The Granite Pail: The Selected Poems

by Lorine Niedecker

Poetry. Edited by Cid Corman. The section headings in this book of poems are all vintage Niedecker, but they stake out the poems in three large masses. The earlier work-apprentice to Zukofsky but finding her voice; the central work—when she discovers her range and depth; the final work—much of it known posthumously—showing how she was probing other voices into a larger plenum. "One's first impulse, after awe, on reading THE GRANITE PAIL is a double dose of shame at not being more familiar with her work; shame at ever having complained of the narrowness of one's life"—Carolyn Kizer.

Genres: Poetry

158 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

Niedecker's earliest poetry was marked by her reading of the Imagists, whose work she greatly admired and of surrealism. In 1931, she read the Objectivist issue of Poetry. She was fascinated by what she saw and immediately wrote to Louis Zukofsky, who had edited the issue, sending him her latest poems. This was the beginning of what proved to be a most important relationship for her development as a poet.

Zukofsky suggested sending them to Poetry, where they were accepted for publication. Suddenly, Niedecker found herself in direct contact with the American poetic avant-garde. Near the end of 1933, Niedecker visited Zukofsky in New York City for the first time and became pregnant with his child. He insisted that she have an abortion, which she did, although they remained friends and continued to carry on a mutually beneficial correspondence following Niedecker's return to Fort Atkinson.

From the mid 1930s, Niedecker moved away from surrealism and started writing poems that engaged more directly with social and political realities and on her own immediate rural surroundings. Her first book, New Goose
Niedecker was not to publish another book for fifteen years. In 1949, she began work on a poem sequence called For Paul, named for Zukofsky's son. Unfortunately, Zukofsky was uncomfortable with what he viewed as the overly personal and intrusive nature of the content of the 72 poems she eventually collected under this title and discouraged publication. Partly because of her geographical isolation, even magazine publication was not easily available and in 1955 she claimed that she had published work only six times in the previous ten years.

Reviews

[Jon Nakapalau · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I discovered Lorine Niedecker; her poems ache with the weight of honesty that is often hard to share - yet she loads this burden slowly and you feel the lightness that comes when the burden is accepted and distributed through the balance of you days.

[Ken]

Thoreau wrote about "Economy" in Walden, but Niedecker wrote about it each time she wrote a poem. In one poem she references spending weeks on six lines. I believe it. There's a certain Emily Dickinson slant to all of this, though she doesn't get drunk on dashes. Wisconsin haiku, almost. And a fan of the rhyme, off and on. Assonance, consonance. And sound device in its time.

I did much prefer poems that focused on nature over those that talked about history. A long "short" poem on Thomas Jefferson, for instance, did less for me than a short "long" poem on the common merganser, who I'm well familiar with. I'll be back to pop a few examples in here.

One thing about this particular book was the spacing. Often I had difficulty telling where one poem ended and another began. Three stars or a line break of some sort would have helped. You'd think the topic and flow would be a dead giveaway, but with Niedecker's style, it's sometimes not obvious where you are just by looking around. Woods. Lakes. And I left my poetic compass at home....

[Halie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All things move toward the light except those that freely work down to oceans' black depths. In us an impulse tests the unknown." -LN

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can't say enough about Lorine Niedecker's unique production. She was an imagist objectivist of unique warmth and candor.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most unadorned, touching poetry I've ever read. Niedecker pulls together farming imagery and emotional arguments with only a word, lending her poems an unusual, piercing wallop.

[v v · Rating 5 out of 5]

So I'm cheating-- I'm always going to be "currently-reading" Niedecker.
Why read Niedecker: I admire Lorine's poetics. Her motto: condensary (a process of taking away, taking away, considering, until you left with the essence of meaning.) Her work, has become part of my poetic lineage.

[Darrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

lorine was one of the greatest of our american poets and her work continues to resonate...

[Jenna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on this sampling of her poetry, one can conclude that Lorine Niedecker was many things. For one, she was the lucky possessor of what was apparently a happy childhood, someone who grew up in the bosom of a functional and loving family, and she wrote about her childhood memories warmly and rejoicingly. She was also apparently a "history buff," a poet who uses anecdotes and firsthand quotes from the great personnages of American history to illuminate her essentially wholesome view of what is good in human nature. Finally, she was a very "centered" woman, a woman who, in her poetry, appeared very much at home with her concept of herself, in a dare-I-say Zen-like way. A true original, and THE true American heir of Basho-&-co.'s much-imitated-but-rarely-achieved "haiku sensibility."

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't pretend that I understood all of this, but I was steadily attracted to Lorine Niedecker's simple verses (a note on my book jacket says she was inspired by the objectivists). I wanted to read her, having heard her described as a constantly underrated and mostly unknown poet of great skill.

Favorites:

(Untitled)

My life is hung up
in the flood
a wave-blurred
portrait

Don't fall in love
with this face --
it no longer exists
in water
we cannot fish

_______________________________

"Poet's work"

Grandfather
advised me:
Learn a trade

I learned
to sit at a desk
and condense

No layoff
from this
condensery

_______________________________



Also liked her series of poems on Thomas Jefferson. Appealing for their scope and content and also to me, living in the town of his making.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange and quiet and faraway. She writes poems about evolution, water, plants, floods, birds, Thomas Jefferson. Often she is the only person in the poem, by dint of her writing it. Dispatches from somewhere the rest of the Objectivists would probably not recognize; the energy Zukofsky gets from NYC, she gets from her tiny flooded Wisconsin island, and yet there is almost a sense of the alien being nearly figure-out-able, with the haze of processing fogging the corners.

[Israel Lawton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly inspiring collection of poetry, one of my favorite discoveries of this year. Niedecker's verse is visual and sparse, tapping into that archaic art of the unsaid contrasting with the blunt. The words tug at implications, and from their strife comes a feeling of melancholic peace. There is humor, personal recollections, heartbreak and the vast unfathomable canvas that is nature. This is poetry to be read late at night while lovesick, or in the park at noon with a sweetheart.

[Gerardo]

This book is an amazing creation because Loraine's style trascends the common conventions of poetry. Her poetry is really short and direct. I really liked her caesura and her pauses which create an important rhythm in her poetry. "The Granite Pail" is an amazing collection of short poems...really good...

[Ed Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read this twice and I keep going back to
Lorine Niedecker.

Her poems seem simple but they are full of life and how she lived on an island most of her life amazes me. She did attend college but
her correspondence with William Carlos Williams and Louis Zukosky
interests me the most. I have read at least twice many 3 times
I love her work into poetry.

[Gale Hemmann]

For those who love poetry, Lorine Niedecker's work is a quiet treasure. It is hard to believe that until recently she was left out of the Imagist/Objectivist movements in poetry (probably due to being a rural, isolated woman poet at the time). I find her work delightfully well-crafted, playful, and engaging. Definitely worth discovering her if you haven't already!

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fellow poet dropped this in my lap. the way ms. niedecker drops and cuts lines and ideas and carries them over from line to line.

the way she wrote about her parents' graves and a clothesline. of course i loved her.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unbelievably brief. One of the so called 'condensari.' These poems are great and spawned the greatest comment on Freudian psychology ever. Something like: "An owl lands on a fence post. What does it symbolize? An owl, landing on a fence post." Can't look it up right now. Will later.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my all time favorite books of poetry. It literally changed my life. I consider it a touchstone. The first fifteen pages or so contain tiny, momentary poems that I think even non-poetry-readers will find beautiful.

[e · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niedecker has such a unique voice.
Althoug we are not always privy to the characters and settings in her universe, the poems resonate. She needs only use a few words to create vivid images. She works to encapsulate the essence of things.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book right after first reading Oppen when I was 19 and the combo opended poetry for me. I like to think N teaches me how to listen with poems.

[Noel Fagerhaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

beautiful, concise, spacious, tidal, slow moving, haunting, poetry

[Stephanie Edwards · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very sparse and minimalist. If you like sparse and minimalist, this is a beautiful book. If not, you will probably chuck it across the room.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where you been all my life, Lorine?

[Holly Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read at a little rocky beach in Maine-- Land's End I think. Pretty ideal.

[Lauren Bingham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread this book & fell in love with Niedecker all over again. Our lady of the water is the ultimate reclusive word thug.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Someday soon I will review.

[Yong Xiang · Rating 5 out of 5]

in awe of these luminous & nimble poems. "paean to place" is an all-timer that alone merits 5 stars, but the use of sound & space is brilliant throughout. niedecker has an unmistakeable voice that manages to be sincere & empathetic while also wry & cerebral. she's also super attentive to nature & people, which really shows up in the later poems. after decades, her work remains refreshing & delightful to read.


The graves

You were my mother, thorn apple bush,
armed against life's raw push.
But you my father catalpa tree
stood serene as now — he refused to see
that the other woman, the hummer he shaded
‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎ ‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎hotly cared
for his purse petals falling —
‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎ ‎‎ ‎‎‎his mind in the air.


from Paean to Place

Fish
          fowl
                    flood
          Water lily mud
My life

in the leaves and on water
My mother and I
                             born
in swale and swamp and sworn
to water

[Marianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

the brilliance of brevity

and therefore one that cannot be read quickly

[David Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easter Greeting

I suppose there is nothing
so good as human
immediacy

I do not speak loosely
of handshake
which is

of the mind
or lilies- stand closer-
smell

-Lorine Niedecker


Sewing a dress

The need
these closed-in days

to move before you
smooth-draped
and color-elated

in a favorable wind

-Lorine Niedecker in
"Traces of Living Things" in
The Granite Pail, pg. 67

"...I was the solitary plover
a pencil
for a wing-bone
From the secret notes I must tilt

upon the pressure
execute and adjust
In us sea-air rhythm
'We live by the urgent wave
of the verse'..."

-Lorine Niedecker from
"Paean to Place" in
The Granite Pail, pg. 71

[Emily Winecke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is poetry that reminds me why I love poetry. Also, Niedecker spent the majority of her life in Southern Wisconsin and wrote of it with stunning, spare beauty. We should all be so lucky to have such a talented poet love the places we love.

[M.W.P.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember my little granite pail?
The handle of it was blue.
Think what's got away in my life -
Was enough to carry me thru.
- Untitled (pg. 7)

Lorine Niedecker. One of the forgotten women of American poetry. Her work has survived thanks in part to Cid Corman, editor of this selection and, according to the Introduction, "her literary executor [...] because she knew I deeply shared her desire to let her work be known".

The Granite Pail includes a selection of Niedecker's early poems ( My Friend Tree ), along with poems from North Central and Harpsichord & Salt Fish ...

My friend tree
I sawed you down
but I must attend
an older friend
the sun
 - Untitled from My Friend Tree (pg. 4)


In every part of every living thing
is stuff that once was rock

In blood the minerals
of the rock

*

Iron the common element of earth 
in rock and freighters

Sault Sainte Marie - big boats
coal-black and iron-ore-red
topped with what white castlework

The waters working together
 internationally
Gully playing both sides

*

Radisson:
'a laborinth of pleasure'
this world of the Lake

Long hair, long gun

Fingernails pulled out
by Mohawks

*

(The long canoes)

'Birch Bark
 and white Sedar
 for the ribs'

*

Through all this granite land
the sign of the cross

Beauty: impurities in the rock

*

And at the blue ice superior spot
priest-robed Marquette grazed
azoic rock, hornblende granite
basalt the common dark
in all the Earth

And his bones of such is coral
raised up out of his grave
were sunned and birch-bark-floated
to the straits

*

Joliet

Entered the Mississippi
Found there the paddleball catfish
comes down from The Age of Fishes

At Hudson Bay he conversed in latin
with an Englishman

To Labrador and back to vanish 
His funeral gratis - he'd played
Quebec's Cathdedral organ
so many winters

*

Ruby of corundum
lapis lazuli
from changing limestone
glow-apricot red-brown
carnelian sard

Greek named
Exodus-antique
kicked up in America's
Northwest
you have been in my mind
between my toes
agate

*

Wild pigeon

Did not man
 maimed by no
 stone-fall

mash the cobalt
 and carnelian
 of that bird

*

Schoolcraft left the Soo - canoes
US pennants, masts, sails
chanting canoemen, barge
soldiers - for Minnesota

Their South Shore journey
 as if Life's -
The Chocolate River
 The Laughing Fish
and The River of he Dead

Passed peaks of volcanic thrust
Hornblende in massed granite
Wave-cut Cambrian rock
painted by soluble mineral oxides
wave-washed and the rains
did their work and a green
running as from copper

Sea-roaring caverns -
Chippewas threw deermeat
to the savage maws
'Voyageurs crossed themselves 
tossed a twist of tobacco in'

*

 Inland then
beside the great granite
gneiss and then schists

to the resolent pondy lakes'
lilies, flag and Indian reed
'through which we successfully
 passed'

*

The smooth black stone
I picked up in the true source park
 the lead beside it
once was stone

Why should we hurry 
 home

*

I'm sorry to have missed
 Sand Lake
My dear one tells me
 we did not
We watched a gopher there
 - Lake Superior from North Central (pg. 58-62)


Where the arrows
 of the road signs
 lead us:

Life is natural
 in the evolution
 of matter

Nothing supra-rock
 about it
 simply

butterflies
 are quicker
 that rock

Man
 lives hard
 on this stone perch

by sea
 imagines
 durable works

in creation here
 as in the centre
 of the world

let's say
 of art
 We climb

the limestone cliffs
 my skirt dragging
 an inch below
[...]
 - Wintergreen Ridge from North Central (pg. 77)


He bowed to everyone he met
and talked with arms folded

He could be trimmed
by a two-month migraine

and yet
 stand up
 - Thomas Jefferson, IX from Harpsichord & Salt Fish (pg. 97)


 As I nurse my pump

The greatest plumber
 in all the town
from Montgomery Ward
rode a Cadillac carriage
 by marriage
and visited my pump
 
A sensitive pump
 said he
that has at times a proper
 balance
 of water, air
and poetry
 - Nursery Rhyme from Harpsichord & Salt Fish (pg. 101)


His holy
 slowly
 mulled over
 matter
[...]
 - Darwin, I from Harpsichord & Salt Fish (pg. 108)