Today's Topics:
Re: Calypso and Walcott and Spring in Texas
Re: dead man reviews
Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Visual and Verbal Blakes
Re: Visual and Verbal Blakes
Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Re: Of crimson joy
Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Re: Blake & Caribbean & Walcott & Texas
A.N. Other
Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 17:33:58 -0600 (CST)
From: William Neal Franklin
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Calypso and Walcott and Spring in Texas
Message-Id:
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Derek Walcott is hanging out in Texas this Spring at the University of
Dallas. Write if you want more information. Ralph, Hugh, come on down.
Bill Franklin
NCTC
On Fri, 28 Mar 1997, Hugh Walthall wrote:
> Ralph: Blake phoned me the other day and says he is delighted to inform
> you that he is passionately fond of the great island singers such as Big
> Black, The Mighty Sparrow, and of course Lord Invader.
>
> Walcott would be a good person to ask about literary education in that
> part of the world.
>
> Come on and try my wares, you will be glad.
> I have the best in Trinidad.
> Come on and buy my wares, they don't cost much.
> Unless you buy, please do not touch.
>
> Hugh Walthall hugwal@erols.com
>
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 1997 15:42:45 -0800
From: george@nowhere.georgecoates.org (George Coates)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: dead man reviews
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
The response on the Blake List to Dead Man is instructive.
Response to the film demonstrates how even the most ardent lovers of Blake
tend to split their affinities between Blake the poet and Blake the visual
artist.
Delving deeply into Blake's poetic works alone can cause critical blindness.
Ted Ross wrote:
>Let me say I am interested that anybody has constructed a Blakean
>iconography out of Dead Man, because I did not
>perceive the characters as representative of Blake's archetypes. But even if
>you successfully argue that Jarmusch faithfully depicted a set of
>relationships in Blake, what does the film espouse that either sheds light
>on Blake, his text, or his themes? And when you say the video imagery is
>such that we need to decode it, when we decode it, what does cannibalism
>and grotesque imagery have to do with Blake, who would surely not have
>presented such imagery without a countervaling image "to give that thought
>relief."
Blake infact painted an act of cannibalism no less graphic than that
depicted in Dead Man.
The title of the painting is Famine.
In both Dead Man and in this painting a human arm is devoured.
George Coates
------------------------------
Date: 30 Mar 97 10:05:41 EST
From: Philip Benz <100575.2061@CompuServe.COM>
To: "internet:blake@albion.com"
Subject: Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Message-Id: <970330150540_100575.2061_GHW55-1@CompuServe.COM>
Ralph,
I'll bite: what has Wilson Harris had to say about Blake?
Harris' _Palace of the Peacock_ is well worth the rave. I liked it
even better than Ngugi's wonderful _Petals of Blood_.
Glissant: it all depends on whether you read (rather difficult)
French... though I suspect most of Glissant's writing has been
translated by now. The biggest piece is _Le Discours Antillais_ (Paris:
Seuil, 1981), and then there's _L'Intention Poetique_ (Paris: Seuil,
1969) from which I copied this snippet some years ago :
"How to assume a relationship to the Other, when one doesn't (yet)
have a (knowledgeable) opacity to oppose, to propose to him? Language,
here in its 'beginnings', marshals its possibilities [...]
Whatis necessary to those on all sides here, communities heavy with
history and dispossessed communities, is not a language of communication
(abstract, disincarnate, 'universal' in the way we're all too used to)
but rather the possibility of communication (and, if possible, a regular
communication) between mutually liberated opacities, differences,
languages."
Edouard Glissant _L'Intention Poetique_ page 51.
Sorry, although I don't find this short passage particularly
satisfying, it's one of the few I still have on hand. I think Glissant
is still a little too hung up with the idea of authenticity, but he is
pointing towards an exit. How Blakeish is he? He certainly shares the
sublime / prophetic mode that Blake inaugurates. Finding out how much
more would require a much closer look.
BTW, I wish I could be more substantive but life won't let me get
into any heavy discussion here for a few more weeks yet.
Cheers, --- Phil
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 17:53:11 -0500
From: albright@world.std.com (R.H. Albright)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Visual and Verbal Blakes
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
George Coates:
I agree with your assessment on how this list splits between visual and
verbal aspects of Blake. His illuminated books were an attempt to make a
connection between the two realms... perhaps another marriage of "heaven"
and "hell". I find the visual Blake rarely discussed on this list, and the
verbal Blake discussed with usually no comment about the pertinent
illuminations which are often contrary or adding a new dimension to the
meaning of the art. Sad.
And I thought _Dead Man_ was a great homage to Blake, by the way. Johnny
Depp, William Hurt, et al, took great artistic risks for a commercial flop,
which will at least live forever as a cult movie on college campuses and in
video form.
>The response on the Blake List to Dead Man is instructive.
>Response to the film demonstrates how even the most ardent lovers of Blake
>tend to split their affinities between Blake the poet and Blake the visual
>artist.
>Delving deeply into Blake's poetic works alone can cause critical blindness.
The contraries in verbal and visual Blake are, for example, quite powerful
in "The First Book of Urizen". Throughout a fairly recent discussion of
"Who is Urizen? What is Eternity?", I didn't hear anything said-- or did I
miss it?-- about the athletic jumper on Plate 3... or that free-floating
spirit on plate 12 juxtaposed against the text. It's like Depp looking out
the train window and seeing... THIS... and then closing his eyes, the next
time looking out and seeing... THAT.
The disjunctures, for example, that you can actually read in the verbal
beginning of "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" as the "once meek" guy gets
pushed off the path by the villain: I compare that to what's going on
visually, and the possibilities of meaning increase. Is he helping her UP?
Is she pulling him DOWN? Or is this what "marriage" of the upper and lower
worlds means, visually? One cannot exist without the other.
-Randall Albright
http://world.std.com/~albright/blake.html
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 22:37:12 -0600
From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Visual and Verbal Blakes
Message-Id: <97033022371221@wc.stephens.edu>
It's a rare and unsettling experience to find myself more or less agreeing
with Albright, but of course he is right that Blake's works are a special
amalgam of the visual and the verbal which, though separable, are probably
not well understood when the components are treated separately. Where
he and Coates may be a bit off is in the assertion that even the most
ardent readers/viewers of Blake make this division. Not so. There is
a substantial literature devoted to the effort to remind or persuade
Blakeans of the essential unity of his verbal and visual work. I
certainly encountered that at the beginning of my formal Blake studies
in the 1960's and the argument predated that period (there is, for
example, Northrop Frye's 1951 essay, "Poetry and Design in William
Blake" which makes the argument forcefully, but others preceded him
in that as well--and we have the works of--just a sample--Lister,
Hagstrum, Bindman, Butlin, Mitchell, Essick, Taylor, and too many
others to mention, all insisting on the dialectical or composite
character of Blake's art--not to forget Erdman's wonderful _Illuminated
Blake_), so it is hardly a new idea in Blake studies, though people new
to that study may need periodically to be reminded.
It is not so simple, however. Albright refers to the interesting
"contradictions" between the visual and the verbal in some works. That
by itself should be enough to prompt attention. Easier said than done.
Of course there is no excuse for teaching some of the works without
constant reference to the composite art--the _Songs_ are easily
available now in a range of prices, from Dover, Oxford, and Princeton.
_Marriage_ is also available in an Oxford paperback. Dover makes
available, as well, _American_ and _Europe_ and _Marriage_ in very
inexpensive reproductions. The Princeton facsimiles should be in
every library and may be available (as is the _Songs_ volume) in
more affordable paperbacks in the future. IN the meantime, the
_Illuminated Blake_, although black and white, is an invaluable
source of understanding of the composite art and is available in
an affordable paperback that I always ask my students to buy.
But again, it is all easier said than done. Perhaps the web will
rescue us, ultimately, but probably not. Just to point to one
version of a Song, for example, or a plate from Europe or Urizen, is
not to solve the problem because of the variations in Blake's own
practice of printing and coloring and ordering the works. This is
all old stuff to serious Blakeans, but to say that one has a key to
the "meaning" with reference to a composite version is to overreach.
Even with the potential of hypertext to offer access to a greater range
of the complexities of Blake's production, thereby making available not
just the possibility of better interpretations, but more valuably a fuller
experience for more of us of the aesthetic and poetic power of Blake's
complete vision, we cannot assume that we will ever have the kind of
comprehensive control of all possibilities that the insistence on the
composite art would seem to require. There will always be those, and I
can understand their impulse, who will prefer to focus on the verbal
art and the complexity of the language in and for itself. Does this
violate Blake's intention? Apparently so, but it is not certain.
For those who presume to command Blake's scope, one can only guess that
the effort to compass even the details of the _Songs_ would be sufficiently
chastening an experience. Which, of course, leaves me reasonably confident
that I am probably not really agreeing with Albright after all.
Tom Dillingham
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 07:01:20 -0800 (PST)
From: Ralph Dumain
To: blake@albion.com, blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Message-Id: <2.2.16.19970331100055.2f77a6c0@pop.igc.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
I thank all for their feedback. I could not respond promptly because I have
been hectically busy every waking moment of the past week. I will respond
to recent comments in this one post.
At 11:17 AM 3/28/97 -0600, J. Michael wrote:
>This is a fascinating question with implications well beyond your project.
Yes, it is important generally the timing of Blake's admission into the
canon, your portrait of which confirms my general but uniformed impressions
of how recent it is that Blake has become one of the stars. There is the
question of how widely Blake was read before he was fully canonized, and I
lack sufficient historical information to get an idea of this.
>One possibility (which you've probably already pursued) is to look at
>textbooks from all the educational levels and see when Blake becomes
>prominent in them.
I hope someone has done this or could do this, but this is a practical
impossibility for me. I wouldn't have the time to do this even if I were
capable of identifying all the literary textbooks in the English speaking
world through the 20th century. Did you intend to mock me by suggesting I'm
in a position to perform this task?
Suzanne Vesely sez:
>My only point was that there might be too much
>loose speculation going on with regard to who read Blake when among
>carribbean writers, but your response, which I reproduce in part, shows
>that you are on top of that issue:
and ...
>The ancient Mayan *Popul Vuh* has a fourfold characterization of humanity
that suggests the Zoas somewhat, but ...
and ...
>Sorry to have mistaken what you were saying for "influence" peddling.
Thank you. As you must know if you have been here for awhile, I don't have
much truck with fetishizing superficial commonalities among diverse
thinkers. Sure I would be interested if there were important similarities
between Blake and Caribbean writers, or if there were palpable influences of
Blake embedded in their works, but these things have nothing to do with my
original inquiry, which involves the exposure of various writers to Blake
and how they reacted to him. I shall expand on the relevance of this matter
later.
Bill Franklin sez:
>Derek Walcott is hanging out in Texas this Spring at the University of
>Dallas. Write if you want more information. Ralph, Hugh, come on down.
Tell me whom to write and where. BTW, I've been told that Walcott is
unapproachable. Do you think I am a gentleman of leisure who has the time
and money to just come on down to Texas? I take this as an insult. If you
have help to offer, please tell me how you can help answer my questions.
Otherwise, you are effectively thumbing your nose, and what good is that
going to do me?
To Phil Benz:
Thanks for the specific references to Glissant. As to the one passage you
quoted, begiining with:
>"How to assume a relationship to the Other, when one doesn't (yet)
>have a (knowledgeable) opacity to oppose, to propose to him? Language,
>here in its 'beginnings', marshals its possibilities [...]
I can't stomach having to read such Francophone rubbish, which has nothing
to do with Blake and even less with my own interests. What a sack of shit!
However, I may look up some other Glissant material, and will keep my
fingers crossed that it will not be a waste of my time.
Phil also sez:
>I'll bite: what has Wilson Harris had to say about Blake?
I uploaded an anecdote by Harris on Blake "The Tyger" some time ago, but I
have not yet determined where my original post is on my disks, so I can't
answer your question until I find it. Be advised, however, that this
anecdote won't be useful in determining anything Blakeian about Harris,
which is entirely extraneous to my concerns in any event.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 07:01:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Ralph Dumain
To: blake@albion.com, "internet:blake@albion.com"
Subject: Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Message-Id: <2.2.16.19970331100118.2f77dbe6@pop.igc.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
In my previous point, I indicated that I was not particularly interested in
Blakeian influence or coincidental commonalities between Blake and Caribbean
writers. What then interested me? Well, I would rather not answer this
question in reference to C.L.R. James: the matter is too complex to explain.
But in thinking this through, I have thought of a more general issue that
should be of interest to a great many more people. That is, given the
continuing obsession with cultural imperialism and anti-colonialism, how do
Caribbean people (say English speaking West Indies only?), especially those
of the younger generation (coming of age in 1960s and later) react to
"English" poetry in general, to the Romantics, and to Blake in particular?
A lot of the older folks who lived under colonialism were intdoctrinated in
English literature and may have accepted it or rebelled against it, but
still considered it an important reference point. But younger people, who
lived through or were products of the cultural rebellion of the 1960s,
turned to indigenous or purportedly African roots and turned their back on
everything English. The Jamaican dub poets are a conspicuous example of
this, and even old folks such as Barbadian Kamau Brathwaite are still
obsessed with undoing the cultural effects of colonialism. ("Iambic
pentameter is the enemy.")
In this rebellion against englishness, the Romantics are not necessarily
embraced by the nationalist-minded. A nutcase from Jamaica called Mikey
Smith once went on a tirade about how he detested Wordsworth, along with
Shakespeare. Curiously, after all this crap, there is a video clip of him
reading aloud a poem (unattributed) by ... Blake!
And so now the crucial question comes to light: is it possible that Blake is
so different from the other Romantics that West Indians chafing at the
aftereffects of colonialism could perceive a difference and embrace Blake
while rejecting other manifestations of English culture? Or are they so
resentful they are willing to chuck even a potential spiritual ally in their
resentment? For those of us who care about Blake not as Culture or
Literature but as insight in the lonely night of darkness or consolation in
times of distress or inspiration in times of despair, it matters that silly
nationalistic provincialism not become a barrier to the acceptance of
emancipatory cultural influences. Therefore it is more than an academic
matter to know whether Caribbean people consider Blake part of the
imperialist canon or whether they embrace him as a kindred spirit. Hence my
query about the role of Blake in the Caribbean takes on a broader significance.
PS: My experience in backward provincial Buffalo with people of all kinds
outside the realm of official culture -- blacks, Italians, Puerto Ricans,
Irish-Americans, etc. -- all of whom were part of my informal Blake circle,
convinces me that no group of people is inherently provincial or
narrow-minded whatever their grievances. I energetically protest the
inhumanity of artificial divisions and stereotypical consumer habits imposed
upon people curbing their natural expansiveness and resonance with whatever
inputs could fulfill their needs. The systematic capitalist monster logic
stereotyping human response patterns becomes more pernicious every day,
turning human beings into cartoon characters ever more intermeasurable with
one another. It is an agreeable situation with which I for one do not agree.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 11:46:21 -0500 (EST)
From: Marcel M OGorman
To: Paul Tarry
Cc: blake online
Subject: Re: Of crimson joy
Message-Id:
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
hey paul,
i have recently set up an experimental site re: the sick rose. it might
deal with some of your questions. check out the following url:
http://www.ucet.ufl.edu/~ogorman/blake/orisen.html
be careful. thus far the site is available in frames only.
enjoy.
best,
mmgogo
----------
http://www.ucet.ufl.edu/~ogorman
----------
Everywhere the virus of potentialization
and mise en abyme carries the day --
carries us toward an ecstasy
which is also that of indifference.
--J.Baudrillard
On Thu, 27 Mar 1997, Paul Tarry wrote:
> Hi, i've been following the list for a few weeks now, ever since
> getting hooked up. Naturally having been hooked up and mainlined
> into William Blake since A-level his was the first name i searched and
> i have really enjoyed the response. Now when doing said Level-A i
> remember being particularly baffled by The Sick Rose and a gloss
> mentioning the sexual nature of the poem. No amount of background
> reading has explained away my intrigue or given me the sense that i
> intuitively understand. Please help!
>
> The Sick Rose
>
> O Rose thou art sick.
> The invisible worm.
> That flies in the night
> In the howling storm:
>
> Has found out thy bed
> Of crimson joy:
> And his dark secret love
> Does thy life destroy.
>
> With thanks in anticipation,
> paul tarry
>
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 11:29:17 -0600
From: jmichael@seraph1.sewanee.edu (J. Michael)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>>One possibility (which you've probably already pursued) is to look at
>>textbooks from all the educational levels and see when Blake becomes
>>prominent in them.
>
>I hope someone has done this or could do this, but this is a practical
>impossibility for me. I wouldn't have the time to do this even if I were
>capable of identifying all the literary textbooks in the English speaking
>world through the 20th century. Did you intend to mock me by suggesting I'm
>in a position to perform this task?
Ralph, I had no such intention and I fail to see how my suggestion could be
taken as mockery. In fact, by suggesting you had already pursued such
research, I was attempting to avoid what might be perceived as an insult if
you HAD already done so.
I should have specified "a sampling of textbooks," not all of them, which
would indeed be a Herculean labor. I'm willing to bet someone has written
a dissertation on the anthologization of Romanticism, and I'll even look it
up in Dissertation Abstracts when I get a chance. But in any case, when
you ask a group of people for suggestions in pursuing a particular line of
research, it is not their duty to know what your resources are. Rather, if
you undertake a project, it is up to you to figure out what is essential
and whether you have the means to carry it out; if not, then you have to
redefine the project. I teach at a small college with a good but limited
library: if someone suggests that I read a book that is not in my library,
I don't rail at them for suggesting I teach at Harvard.
The same applies to your response to Bill Franklin, who was only trying to
be helpful. If I were in your shoes I would be happy to hear that Walcott
was in the US. Rather than take other people's word that he was
"unapproachable," I would write to him care of the English department at
the University of Dallas, whose zip code is available through the Post
Office . . . Do you see my point?
Jennifer Michael
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 16:44:07 -0600 (CST)
From: William Neal Franklin
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake & Caribbean & Walcott & Texas
Message-Id:
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
On Mon, 31 Mar 1997, Ralph Dumain wrote:>
> Bill Franklin sez:
>
> >Derek Walcott is hanging out in Texas this Spring at the University of
> >Dallas. Write if you want more information. Ralph, Hugh, come on down.
>
> Tell me whom to write and where. BTW, I've been told that Walcott is
> unapproachable. Do you think I am a gentleman of leisure who has the time
> and money to just come on down to Texas? I take this as an insult. If you
> have help to offer, please tell me how you can help answer my questions.
> Otherwise, you are effectively thumbing your nose, and what good is that
> going to do me?
Don't be so paranoid, Ralph. This is about the love of poetics and poets.
Walcott is the genuine article. If you want to know more, write me and
ask nicely and I'll tell you when he's speaking.
Bill Franklin
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 97 22:54:33 GMT
From: Paul Tarry
To: blake online
Subject: A.N. Other
Message-Id:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; X-MAPIextension=".TXT"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Searching through the shelves for a copy of A.N. Wilson's new book
about St. Paul i stumbled into a novel of his entitled "Daughters Of
Albion". Having never read Wilson before i am wondering if it was
worth the six pound notes (it sounds promising what with the title and
note talking of a "Blakean concern with ..unfashionable matters,
such as religion"). In light of recent chat centred around "Dead Man"
i was thinking about how other contemporary writters and artists have
fed off and into Blake (for example has anyone heard the latest Billy
Bragg album "William Bloke" and is it any good?).Blake himself was
so heavily infuenced by Milton but in a way that was of benefit to the
insights of both i think, maybe we could discuss some of the threads
that in turn run through the present art and media world.For example
there was an interview last year with a young artist graduating (from
Goldsmiths i think?) in one of the Sunday supplements here in the
U.K. which talked interestingly about Blake's influece on the way he
applied paint to canvas in an attempt to recreate the wonderful
effects of colour printing. Annoyingly i cannot remember the name of
the artist (anyone?) but his work certainly made me look again at the
expressive nature of Blake's colouring, and also contemplate the
abstract grounding of this process (preceding much later
developments and artistic movements) in the context of an artist so
fixated by the importance of "line".
Basically i am sure there are meany Blake related works
(unfashionable or no) which like the truth are out there, and which i
would be very happy to hear about.
All the Georgie Best
Paul
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 31 Mar 1997 20:40:54 -0600
From: tomdill@wc.stephens.edu (TOM DILLINGHAM)
To: blake@albion.com
Subject: Re: Blake & Caribbean: Glissant? Harris?
Message-Id: <97033120405427@wc.stephens.edu>
This is not a comprehensive answer to Ralph's query about West Indian
responses to the Romantics (I don't know enough, obviously) but a section
of Michelle Cliff's novel, _Abeng_, describes the reactions of a Jamaican
schoolgirl to years of repeated lessons based on Wordsworth's
"My heart leap'd up"--the poem about the field of daffodils, a flower
unknown to Jamaican children except through the endless repetition of
the poem and commentaries on it. the "attitude" about it is
unmistakable in the novel.
Ralph mentioned Kamau Braithwaite and Derek Walcott's name has been
mentioned--both poets work painfully through the dilemmas of writers
who use a colonial language and who are steeped in the greatness of
the poetry of that language (Walcott clearly knows and loves the
Romantics, especially Keats--as can be seen in much of his work,
but especially in _Another Life_, his booklength poem that is almost
a compendium of the poems and pictures he has loved and hated, fought
against and embraced. In that book he seems repeatedly on the verge
of mentioning Blake (the word "Albion" appears, and "the New Jerusalem"
but neither in a Blakean sense; he refers repeatedly to Blake
's disciple, Samuel Palmer), but neer does. Many other poets, even
including Matthew Arnold and Thomas Hardy, appear. Perhaps that
indicates the "absence" of Blake from his youthful reading. He takes up
the same round of materials in his epic poem, _Omeros_, but I do not
remember Blake references in that poem either (but I wasn't looking for
them at the time). Given the pervasive, even obsessive, display and
twisting and turning of allusions and references to British poets (not
only British--Rimbaud, Vallejo, Mandelstam, Akhmatova, and many others)
in Walcott's poetry, the *absence* of Blake (even when his "company"
would be familiar, as Turner and Palmer) may seem to be significant
in itself. Walcott is far more likely to mention neoclassicists than
romantics ("Catch us in Satan tent, next carnival:/Lord Rochester,
Quevedo, Juvenal,/Maestro, Martial, Pope, Dryden, Swift, Lord Byron,/
the lords of irony, the Duke of Iron,/hotly contending for the
monarchy/in couplets or the old re-minor key,/all those who
gave earth's pompous carnival/fatigue, and groaned "O God, I feel to
fall!"/all those whose anger for the poor on earth/made them weep with
a laughter beyond mirth,/names wide as oceans when compared with mine/
salted my songs, and gave me their high sign."), overt satirists than
prophets. This is not a Walcott list, so speculation on the absence
(if it is so--again, I haven't read all of Walcott, but enough to know
he seems always to step aside at the approach of a Blakean allusion)
of Blake is quixotic, at best. But it certainly prompts thought. About
Walcott, anyway. Certainly Walcott is capable of Blakean rage against
fools and tyrants--""Have we changed sides/to the moustached sergeants
and the horsy gentry/because we serve English, like a two-headed sentry/
guarding its borders? No language is neutral;/the green oak of
English is a murmurous cathedral/where some too umbrage, some peace,
but every shade, all/helped widen its shadow." (sorry that should be
"some took umbrage")
I suspect the answer has already been suggested--Blake would not ahve
been canonical when Walcott (or Brathwaite) was in school. But there
may be more--Walcott may evade Blake for reasons more complex than
chronology. It's worth exploring.
Tom Dillingham
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End of blake-d Digest V1997 Issue #37
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