James Schuyler

Left to Right: James Schuyler, John Ashbery, Kenneth Koch

James Schuyler also known as James Marcus Schuyler was born on November 9, 1923. He was one of the major figures of the New York School along with John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch and Barbara Guest, in the late 20th century. He was a native of Chicago and attended Bethany College in West Virginia from 1941- 1943. in the late 40's he moved to New York City. His parents divorced when Schuyler was very young. He spent most of his childhood with his mother and stepfather. Schuyler's family moved around a lot. Maryland, Illinois, Washington D.C and New York just to name a few. Schuyler served in the military (U.S Navy) from 1943-1947. After the Navy he worked in Italy and attended college there. When he returned from Italy he was living in New York City. He was roommates with two other New York School Poets we mentioned in class; Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery.

Schuyler has been writing poetry since he was twenty five but did not publish any poetry until 1960 when he was thirty seven. His first real collection in that it was published by a trade publisher was "Freely Espousing"; poems that won him a small but admiring audience. With "The Crystal Lithium" of 1972 and "Hymn to Life" of 1974, Schuyler became recognized as a significant voice in American history. Schuyler has also written novels; in collaboration with John Ashbery, he wrote "A Nest of Ninnies" and later "What’s for Dinner", which he wrote himself. Not only was he a published author of both poetry and novels, he also wrote plays! Schuyler has written two plays that have been produced in off Broadway theaters; "Unpacking the Black Trunk" and "Shopping and Waiting".

He was inspired to write poetry when he moved with his family to East Aurora, NY, outside of Buffalo, when he was 15 years old. The town was the setting for two of his most famous works, The Morning of the Poem and A Few Days, an elegy for his mother. James Schuyler, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and member of the New York School circle of poets and painters was a New York City resident since 1950. Schuyler moved among prominent artists and writers of the period and worked as an art critic and associate editor for Art News from 1955 to circa 1962, and in the Museum of Modern Art beginning in 1957. He published his first novel, Alfred and Guinevere, in 1958 and continued a distinguished career.

Self-Pity Is a Kind of Lying, Too

It's
snowing defective
vision days and
X-
mas is coming, like
a plow. And in the
meat the snow. Strange.
It all reminds me
of an old lady I
once saw shivering
naked beside a black
polluted stream. You
felt terrible -- but
the train didn't
stop -- so. And the
white which is
some other color or
its absence -- it
spins on itself
and so do the Who
at Leeds I'm playing
to drown the carols
blatting from the
Presbyterian church
steeple which is
the same as fight-
ing fire with oil.
Naked people -- old,
cold -- one day we'll
just have snow
to wear too.

This poem is an enjambment which is the continuation of a syntactic unit or relating unit from one line or couplet of a poem to the next with no pause. Schuyler states Self-Pity is a Kind of Lying Too.” Which is an admission of the artifice of his own self-pitying words. At the same, notice he says “a kind of lying.” The striving to express his own self-pity (and by extension the poem) is of "a kind." Not actual and complete phoniness. In his view, in a world where religion is a source of nothing. Through a single line break, he reduces the whole Presbyterian church to a mere steeple. Even the religious holiday of Christmas is destroyed through enjambment: a loud, capitalized X followed by the lonely, useless “-mas.” That X cancels out religion. His self-pity transforms into a minimally consoling, collective misery.

Poem

I do not always understand what you say.

Once, when you said, across, you meant along.

What is, is by its nature, on display.

Words’ meanings count, aside from what they weigh:

poetry, like music, is not just a song.

I do not always understand what you say.

You would hate, when with me, to meet by day

What at night you met and did not think wrong.

What is, is by its nature, on display.

I sense a heaviness in your light play,

a wish to stand out, admired, from the throng.

I do not always understand what you say.

I am as shy as you. Try as we may,

Only by practice will our talks prolong.

What is, is by its nature, on display.

We talk together in a common way.

Art, like death, is brief; life and friendship long.

I do not always understand what you say.
What is, is by its nature, on display.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxX3EShdJ04

This poem follows the basic structure of a villanelle. A villanelle can be defined as a poem consisting of “Five three-line stanzas, followed by four-line stanza; two rhymes; iambic lines with four stresses. First line is repeated as 6th, 12th and 18th; third line as 9th, 15th and 19th.” That probably does not make much sense when reading the definition, but if you read the poem aloud, or even look closely, you will see that the first five stanzas have alternating rhymes at the end. The final stanza ends with both of these rhymes. I have found that most villanelles have a nice rhythm to them; they are poems that simply sound pleasurable to the ear when read.

Another aspect of this poem is “Ars Poetica”, which I find quite intriguing. Ars Poetica commonly refers to the practice of writing about writing. There can be many interpretations to the poem, “Poem”. One can read into it and feel it is talking about a relationship that may or may not be healthy. When I read it, I feel as though Schuyler is talking about an actual poem itself. The lines “I sense a heaviness in your light play, a wish to stand out, admired, from the throng. I do not always understand what you say.” make me think of what it is like to be writing and trying to be ambiguous yet have your point come across anyway.

Another example of a famous villanelle is by Dylan Thomas, "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night." it is as follows:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.

Do not go gentle into that good night,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

What stands out to you about this type of poem? Some people find villanelles a bit

obnoxious, and tedious to write. Others think they are classical and should be mastered.

Do you think this is an effective way of getting ones point across?

In a complete contrast to this poem, Schuyler also wrote a poem titled “Things to Do”

Things to Do

Balance checkbook.
Rid lawn of onion grass.
“this patented device”
“this herbicide”
“Sir, We find none of these
Killers truly satisfactory. Hand weed
for onion grass.” Give
old clothes away, “such as you
yourself would willingly wear.”
Impasse. Walk three miles
a day beginning tomorrow.
Alphabetize.
Purchase nose-hair shears.
Answer letters.
Elicit others.
Write Maxine.
Move to Maine.
Give up Nocal.
See more movies.
Practice long-distance dialing.
Ditto gymnastics:
The Beast with Two Backs
and, The Fan.
Complain to laundry
any laundry. Ask for borrowed books back.
Return
junk mail to sender
marked, Return to Sender.
Condole. Congratulate.
“ . . . this sudden shock . . .”
“ . . . this swift surprise . . .”
Send. Keep. Give. Destroy.
Brush rub polish burn
mend scratch foil evert
emulate surpass. Remember
“to write three-act play”
and lead “a full and active life.”

This work definitely gets me thinking. Schuyler was clever enough to title this poem “Things to Do”. It certainly looks like a list one would make, yet somehow it goes deeper than that. It becomes a guideline for his life. This seemingly innocuous list is not even a list, it is a poem, or is there a difference.

 

Sonnet

August, tasting of ripe grapes and afternoon sleep,

sharpening, like the smell of boxwood, the grass blades

that yellow an uncut hill a heavier green

while the trees lean in folds and the rose of Sharon blooms

and blooms at each twig and branch tip like a toy tree,

setting a sleepy car on an after-lunch table

among uncleared plates, white-and black like the coolness

of the oilcloth in warm shade: withhold from these days

the rain that made the succulence of what you reek

in haze that hides the furthest view and seems like smoke

seeking, before it is time, the ripening leaves

bronze in you pollen-dusty air that films the sky

and, as the light fades, burns blue, that the hot moon may,

bathing its light in water, find its white coolness.

The poem I've chosen by James Schuyler is titled Sonnet. A sonnet consists of 14 lines and follows a strict rhyme scheme and structure. Each line has 10 syllables and iambic pentameter. Iambic means an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Pentameter means five, so each line in a sonnet style poem would have five pairs of unstressed and stressed syllables. The poem "Sonnet" consists of many metaphors flowing one after another. In Schuyler's poem he started the poem with August, I believe by starting the poem with the word August created a vivid image of Autumn in my head before I read the poem. As I read on I got the image of spring and summer transitioning into Autumn. "grass blades that yellow an uncut hill a heavier green" this was my favorite line in the poem, the words he chose to use created an image of a meadow, with wind blowing the grass creating blade like lines. The color of the grass was green revealing a slight yellow. The line following it "While the trees lean in folds and the rose of Sharon blooms" the grass might be changing colors but on the trees there were still flowers bloomed.

Schuyler ends the poem with a conclusion of August, " as the light fades, burns blue, that the hot moon may, bathing it's light in water, finds it's white coolness." To me this line reveals the final product after transition which is Autumn. Autumn is the the only season I've experience "white coolness." Autumn follows spring and summer so white coolness is the crisp, clean and refreshing breeze you might experience in Autumn. I also noticed that throughout Schuyler's poem he did not use periods he used commas, but after the last word of the poem "coolness" he used a period. Using the commas throughout the poem gave the poem movement and flow and ending the poem with a period it gave the poem closure.

Jelly Jelly

Summer apples, showy and sugary, mealy and touchy

A finger bruise on the thin skin

Brown and silently reproachful as your wife’s black eye.

But if September apples ripen

And the sun coats the sights with crinkling sheets

Of cold while the waves come yapping

Something about “wine dark” 
Evening primroses in clefts of rocks they lap 
In a space labeled, “August 27^th, 1965

Pay on demand,” why then it is

September

When pebbles turn, shedding a summer snow

Of salt, palely glowing in the first fall beaches.

The wind is pendent-breasted as a naked Swede.

A frosted fox grape shows

Where a bird shat as it ate.

Blackberry canes arch and obtrude big nipples.

And the chaste tree blooms.

Back before I made the egg test

I thought the world as flat and very like elderberry umbel

Full of round juicy people winking and waving,

Crying “Hi” and “Meet you in the jelly!” 
Or “Under the lid of an elderberry pie.”

This poem really threw me for a loop, it has four paragraphs and seems to have a sexual tone. In the begging he starts talking about apples, and it sounds rather literal until he compared a bruise on the apple to a wife’s black eye. Now I'm not too positive as to what the black eye is in reference to but in the next paragraph apples are included again, this time Schuyler talks about them ripening. He then follows that line with one about crinkling sheets. So maybe the ripe apple could possibly be a mature girl. The same paragraph also has a date nearing the end of August and the word September, the only bell this rings in my head is the time when school starts, which is usually in September for High School students.

Now here is where I feel things get interesting; I think this poem is about a high school teacher having sex with one of his students! And as I type this, "your wife's black eye", from earlier makes me think that the teacher in question is having marital issues. I think that could be the teachers motive for sleeping around, that or he's just a terrible person. Continuing on he speaks of a Naked Swede, breasts, and big nipples. I can’t speak for others, but to me, this sounds like obvious sexual referencing. Unlike the line "And the chaste tree blooms."; when I read this out loud, "chaste tree" sounded like "chastity". So being that chastity is abstinence from sex, chastity blooming could be the opposite.

Also in the third paragraph he talks of a bird who shat where it ate. A teacher sleeping with a student, outside of being unethical and illegal, is also a perfect example of shitting where you eat; in that one should mix pleasure with work. The last paragraph was definitely the hardest for me, I think Schuyler is talking about the school setting itself, "the round juicy people" being the students, and "Meet you in the Jelly" being a nickname for somewhere students frequent. All in all I propose that this poem is about a high school teacher who while experiencing problems with his wife, punched her in the eye and slept with a student. The fact that Schuyler writes of everyday life and has a tendency to "tell it like it is" further backs up my proposal because although disturbing, instances like this could be real.

Questions for Discussion

1. Would you view this poem as James's way of expressing his own self pity?

2. In Schuylers poem, “Poem”, what do you think the actual subject matter is?

3. What makes something a poem?

4. On the 4th line of "Sonnet", "While the tress lean in fold and the rose of Sharon blooms" why might you think the rose is referred to the name Sharon?

5. If not talking about sex through natural references (bird, apple, etc...) in "Jelly Jelly", what then could Schuyler be referring to?