----- Original Message -----
From: "Rhodes, Hillary" <hrhodes@mpr.org>
To: <trebor@velocity.net>; "See, Elena" <ESee@mpr.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 23, 2003 2:50 PM
Subject: Zukofsky quote
Bob,
Thanks for your comments on the Jan 23 Zukofsky quote. We always
appreciate when listeners point out inconsistencies and inaccuracies,
however sheepish we may feel about having made a mistake. In this case,
the quote was found in a Zukofsky poem, but was referencing a quote of
Einstein's, so it's somewhat ambiguous although of course it is primarily
a quote from Einstein.
Here is what the writer for that week's scripts said regarding the matter,
for what it's worth:
Below is the passage from the Dictionary of Literary Biography from which
I
pulled the Zukofsky quote. Since the entry emphasizes the number of
people
whom Zukofsky "references", and since elsewhere the entry describes how he
often had famous figures speaking in his poems, saying invented things, I
didn't think the quote actually came from Einstein. So the quote is in
Zukofsky's poem, but I guess it is originally Einstein's.
Yet despite the extravagant praises of so many
talented poets and critics, Zukofsky's work remains all but unknown to
most readers of poetry. His work is rarely (and poorly) represented in
college anthologies, and his books, when they do manage to find their way
into print, are generally unreviewed, undiscussed, and unread. Among the
unimpressed, some complain that his poetry is trivial or overly simple,
while others find it too ambitious, too difficult, and obscure. To be
sure, there are reaches of Zukofsky's work that might invite either
judgment. Zukofsky glosses the matter whimsically in "A" section 12:
Everything should be as simple as it can be,
Says Einstein,
Not simpler.
Those who dismiss his work as "minimalist," precious, and narrow have
obviously not looked at "A", surely the most inclusive poem ever written,
which finds occasions to treat Castro and Catullus, Eisenhower, Eskimos,
Ghengis Khan, Geiger counters, Spinoza, sputnik, Vivaldi, and much more.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Hillary Rhodes
Production Assistant
Prairie Home Productions
(651)-999-1096
hrhodes@mpr.org