Notes for a History of Poetry

When Memory’s Fabled Daughter
Descended to the Word,
The lapping sound of water
Was profitably heard.
Through language set in motion
By river, stream, or ocean
Men acted their devotion,
Both tragic and absurd.

Absurdity was troubling:
See now the poet’s task:
Leave histrionic doubling
To dona simpler mask.
Winds of the world were nipping;
The bardic robe was slipping:
The poet wanders, sipping
The sad, hypnotic flask.

Now tipsy with suggestion
He staggers all alone,
Resolving every question
To solipsistic moan.
The voice was human; therefore
We credited its flaws:
Now it’s the blanks we care for,
And listen for the pause.

Then crossed with this deflation
Came ironies of style,
Importing conversation,
The squint sardonic smile.
Then “Sir” declines to “Mister,”
And “Mister” falls to “Bud”;
The hail becomes a whisper,
The rocks dissolve to mud,
Which purify to water
In critical amend,
And memory’s fabled daughter
Is Silence in the end.