Thanks Tim for comments.
I had a spasm of doubt about parataxis after reading this. The OED was no help - nor was Lennard’s Poetry Handbook.
I take your point about the reliance on narrative strings and conventional syntax, but there is an effect of parataxis in lines like the following (from the
same poem):
we see an elephant killing a stag beetle
by letting hot tears fall onto the small of its back
we see a large cocoa-tin full of shapeless lumps of wax
there is a horrible dentist walking out of a ship’s funnel
and leaving behind him footsteps which make noises
DG’s translation of Breton includes the following:
The wolves are clothed in mirrors of snow
I have a boat detached from all climates
I am dragged along by an ice-pack with teeth of flame
I cut and cleave the wood of this tree that will always be green
A musician is caught up in the strings of his instrument
DG’s translation of a poem by Char begins:
The melancholy of illiterates
The imperceptible disquiet of cartwrights
Pieces of money in the slender vase.
Are all three examples parataxis?
Someone mentioned Lee Harwood in an earlier posting. There are elements of surrealism in Roy Fisher, and Paul Brown has worked productively in this vein.
Robert
From: British & Irish poets [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
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Sent: 13 August 2013 12:29
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Subject: Re: "What’s in a Name?: The Art & Language Group and Conceptual Poetry"
Yes, i agree Robert, you're right. I think that what I am kind of pushing towards is the notion that in later post-surrealist work, particularly by some of the Americans, the poetry began to rely less on narrative strings and conventional
syntax in which to place the imagery - and yes, on parataxis. But where is there parataxis in the passage below? Some classic surrealist stuff suffered by being composed of lists of images instead of layers of image, sort of.
Mentioning Philip Lamantia the other day has made me go back to look at his work closer. This is becoming important now as I've noticed a shift - more young poets and artists are picking up on surrealism as a positive source after years
of it being portrayed as passe or just a convenient poetic tool.
Cheers
Tim A.
On 12 Aug 2013, at 17:48, Hampson, R wrote:
My memory is that his own work was very closely following the kind of poetic devices used by the French surrealists – both in terms of syntax and ‘images’.
I was thinking of the use of parataxis, anaphora, repetitions and ‘images’ as in the following:
today is the day when the streets are full of hearses
and when women cover their ring fingers with pieces of silk
when the doors fall off their hinges in ruined cathedrals
when hosts of white birds fly across the ocean from America etc etc
Robert
From: British
& Irish poets [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Tim Allen
Sent: 12 August 2013 16:19
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Subject: Re: "What’s in a Name?: The Art & Language Group and Conceptual Poetry"
Hi Robert - yes I thought about Gascoyne but I was thinking that his work (outside of the translations) did not possess the same language texture or sense of free play - I'm probably wrong - it's a while since
I read Gascoyne.
Cheers
Tim
On 12 Aug 2013, at 13:25, Hampson, R wrote:
Someone might have already said this, but the ‘linguistic influence’ was available from the start via David Gascoyne – both his translations and his own early
poetry.
Robert
From: British
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Sent: 08 August 2013 12:30
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Subject: Re: "What’s in a Name?: The Art & Language Group and Conceptual Poetry"
Yes, that's true, the surrealist tinge that got to some of the deep image stuff was, linguistically speaking, mild, but there was an important exception where the influence went all the way: Philip Lamantia. But
even his things were largely a visual surrealism transposed into words, as was most of the work of the English surrealists as well. Some people may not agree with me on this and there were, again, a few exceptions where it took a more language turn, but they
are quite obscure names now - I'll have to look them up again. The more linguistic influence came later when people like the Waldrops etc began translating.The whole French thing had a huge impact on Ashbery as it did here with Lee Harwood.
Tim A.
On 7 Aug 2013, at 19:11, Jaime Robles wrote:
Another example might be the Surrealists. In the US this is thought of as a visual art movement, while in fact it was a verbal
art movement to begin with, with heated discussions on whether it was even possible for the movement's tenets to be used in visual art. Because French is not the predominant language in the US, the verbal aspect of Surrealism was almost completely lost in
its transAtlantic migration.