I’m going to quote the start and end of Grace Schulman’s “The Examination: Remembrance of Words Lost” (Poetry 113.5 [Feb. 1969]: 319-321), because I’ve remembered much of it for half a century now and want to have it conveniently to hand (I have the issue of Poetry somewhere around the house, but who knows where?). It begins:
—What happened at your orals, Grace?
Taking a pipe from a row of suckling pigs, The chairman swung
In his chair. An A-shaped face, kind voice. Eyes, rubber stamps:
Failure. Special case.
—I lose it now,
But I will try to call it back. Dim stars
That fade to a stare can shine at a backward glance.
—Why did you fail?
—I did not. Words failed me […]
And ends:
Oh, yes. Of course. But nowadays we can’t
Give Ph.D.s for that. What’s your profession?
—Poet.
—Published poet?
—Yes.
—Well, poetry
Has nothing to do with scholarship. Your sentence:
A year of failure and a crown of silence.Five fathers vanished. One remained.
—My friend,
I see you have been walking under water.
Look upward now.
I surfaced then, saw shadows
That had been knives, and moved into myself.
I have often muttered “Well, poetry has nothing to do with scholarship” to myself over the years. Those italics in the chairman’s speech are devastating.
In the second stanza, I momentarily misunderstood the line “ninety percent of you are brainless”, as referring to you singular; that is, 90% (or whatever) of an individual is not brains. Not what she meant, but still.
It’s a great poem.
I’d like to give a shoutout to John Cowan for his invaluable explanation of how to create “a fixed width space like & #x2001;, the EM QUAD,” without which I could never have formatted the poem.
“Well, poetry has nothing to do with scholarship”
is a rather double-edged phrase. Italics do nothing for me here. Main noun (subject) and verb always stand out to me in a sentence. Great poem, obviously, thanks!
Glad you like it! And I’m glad to see she’s had a successful career. (It seems her year of failure was sponsored by New York University.)
Nice poem. Thanks.
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