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Fw: VN and Wallace Stevens
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EDNOTE. Kurt Johnson is co-author of the delightful and informative book
NABOKOV's BLUES that examines Nabokov the lepiopterist.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Johnson, Kurt" <JohnsoK@Coudert.com>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (87
lines) ------------------
> Interesting that you should mention below "alas lacking in his
> later....". Another friend of mine was the late William Stafford who,
> as you may also know, wrote some incredibly "deep" "contemplative" and
> often nature-image related poetry. But he too, in his later years, once
> he was "well known" tried putting more "outright messages" into his work
> instead of simply letting the imagery do the work (I actually spoke to
> him once about that "phenomenon" when he dropped by the American Museum
> of Natural History once to say "hello"; and, he of course, knew about
> what we were doing there with Nabokov and his butterflies). Stafford
> acknowledged that it's tempting, once you become "well known", to "try
> to do too much" etc. Perhaps that was true of Stevens as well, although
> Opus Posthumous has some fabulous stuff. It's curious, in this
> Nabokovian vein, how I got to know Stafford; it was while I was still in
> the monastic life. Stafford wrote a poem "Smoke Signals" about the
> strange enigmatic ways in which people have and make "connections" with
> each other (must like my getting to know Nabokov solely by his science).
> I used part of that Stafford poem in a Xmas card I sent out to a number
> of contemplatives one year; one, a sister in the Order of St. Helena,
> sent it on to F. Scott Peck, the priest/author of "The Road Less
> Travelled" who then contacted me because he wanted to use it in a book
> he was writing. Stafford's poem was prophetic in that his own words
> about "connections" connected all these people; and, after that,
> Stafford and I stuck up a friendship about the contemplative life and
> poetry etc. and he would drop by the museum when he came through New
> York. Six degrees.... I guess. And, without butterflies, of course, I
> probably would have never run across Nabokov, or this conversation of
> N-on-line today. I imagine that Stafford's "success" came too late for
> him to have been known to Nabokov.
>
> Kurt Johnson
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 11:06 AM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: Fw: VN and Wallace Stevens
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bouazza, Abdellah" <abdellah.bouazza@hp.com>
> To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >
> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (29
> lines) ------------------
> > As to WS, the sole reference is to be found in Boyd's "VN: The
> > American
> Years". VN attended a poetry reading which included WS.
> > "Sunday Morning", "Le Monocle de Mon Oncle", "Credences of Summer"
> > etc.
> etc. are, of course, brilliant and contain dazzling imagery which is
> alas lacking in his later meditative and philosophical poetry.
> >
> > A. Bouazza.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> > Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 3:55 AM
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Fw: VN and Wallace Stevens
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Arthur Glass" <goliard@worldnet.att.net>
> >
> > > This message was originally submitted by
> > > goliard@WORLDNET.ATT.NET
> >
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (8
> > lines) -------------------
> > > Did VN have anything much to say about the poetry of Wallace
> > > Stevens?
> > >
> > > I ask because I am reading Stevens with close attention for the
> > > first
> time
> > > in years, and I feel an affinity of sensibility between these two
> masters
> > of
> > > the musical complexities of English. Stevens' 'Sunday Morning'
> > > would be
> a
> > > good place, it seems to me, to begin a meditation on a certain
> similarity
> > of
> > > vision.
> > >
> >
NABOKOV's BLUES that examines Nabokov the lepiopterist.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Johnson, Kurt" <JohnsoK@Coudert.com>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (87
lines) ------------------
> Interesting that you should mention below "alas lacking in his
> later....". Another friend of mine was the late William Stafford who,
> as you may also know, wrote some incredibly "deep" "contemplative" and
> often nature-image related poetry. But he too, in his later years, once
> he was "well known" tried putting more "outright messages" into his work
> instead of simply letting the imagery do the work (I actually spoke to
> him once about that "phenomenon" when he dropped by the American Museum
> of Natural History once to say "hello"; and, he of course, knew about
> what we were doing there with Nabokov and his butterflies). Stafford
> acknowledged that it's tempting, once you become "well known", to "try
> to do too much" etc. Perhaps that was true of Stevens as well, although
> Opus Posthumous has some fabulous stuff. It's curious, in this
> Nabokovian vein, how I got to know Stafford; it was while I was still in
> the monastic life. Stafford wrote a poem "Smoke Signals" about the
> strange enigmatic ways in which people have and make "connections" with
> each other (must like my getting to know Nabokov solely by his science).
> I used part of that Stafford poem in a Xmas card I sent out to a number
> of contemplatives one year; one, a sister in the Order of St. Helena,
> sent it on to F. Scott Peck, the priest/author of "The Road Less
> Travelled" who then contacted me because he wanted to use it in a book
> he was writing. Stafford's poem was prophetic in that his own words
> about "connections" connected all these people; and, after that,
> Stafford and I stuck up a friendship about the contemplative life and
> poetry etc. and he would drop by the museum when he came through New
> York. Six degrees.... I guess. And, without butterflies, of course, I
> probably would have never run across Nabokov, or this conversation of
> N-on-line today. I imagine that Stafford's "success" came too late for
> him to have been known to Nabokov.
>
> Kurt Johnson
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 11:06 AM
> To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> Subject: Fw: Fw: VN and Wallace Stevens
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bouazza, Abdellah" <abdellah.bouazza@hp.com>
> To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> >
> > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (29
> lines) ------------------
> > As to WS, the sole reference is to be found in Boyd's "VN: The
> > American
> Years". VN attended a poetry reading which included WS.
> > "Sunday Morning", "Le Monocle de Mon Oncle", "Credences of Summer"
> > etc.
> etc. are, of course, brilliant and contain dazzling imagery which is
> alas lacking in his later meditative and philosophical poetry.
> >
> > A. Bouazza.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: D. Barton Johnson [mailto:chtodel@cox.net]
> > Sent: Thursday, January 02, 2003 3:55 AM
> > To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
> > Subject: Fw: VN and Wallace Stevens
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Arthur Glass" <goliard@worldnet.att.net>
> >
> > > This message was originally submitted by
> > > goliard@WORLDNET.ATT.NET
> >
> > > ----------------- Message requiring your approval (8
> > lines) -------------------
> > > Did VN have anything much to say about the poetry of Wallace
> > > Stevens?
> > >
> > > I ask because I am reading Stevens with close attention for the
> > > first
> time
> > > in years, and I feel an affinity of sensibility between these two
> masters
> > of
> > > the musical complexities of English. Stevens' 'Sunday Morning'
> > > would be
> a
> > > good place, it seems to me, to begin a meditation on a certain
> similarity
> > of
> > > vision.
> > >
> >