Selected Poems

by Louis Zukofsky, Charles Bernstein (Editor)

With an ear tuned to the most delicate musical effects, an eye for exact and heterogeneous details, and a mind bent on experiment, Louis Zukofsky was preeminent among the radical Objectivist poets of the 1930s. This is the first collection to draw on the full range of Zukofsky's poetry-containing short lyrics, versions of Catullus, and generous selections from "A", his 24-part"poem of a life"-and provides a superb introduction to a modern master of whom the critic Guy Davenport has written: "Every living American poet worth a hoot has stood aghast before the steel of his integrity."

The most formally radical poet to emerge among the second wave of American modernists, Louis Zukofsky continues to influence younger poets attracted to the rigor, inventiveness, and formal clarity of his work. Born on New York's Lower East Side in 1904 to emigrant parents, Zukofsky achieved early recognition when he edited an issue of Poetry devoted to the Objectivist poets, including George Oppen and Charles Reznikoff. In addition to an abundance of short lyrics and a sound-based version of the complete poems of Catullus, he worked for most of his adult life on the long poem "A" of which he said: "In a sense the poem is an autobiography: the words are my life."

Zukofsky's work has been described as difficult although he himself said: "I try to be as simple as possible." In the words of editor Charles Bernstein, "This poetry leads with sound and you can never go wrong following the sound sense... Zukofsky loved to create patterns, some of which are apparent and some of which operate subliminally... Each word, like a stone dropped in a pond, creates a ripple around it. The intersecting ripples on the surface of the pond are the pattern of the poem." Here for the first time is a selection designed to introduce the full range of Zukofsky's extraordinary poetry.

Genres: Poetry

200 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 2006

About the author

Louis Zukofsky was one of the most important second-generation American modernist poets. He was co-founder and primary theorist of the Objectivist group of poets and was to be an important influence on subsequent generations of poets in America and abroad.

Reviews

[robin friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis Zukofsky In The American Poets Project

The American poet Louis Zukofsky (1904 -- 1978) was born in New York City to Orthodox Jewish immigrants. He attended Columbia University and soon became a leading practitioner of modernist poetry. Zukofsky's poetry is difficult. My interest in Zukofsky stemmed from my admiration for the work of his friend, also a child of immigrants, the fellow- poet Charles Reznikoff (1894 -- 1976). Zukofsky and Reznikoff were both part of the "Objectivist" school of modern American poetry. Zukofsky wrote an essay about his friend in which he identified the crucial elements of Objectivist poetry as sincerity and objectivity.

Edited by Charles Bernstein, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania, this book of Zukofsky's Selected Poems (2006) offers a broad and challenging introduction to Zukofsky's work which is notoriously resistant to being excerpted or paraphrased. Bernstein's introduction offers wise advice in reading the volume. Readers should concentrate on the musicality and flow of the language rather than on puzzling out the meaning. They should try to see the work and the volume as a whole. And they should not get discouraged. I had tried reading Zukofsky before and given up. I almost gave up again with this volume but was able to become involved with much of the poetry.

Zukofsky had a long career, and this anthology spans his writing from the early 1920s to just before the poet's death. It is best to read the book straight through rather than to skip around. The selections include a variety of long and short poems together with Zukofsky's translations of the Roman poet Catullus.

The poetry is varied. It manages to be both personal and to lack reference to self. The poems are allusive with a great deal of word play. His parents and his wife and son play large roles in the book. The poems respond to the Depression and Zukofsky was for a time a Marxist. They look back upon the Judaism of his parents and upon the continued role of Judaism in Zukofsky's secular life. Zukofsky was influenced by Marx early on. The influence of Spinoza on Zukofsky and on his secular Judaism ultimately was much stronger. The poetry is involved with the beauty of music and the beauty of language. The poems almost always adopt a particular form, sometimes traditional such as the sonnet. More often Zukofsky's form involves writing five-word lines and stanzas of a fixed length.

Three lengthy poems are represented in this collection, and Zukofsky's work revolves around them. The "Poem Beginning 'The'" is an early work which brought Zukofsky to the attention of Ezra Pound. It is excerpted here. A poem titled "4 Other Countries" dates from the mid-1950s and is given in full. Zukofsky's masterwork which occupied him from 1928 to 1974 is titled simply "A". It runs over 800 pages and consists of 24 parts, one for each hour of the day. The poem is meant to depict Zukofsky's life. The poem has been described as the most "hermetic" in English -- highly personal and impenetrable. This anthology offers substantial excerpts from several parts of "A" to give the reader a flavor of the work.

The short poems and the Catullus translations are on the whole more accessible than the longer poems. Late in his life, Zukofsky composed a work titled "80 Flowers" which I struggled to read at one time. Excerpts are presented here. These poems are highly obscure but moving.

I struggled with this book but was able to enjoy most of it with the exception of part 23 of "A", a poem of 100o with five words in each line. Part 23 is reproduced in full in this book. I found it opaque.

With the warning against excerpting Zukofsky, here is a short passage from "A" part 12 about Zukofsky's father that I found moving.

"Rabbi Pinchas: It teaches a man,
There is no one who is not
every minute
Taught by his soul.
A disciple: If that is so
Why does it not rule?
Rabbi Pinchas: The soul teaches,
It never repeats. "

This book of Zukofsky's selected poems is part of the American Poets Project published by the Library of America. The short, beautifully produced books in this series perform an invaluable service in introducing readers to, in its words, "the full scope of our poetic heritage". Readers may enjoy the opportunity to explore the variety and creativity of poetry written in the United States through these volumes. Zukofsky's work, while it will likely never be popular, has an esteemed place in the American practice of poetry.

Robin Friedman

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The pros will quibble over the sense of excerpting Zukofsky, which Z. himself tried to prevent in his lifetime. But it's hard to see this book as anything less than a vindication of the quiet, steady devotion Zukofsky showed to poetry over his productive life. Charles Bernstein, who's about the best ambassador the avant-garde's got to the publishing mainstream, is a great choice for the project: his selections are sympathetic and smart, aware of the larger work while giving you enough tantalizing bits to satisfy a healthy curiosity. I doubt Z.'s work has ever reached as broad an audience as it will here: it may be just the end run around the growing Zukofsky industry his poetry needs to find fresh readers.

[Nothing · Rating 5 out of 5]

nothing nothing nothing. better.

[Nico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zukofsky’s poetry is some of the most beautiful music written. His work in excerpted form is given lots of great care and attention by another fantastic poet, Charles Bernstein. As with most “selected poems” (a poet’s greatest hits album right?) it gives a sense of what kind of poet Zukofsky was and a sense of his work. As someone else notes, Zukofsky tried to resist excerpting of his work, especially his major life work “A” but Bernstein really does a great job here at producing a portrait of Zukofsky’s poetry. While it doesn’t stand for the whole work obviously, it does work to provoke larger interest into his poetry as a whole giving a reader a taste of his work over his life from “Poem Beginning ‘The’”, “4 Other Countries, and large sections of “A,” especially the entirety of “A-23” which definitely blew me away. I still am unsure of what to make of it, but I love it! As Bernstein notes in his, also wonderful, introduction, when you cannot follow the sense, follow the sound and it will lead you. Zukofsky and the Objectivist poets stand in part towards where the LANGUAGE poets wld take meaning-making towards a community of readers that generate meaning from a text that isn’t meant to be received as commodity. Of course, in doing so, it can make the work seem obscure, confusing, hard to read and interpret. But make no doubt about it, Zukofsky’s precision and sound is beautiful, as he himself tells us of his poetics: “An integral / Lower limit speech / Upper limit music” (102). Zukofsky is a musician of words much in the same way that Coolidge is. Albeit Zukofsky is more of a modern composer compared to Coolidge’s free jazz. With that being said — Zukofsky is never confusing or obscure to be so, rather in trying to make a new poetics one will inevitably have to chart work that is unknown, it it is beyond accepted limits. To create a new poetry one must work within that space of the “new,” new sense, new syntax, new forms, and ultimately new meanings. At least in the range this selected gives, Zukofsky is accomplished in truly creating a new sense of poetry that wld carry on into the postmoderns, the “New Americans” in carrying on this newness of poetic forms and content. From LANGUAGE to the New York School they are indebted to what Zukofsky did to American poetry. Dare I say even more so than Pound!

But in taking this great selection of Zukofsky’s work, I look forward to actually taking the time to delve into the entirety of “A” and his other work. “Poem Beginning ‘The’” and “4 Other Countries” also really blew me away. Just an incredible and majorly influential poet through and through.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hey, this guy is cool! The sense of a poem as a thing-- a language-marble
with veins of experience, passing thought, rumor, passion, erudition etc
running through it-- might have been first articulated by Williams, but it's
hypertrophied in these forbidding, beautiful poems. Read "Poem Beginning 'The'"
or "Bottom on Shakespare" or "80 Flowers" (something I'll give to every undergrad
class I'll teach from now now) or his valentines and you'll see what I mean.
This rigid, sculptural quality to the poems I found ultimately a little less
human than some of my favorite poets, but these poems are (1) refreshing to
my sometimes passion-saturateable brain and (2) more fun for me to read than other
Objectivist poets.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Like his own sweetheart's is love's disposition
So that his pleasure it seems has her assurance,
Breaking with durance to stand where he surges,
Not that the fleet darts of beauty lack vision,
Rather tried measure of fear is your pure answer
to man's prurience when high spirit urges:—
And no one's able to know love by its features,
Complete ewers of whiteness aim to contain it,
Whose ears retain it the same don't see 'ts figure,
Coming from it man's led eye on love's trigger
Away from colour and apart from all creatures
Where sutures in darkness take the light, plane it,
Fraud can't sustain it, say faith is love's rigour
So that kindness comes forth but from his vigour.'

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Z was the main man of the Objectivist movement, but this is an unfortunately poor collection of his work. His son, Paul, heavily monitors his father's literary estate, so putting together collections and reprints is an apparently difficult and costly venture. We read the selections from "A" and 80 Flowers and his riff on Waste Land titled "Poem Beginning 'The.'" His work gets increasingly interested in formal experimentation and the sound/musicality of words in particular. Interesting to compare his objectivism with Williams.

[Vittorio · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book plays with language wonderfully, and there are traces of T.S. Eliot, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein in the work. Even the poems I didn't understand had a way of getting under my skin. The concept writing as a way of playing with language can produce wonderful results. Joe Roarty recommended that I also read Spicer's work (I have heard he is similar).

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A poet i need someone to teach me. I would give it 5 stars, but i had to skip a chunk of the excerpt from "A" because it was too overwhelming to read on the subway. That being said, there are some unbelievable poems in this book, and the restlessness of the intellect behind them makes them hum. I think Zukofsky enjoyed the hell out of writing.

[Christopherseelie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great read, especially aloud. At times, though, Zukofsky eludes me. The musicality of the poems is undeniable, but when you are deep in the epic poem A-12" it can be overwhelming. Still, "Poem beginning "The"" is now one of my favorites of modernist lit.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

"16"

[Dave Tilley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was my first introduction to Zukofsky and is a great book for that purpose. A selection that is approachable and with good commentary.

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recognize the importance of Zukofsky. The power and invention of his poetry is evident. His poetic voice is strong, and his subject matter is broad. He even accomplished a magnum opus (the title is simple enough, "A", but the poem itself is pages) comparable to Pound's Cantos and Merrill's Changing Light at Sandover.

This being my introduction to Zukofsky, I enjoyed many of the poems in the collection, but overall I failed to connect with the poet.

Here's an interesting coincidence... I finished the collection February the 11th, and the collection contains a selection of his poems from SONGS OF DEGREES...

1.
With
a Valentine
(the 12 February)

Hear, her
Clear
Mirror
Care
His error.
In her
Care
Is clear.


2.
With
a Valentine
(the 14 February)

Hear her
(Clear mirror)
Care.
His error.
In her care -
Is clear.

Hear, her
Clear
Mirror,
Care
His error.
In her,
Care
Is clear.

Hear her
Clear mirror
Care his error
In her care
Is clear
(pg. 30-31)


Perhaps I liked this particular poem because it was reminiscent of Gertrude Stein. In many of his poems, Zukofsky uses techniques that are similiar (in some cases identical) to techniques employed by Stein. This is also evident in Julia's Wild...

Come shadow, come, and take this shadow up,
Come shadow shadow, come and take this up,
Come, shadow, come, and take this shadow up,
Come, come shadow, and take this shadow up,
Come, come and shadow, take this shadow up,
Come, up, come shadow and take this shadow,
And up, come, take shadow, come this shadow,
And up, come, come shadow, take this shadow,
And come shadow, come up, take this shadow,
Come up, come shadow this, and take shadow,
Up, shadow this, come and take shadow, come
Shadow this, take and come up shadow, come
Take and come, shadow, come up, shadow this,
Up, come and take shadow, come this shadow,
Come up, take shadow, and come this shadow,
Come and take shadow, come up this shadow,
Shadow, shadow come, come and take this up,
Come, shadow, take, and come this shadow, up,
Come shadow, come, and take this shadow up,
Come, shadow, come, and take this shadow up.
(pg. 155)

[Mat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic selection of poems of one of the most overlooked poets in Modernist poetry.

Not only is this book attractive and compact, it really provides a tasty sampler of the best parts of Zukofsky's work. Sections from his most famous work of poetry, "A", plus his groundbreaking debut, 'Poem Beginning 'The'' as well as a generous sample of other highlights from throughout his career, including sections from his final difficult work, 80 Flowers, are all here.

This book seriously whet my appetite and i know i'll be reading more and more Zukofsky from now on. What especially struck me is his brilliant ear for the sounds of words, which began at a young age when he read all the works of William Shakespeare first in his native Yiddish and then English. He also simplified Pound's three types of poetry, phanopoeia, melopoeia and logopoeia, into the easier to digest version of solid-state (vivid imagery), liquid-state (musically-inclined poetry) and gas-state (abstract poetry rich in symbolism etc.).

Zukofsky's life and work is a prime example of what can happen when a great talent (perhaps genius) is not properly appreciated by society partly due to Zukofsky's own hopeless competence for self-promotion. That largely explains why Pound's work is better known than Zukofsky's - Pound knew how to promote his work, Joyce's work and Eliot's work. Zukofsky came a little later, in Joyce's final days, when the Modernist movement was drawing to a close.

However, thanks to the wonderful scholarship of Hugh Kenner, Guy Davenport, Mark Scroggins, Michele Leggott, Cid Corman and others, people interested in poetry are slowly beginning to realize how great a poet Zukofsky was. Still, Zukofsky's work is difficult like Pound's so I recommend using the great online site devoted to LZ's work as a reference while you're reading these poems.
Overall, i must say that this is simply brilliant.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I shall go back to my mother's grave after this war
Because there are those who'll still speak of loyalty
In the outskirts of Baltimore
Or wherever Jews are not the right sort of people,
And say to her one of the dead I speak to--
There are less Jews left in the world,
While they were killed
I did not see you in a dream to tell you,
And that I now have a wife and son.

Then I shall go and write of my country,
Have a job all my life
Seldom write with grace again, be part of the world,
See every man in forced labor,
Dawn only where suburbs are restricted
To people who take trains every morning,
Never the gentleness that can be,
The hope of the common man, the eyes that love leaves
Any shade, thought or thing that makes all man uncommon,

But always the depraved bark
Fight or work,
Dawn the red poster, the advertiser's cock crow,
Sunset a lack of wonder, the lone winged foot of
Mercury in tie with a tire,
The fashion model
Her train stopped in the railroad cut
Looking up to a billboard of herself
As she goes home to her small son asleep,

So early and so late in the fortunes that followed
me from my mother's grave
A lovely air follows her
And the dead President who is worth it:
'Dear death, like peace, I end not speaking,
The chitchat has died
And the last smile is unwilled
I am dead, I can't talk
To blossoms or spring in the world.'

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some experimental/avant garde poetry can be liberating -- breaking language out of the confines of usage, meaning and tradition. I didn't, however, get that sense in Zukofsky. There is very little sparkle or magic.

I thought the Catullus "translations" were the most interesting poems. The rest blended together into pages of piled up words.

If you enjoy groundbreaking poetry, this collection is worth exploring. Otherwise, most people can skip it.

[Justapl · Rating 5 out of 5]

k0z4k

[Gene · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating doesn't reflect my admiration for Zukofsky's poetry. It's a rating of this edition, which I ind disappointing. But, then, I'm just a grouch!

[Matt Morris]

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