Programme 12

SIR THOMAS WYATT (1503–1542)
They fle from me that sometyme did me seke (1540)

The poet

Thomas Wyatt was born in Allington Castle in Kent. Little is known of his childhood education but he went to St John's College, Cambridge, and became a diplomat in the service of Henry VIII. About 1520 he married Elizabeth Brooke and they had a son.

Around 1525, Wyatt separated from his wife, charging her with adultery and, after a brief affair with Anne Boleyn in 1536, he was imprisoned. In 1541, after the fall of Thomas Cromwell, Wyatt was arrested again and charged with treason by the Bishop of London but he was released later that year after he wrote his passionate 'Defence' and was restored to favour again.

Wyatt, along with the Earl of Surrey, was the first to introduce the sonnet into English, with its characteristic final rhyming couplet. Few of Wyatt's poems had been published in his lifetime. It wasn't until fifteen years after Wyatt's death that a number of his poems appeared alongside Surrey's. The rest of Wyatt's poetry, lyrics and satires remained in manuscript until they were 'rediscovered' in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The poem

They flee from me that sometime did me seek
  With naked foot stalking in my chamber.
I have seen them gentle tame and meek
  That now are wild and do not remember
  That sometime they put themselves in danger
To take bread at my hand; and now they range
Busily seeking with continual change.

Thanked be fortune, it hath been otherwise
  Twenty times better; but once in speciall,
In thin array after a pleasant guise,
  When her loose gown from her shoulders did fall,
  And she me caught in her arms long and small;
Therewithal sweetly did me kiss,
And softly said, 'dear heart how like you this?'

It was no dream: I lay broad waking.
  But all is turned through my gentleness
Into a strange fashion of forsaking;
  And I have leave to go of her goodness,
  And she also to use new-fangledness.
But since that I so kindly am served,
I would fain know what she hath deserved.

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CHRISTOPHER SMART (1722–1771)
From Jubilate Agno (1761)

The poet

Christopher Smart was born in Shipbourne, Kent. His father died when Smart was eleven. Smart went to Cambridge University, where he was well known for his Latin verses, drinking and being in debt. Smart earned a living in London editing and writing copy for periodicals and composing songs for the popular theatre. During this time, he was arrested for debt in 1747. In 1752 he published his first collection, 'Poems on Several Occasions', and married Anna Maria Carnan. They had two daughters.

Smart had shown signs of mental disturbance, which developed into religious mania, and between 1756 and 1758 he was in an asylum. Dr Johnson visited him and thought that he ought to have been let out but it was during his confinement that he conceived the idea of the poem that has made him famous, 'A Song to David'. His wife and children had gone to live with friends as he was unable to support them. He was arrested again for debt in 1770 and died the following year.

Smart has been considered as a forerunner to John Clare and William Blake. The homage to his cat, Jeoffry comes from the 'Jubilate Agno', a lengthy manuscript that was also written during his confinement but not published until 1954. Smart envisions himself as 'the Lord's News-Writer-the scribe-evangelist' spreading the Word. The poem is both a personal and philosophical diary.

The poem

For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness.
For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon his prayer.
For he rolls upon prank to work it in.
For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself.
For this he performs in ten degrees.
For first he looks upon his fore-paws to see if they are clean.
For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there.
For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the fore paws extended.
For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood.
For fifthly he washes himself.
For sixthly he rolls upon wash.
For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat.
For eighthly he rubs himself against a post.
For ninthly he looks up for his instructions.
For tenthly he goes in quest of food.
For having consider'd God and himself he will consider his neighbour.
For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness.
For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it chance.
For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying.
For when his day's work is done his business more properly begins.
For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary.
For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes.
For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life
For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him.
For he is the tribe of Tiger.

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EZRA POUND (1885–1972)
In a Station of the Metro / Alba

The poet

Ezra Loomis Pound was born in Hailey, Idaho. He took a degree from Hamilton College in 1905. After two years teaching Romance Languages in Indiana, he resigned and travelled to Europe, becoming interested in Chinese and Japanese poetry.

In 1914 Ezra married artist Dorothy Shakespear but in 1922 began a life-long relationship with violinist Olga Rudge. He moved to Italy in 1924 and got involved in Fascist politics. On his return to the United States in 1945, he was arrested on charges of treason for having broadcast fascist propaganda to the United States via radio during World War II. In 1946, he was acquitted as insane and unfit for trial, then committed to a mental institution. Ezra Pound was released from hospital in 1958 after many letters and appeals from friends and writers. He returned to Venice and died soon after.

Pound encouraged experimenting with different verse forms. He advocated 'Imagism', a style of writing derived from classical Chinese and Japanese genre that stresses precision, economy of language and clarity without following traditional rhyme and meter.

The poems

In a Station of the Metro (1912)

The apparition       of these faces       in the crowd:
Petals       on a wet, black       bough.

Alba

As cool as the pale wet leaves
                        of lily-of-the-valley
She lay beside me in the dawn

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LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI (1919–present)
History of the Airplane (2001)

The poet

Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in New York. His degree years were followed by service in the US Navy as a ship's commander during World War II. He took a Master's degree at Columbia University in 1947 and did a PhD at the Sorbonne in 1950. Settled back in San Francisco, he taught French to adults, painted (his paintings have been shown at various galleries around the world) and was an art critic.

In 1953, he founded City Lights Pocket Bookshop (a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals) and by 1955 he had launched the world-famous City Lights publishing house. This allowed him to publish his own and others' books, particularly the 'Pocket Poets Series.' 'Pocket Poets' made poetry books more affordable for the ordinary person.

Ferlinghetti was part of the 'Beat' movement (one that espoused an 'alternative' non-materialistic lifestyle) in the fifties. He was one of the more politically-minded of the Beats and has continued to be politically active.

Ferlinghetti's poetry career spans and reflects thirty years of political history. He was San Francisco's Poet Laureate in 1998 and has received many awards. In 2003 he received The Authors' Guild Lifetime Achievement award. His poetry is simple, plain-speaking and still popular with a wide range of readers. He is still proprietor of City Lights and an active poet.

The poem

And the Wright brothers said they thought they had invented
something that could make peace on earth when their wonderful
flying machines took off at Kitty Hawk into the kingdom of birds
but the parliament of birds was freaked out by this man-made bird
and fled to heaven

And then the famous Spirit of Saint Louis took off eastward and
flew across the Big Pond with Lindy at the controls in his leather
helmet and goggles hoping to sight the doves of peace but he did not.
Even though he circled Versailles

And then the famous Flying Clipper took off in the opposite
Direction and flew across the terrific Pacific but the Pacific doves
Were frightened by this strange amphibious bird and hid in orient sky

And then the famous Flying Fortress took off bristling with guns
and testosterone to make the world safe for peace and capitalism
but the birds of peace were nowhere to be found before or after Hiroshima

And so then clever men built bigger and faster flying machines and these great man-made
birds with jet plumage flew higher than any real birds and seemed about to fly into the sun and melt their wings
and like Icarus crash to earth

And the Wright bothers were long forgotten in the high-flying
bombers that now began to visit their blessings on various Third
Worlds all the while claiming they were searching for the doves of Peace

And they kept flying and flying until they flew right into the 21st
century and then one fine day a Third World struck back and
stormed the great planes and flew them straight into the beating
heart of Skyscraper America where there were no aviaries and no
parliaments of doves and in a blinding flash America became a part of the scorched earth of the world

And a wind of ashes blows across the land
And for one long moment in eternity
There is chaos and despair

And buried loves and voices
Cries and whispers
Fill the air
Everywhere

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