taken to the Hôpital Cochin in Paris where she died two days later.