WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.140 --> 00:00:05.220 align:middle line:90% So we're running out of time. 00:00:05.220 --> 00:00:07.750 align:middle line:84% Can I talk about the Koch poem, just really quickly? 00:00:07.750 --> 00:00:13.940 align:middle line:84% And then-- this always happens the first time 00:00:13.940 --> 00:00:15.710 align:middle line:90% I give a lecture. 00:00:15.710 --> 00:00:19.655 align:middle line:84% I totally prepare too much stuff. 00:00:19.655 --> 00:00:23.270 align:middle line:90% 00:00:23.270 --> 00:00:27.560 align:middle line:84% So this poem is actually-- which is called A Momentary Longing 00:00:27.560 --> 00:00:32.180 align:middle line:84% to Hear Sad Advice From One Long Dead, is not from the 1950s. 00:00:32.180 --> 00:00:34.820 align:middle line:84% It is a poem that was actually written probably 00:00:34.820 --> 00:00:40.190 align:middle line:84% around the year 2000, maybe 1999. 00:00:40.190 --> 00:00:45.080 align:middle line:84% Koch died, I think, in 2001 or 2002. 00:00:45.080 --> 00:00:48.937 align:middle line:90% And he's talking about-- 00:00:48.937 --> 00:00:50.770 align:middle line:84% the person who he's referring to in the poem 00:00:50.770 --> 00:00:53.650 align:middle line:84% is Delmore Schwartz, who apparently he 00:00:53.650 --> 00:00:56.640 align:middle line:84% had as a teacher at Harvard really briefly. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:00.190 align:middle line:84% He's a poet very much unlike Koch 00:01:00.190 --> 00:01:02.620 align:middle line:84% and who one could imagine Koch just kind 00:01:02.620 --> 00:01:05.260 align:middle line:84% of rolling his eyes at, because Schwartz could be 00:01:05.260 --> 00:01:08.050 align:middle line:90% quite a melodramatic character. 00:01:08.050 --> 00:01:11.560 align:middle line:84% He's a wonderful, wonderful poet, but certainly 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:16.420 align:middle line:84% the kind of poet that the new critics would have loved. 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:22.000 align:middle line:84% So I'll read this myself, and the title 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.223 align:middle line:84% moves into the first line of the poem. 00:01:25.223 --> 00:01:27.390 align:middle line:84% The other important thing you should know about this 00:01:27.390 --> 00:01:31.860 align:middle line:84% is that Coke was actually dying at this point, and knew it, 00:01:31.860 --> 00:01:37.110 align:middle line:84% and that never comes into the poem in a direct way, 00:01:37.110 --> 00:01:40.710 align:middle line:90% but it's there. 00:01:40.710 --> 00:01:43.230 align:middle line:84% A momentary longing to hear sad advice 00:01:43.230 --> 00:01:47.310 align:middle line:84% from one long dead, who was my teacher at Harvard. 00:01:47.310 --> 00:01:50.070 align:middle line:84% Did not wear overcoat, saying to me 00:01:50.070 --> 00:01:51.990 align:middle line:90% as we walked across the yard. 00:01:51.990 --> 00:01:53.970 align:middle line:90% Cold, brittle autumn is. 00:01:53.970 --> 00:01:56.160 align:middle line:90% You should be wearing overcoat. 00:01:56.160 --> 00:01:59.130 align:middle line:84% I said, you are not wearing overcoat. 00:01:59.130 --> 00:02:03.980 align:middle line:84% He said, you should do as I say, not do as I do. 00:02:03.980 --> 00:02:07.730 align:middle line:84% Just how American it was and how late 40s it was. 00:02:07.730 --> 00:02:12.020 align:middle line:84% Delmore, but not I, was probably aware. 00:02:12.020 --> 00:02:16.010 align:middle line:84% He quoted Finnegans Wake to me in his New York apartment, 00:02:16.010 --> 00:02:17.330 align:middle line:90% sitting on chair. 00:02:17.330 --> 00:02:20.460 align:middle line:90% Table directly in front of him. 00:02:20.460 --> 00:02:22.410 align:middle line:90% There did he write? 00:02:22.410 --> 00:02:24.870 align:middle line:90% I am wondering. 00:02:24.870 --> 00:02:29.040 align:middle line:84% Look at this photograph, said of his mother and father. 00:02:29.040 --> 00:02:30.960 align:middle line:90% Coney Island. 00:02:30.960 --> 00:02:33.380 align:middle line:90% Do they look happy? 00:02:33.380 --> 00:02:35.730 align:middle line:90% He couldn't figure it out. 00:02:35.730 --> 00:02:40.610 align:middle line:84% Believed Pogo to be at the limits of our culture. 00:02:40.610 --> 00:02:42.110 align:middle line:90% Pogo. 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:47.160 align:middle line:84% Walt Kelly must have read Joyce, Delmore said. 00:02:47.160 --> 00:02:49.130 align:middle line:90% Why don't you ask him? 00:02:49.130 --> 00:02:53.820 align:middle line:84% Why don't you ask Walt Kelly if he read Finnegans Wake or not? 00:02:53.820 --> 00:02:58.650 align:middle line:84% Your parents don't look happy, but it is just a photograph. 00:02:58.650 --> 00:03:02.880 align:middle line:84% Maybe they felt awkward posing for photographs. 00:03:02.880 --> 00:03:07.210 align:middle line:84% Maybe it is just a bad photograph. 00:03:07.210 --> 00:03:09.940 align:middle line:90% Delmore is not listening. 00:03:09.940 --> 00:03:14.590 align:middle line:84% I want to hear him tell me something sad, but however, 00:03:14.590 --> 00:03:16.930 align:middle line:90% true. 00:03:16.930 --> 00:03:21.160 align:middle line:84% Delmore, in his tomb, is sitting. 00:03:21.160 --> 00:03:24.370 align:middle line:84% People say yes, everyone is dying. 00:03:24.370 --> 00:03:28.570 align:middle line:84% But here, read this happy book on the subject. 00:03:28.570 --> 00:03:30.580 align:middle line:90% Not Delmore. 00:03:30.580 --> 00:03:31.735 align:middle line:90% Not that rueful man. 00:03:31.735 --> 00:03:34.510 align:middle line:90% 00:03:34.510 --> 00:03:44.600 align:middle line:84% So I have no idea what this strange syntactical weirdness 00:03:44.600 --> 00:03:48.110 align:middle line:84% is at certain moments in the poem and why he's using it. 00:03:48.110 --> 00:03:52.490 align:middle line:84% Pogo was-- for those of you who are not of a certain age, 00:03:52.490 --> 00:03:55.760 align:middle line:90% shall we say-- 00:03:55.760 --> 00:04:01.130 align:middle line:84% Pogo was an amazing comic strip that 00:04:01.130 --> 00:04:04.250 align:middle line:84% played in most American newspapers over probably 00:04:04.250 --> 00:04:05.540 align:middle line:90% a 20 or 30 year period. 00:04:05.540 --> 00:04:07.850 align:middle line:84% It was written by this guy Walt Kelly. 00:04:07.850 --> 00:04:09.680 align:middle line:84% It had an amazing cast of characters. 00:04:09.680 --> 00:04:11.600 align:middle line:90% It all took place in a swamp. 00:04:11.600 --> 00:04:13.610 align:middle line:84% It oftentimes was quite allegorical 00:04:13.610 --> 00:04:16.339 align:middle line:84% and commented in allegorical ways 00:04:16.339 --> 00:04:18.810 align:middle line:84% on what was going on in American politics. 00:04:18.810 --> 00:04:20.360 align:middle line:90% It was incredibly smart. 00:04:20.360 --> 00:04:26.150 align:middle line:84% It could be read by completely ordinary people in one way 00:04:26.150 --> 00:04:31.370 align:middle line:84% and it could be read by another set of people and another way. 00:04:31.370 --> 00:04:35.600 align:middle line:84% It had layers to it that were really, really quite wonderful. 00:04:35.600 --> 00:04:43.040 align:middle line:84% If you read graphic novels, if you know the graphic novel 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:48.800 align:middle line:90% Bone, that is-- 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:54.530 align:middle line:84% the guy who did that, whose name I'm blanking out on, 00:04:54.530 --> 00:04:59.840 align:middle line:84% it was very influenced by Walt Kelly, and some of the drawing 00:04:59.840 --> 00:05:03.320 align:middle line:84% comes out of the Walt Kelly style. 00:05:03.320 --> 00:05:10.130 align:middle line:84% So there's this weird Yoda speak in the poem at times, 00:05:10.130 --> 00:05:12.650 align:middle line:84% and it's weird, sort of disruptive syntax. 00:05:12.650 --> 00:05:18.440 align:middle line:84% It's very funny, and yet the subtext of the poem, 00:05:18.440 --> 00:05:20.250 align:middle line:90% you never find-- 00:05:20.250 --> 00:05:23.060 align:middle line:84% I told you that Koch is dying at this point. 00:05:23.060 --> 00:05:24.470 align:middle line:84% You don't know that from the poem 00:05:24.470 --> 00:05:29.060 align:middle line:84% but you feel, totally, the tugging. 00:05:29.060 --> 00:05:32.630 align:middle line:84% And the comedy-- and Koch was a master of this at times. 00:05:32.630 --> 00:05:39.230 align:middle line:84% The comedy has a kind of madcap quality to it 00:05:39.230 --> 00:05:43.070 align:middle line:84% and yet beneath it is-- just beneath it 00:05:43.070 --> 00:05:45.950 align:middle line:84% is this vulnerability-- deep vulnerability-- 00:05:45.950 --> 00:05:48.290 align:middle line:90% and it's wonderful. 00:05:48.290 --> 00:05:51.050 align:middle line:84% The photograph that he's referring to in the poem 00:05:51.050 --> 00:05:54.290 align:middle line:84% is a very famous photograph that appears in a story 00:05:54.290 --> 00:05:56.570 align:middle line:84% that Delmore Schwartz wrote called, In Dreams Begin 00:05:56.570 --> 00:05:58.310 align:middle line:84% Responsibilities, which is largely 00:05:58.310 --> 00:06:02.760 align:middle line:84% a meditation on the failed marriage of his parents. 00:06:02.760 --> 00:06:06.440 align:middle line:90% So there's a kind of-- 00:06:06.440 --> 00:06:11.430 align:middle line:84% the project-- the spiritual project in this particular poem 00:06:11.430 --> 00:06:16.640 align:middle line:84% and I think, throughout the New York School, 00:06:16.640 --> 00:06:25.040 align:middle line:84% is how to be heroic without being melodramatic. 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:30.170 align:middle line:84% Because when you think about it, that's everyday life. 00:06:30.170 --> 00:06:34.340 align:middle line:84% We do not-- whatever sort of heroism or courage we possess, 00:06:34.340 --> 00:06:39.050 align:middle line:84% however we approach death, with whatever courage we have-- 00:06:39.050 --> 00:06:45.860 align:middle line:84% it is oftentimes not dramatic, and we are barely aware of it 00:06:45.860 --> 00:06:51.570 align:middle line:84% as courage, and probably that's a good thing. 00:06:51.570 --> 00:07:01.700 align:middle line:84% And there's a wonderful modesty, almost, about this-- 00:07:01.700 --> 00:07:04.460 align:middle line:84% a spiritual modesty that I really 00:07:04.460 --> 00:07:06.740 align:middle line:90% dig in the New York School. 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:10.160 align:middle line:84% They can be really playful and completely over the top 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:15.710 align:middle line:84% at times, but I also think there was this sense of them being 00:07:15.710 --> 00:07:20.090 align:middle line:84% completely attached to ordinary life and wanting to not only 00:07:20.090 --> 00:07:23.900 align:middle line:84% celebrate it, but also to recognize these flashes 00:07:23.900 --> 00:07:29.450 align:middle line:84% of difficulty in them, and not to make them something that 00:07:29.450 --> 00:07:30.560 align:middle line:90% they weren't. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:34.670 align:middle line:84% So there's a silence that occurs at the end of this poem. 00:07:34.670 --> 00:07:39.170 align:middle line:90% 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:42.430 align:middle line:90% There's-- he wants this advice. 00:07:42.430 --> 00:07:45.400 align:middle line:84% You don't know why he wants it, but it's clear 00:07:45.400 --> 00:07:49.570 align:middle line:84% that there's some hunger for it, and he gets it, 00:07:49.570 --> 00:07:51.970 align:middle line:90% and the advice is not happy. 00:07:51.970 --> 00:07:57.400 align:middle line:84% It's basically, there isn't anything 00:07:57.400 --> 00:08:02.680 align:middle line:84% other than this silence, and you have to accept it. 00:08:02.680 --> 00:08:05.260 align:middle line:90% Delmore, there's a certain-- 00:08:05.260 --> 00:08:10.630 align:middle line:84% Delmore is not somebody who is a kind of prophet 00:08:10.630 --> 00:08:13.553 align:middle line:90% of the self-help age. 00:08:13.553 --> 00:08:15.220 align:middle line:84% He's not one of these people who's going 00:08:15.220 --> 00:08:17.200 align:middle line:90% to tell you to read this book. 00:08:17.200 --> 00:08:20.860 align:middle line:84% There's no good advice anybody can give you about dying. 00:08:20.860 --> 00:08:24.310 align:middle line:84% You come to your own death by yourself. 00:08:24.310 --> 00:08:28.770 align:middle line:84% With others, but you face it yourself. 00:08:28.770 --> 00:08:34.049 align:middle line:84% And he gets the advice that he wished for, 00:08:34.049 --> 00:08:36.580 align:middle line:84% and he's put in a place where he has to accept it, 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:39.429 align:middle line:90% and I think he does. 00:08:39.429 --> 00:08:42.750 align:middle line:84% Nothing special is made out of it, 00:08:42.750 --> 00:08:45.690 align:middle line:84% so there's something profoundly moving about that. 00:08:45.690 --> 00:08:53.330 align:middle line:84% Creeley wrote after Koch died, he said-- 00:08:53.330 --> 00:08:56.970 align:middle line:84% in a poem-- but your classic humor of the edge, 00:08:56.970 --> 00:09:03.480 align:middle line:84% of being about to, and hanging on even for one last look, 00:09:03.480 --> 00:09:07.000 align:middle line:90% that was truly heroic. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:10.470 align:middle line:84% And it's a kind of beautiful homage.