THE MORNING OF THE POEM

by James Schuyler ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 29, 1980

What can one write/ between the lines?"" Not one damn thing, Schuyler believes; and since faith often brings grace, Schuyler seems to be a beneficiary. Because everything he does and sees and feels and longs for and grieves after is given over without stint. Of all the first-generation New York School poets (O'Hara, Ashbery, Koch), Schuyler is the lightest-weight but maybe the most likable. His candor is without affect: ""When I was young I/ hurt others. Now,/ others have hurt/ me. In the night/ I thought I heard/ a dog bark./ Racking sobs./ Poor guy. Yet,/ I got my sleep."" And that's true even when the poem's matter is one of great private pain (in ""The Payne Whitney Poems,"" after a breakdown: the hospital boredom, ""a desert kind of life"": ""The friends who come to see you/ and the friends who don't./ The weather in the window""). Schuyler's generosity gets a large airing in the long title poem, written while he was spending a summer with his mother upstate and remembering old friends, taking note of new friends, of what rain on a lawn looks like, of flowers, attractive men. But Schuyler in bulk can't help but seem hugely gossamer, while in short bursts, as in the book's opening lyrics, the fluff catches, sticks, bothers well. Like the paintings of his friend Fairfield Porter (often mentioned in the poems), Schuyler is seen best when seen short, when he's a harmonist despite all odds. ""Night/ slams gently down. I cannot/ open this container: and/ do and the pills all lie/ 'star-scattered' on the/ rug, which by mischance is/ the color of the pills."" Those are lines of good, very accomplished poetry, deceiving their subject while adding to their fineness.

Pub Date: Feb. 29, 1980

ISBN: 0374516227

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION