Preamble:
I am only partly familiar with the works of American poets, and can cite
few other than Walt Whitman and Robert Frost, and bits of Longfellow, all of whom
we had read in school back in India in the 1970s. Jawaharlal Nehru, I am told, had Frost's
famous lines, The woods are lovely, dark
and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep, and
miles to go before I sleep, under glass in his Prime Minister's
office. We were also rather familiar
with the dark poetic images of Edgar Allen Poe, and the limericks of Ogden
Nash. Other than a few of these, for us
occidental poetry came overwhelmingly from Europe. When I was in graduate school at the
University of Iowa in the 1980s, I became familiar with the literary and poetic
influence exerted by Paul Engle, founder of the renowned Writers'
Workshop. Later, I came to know somewhat
more about Sylvia Plath, Robert Bly and Robert Lowell. I also came to know about prominent black
poets including Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks and Maya Angelou during my
years in graduate school and thereafter.
Of W.S. Merwin, while the name was familiar, I knew little else.
For me, it has always been a treat to discover
someone of prominence that takes a courageous stand against injustice and
tyranny, exhibiting uncanny powers of the intellect, and upholding the noble
ideals that have moved human beings everywhere throughout the history of
civilization. This is not often evident
in daily life; while this fact has disappointed me much over the years, I have
come to conclude that this is not so because the great minds and sensitive
intellects have fallen silent, but much more so because the corrupt powers of
money and tyranny have marginalized or dimmed those beautiful voices amid the
cacophonic din of mindless consumerism, glorified gossip and frightful doses of
propaganda. What else, after all, can
one expect in a society where the daily information and nourishment for the
mind comes from Rupert Murdoch's empire, and other clones (CBS, NBC, ABC, and just
about every other one of these) that try desperately to keep up with the slime
and hatred that are tools of their pillage?
Now, while I have serious
reservations about the many socializing tools of the worldwideweb (an invention
of science and technology arising from fields I myself specialize in), and
frequently see signs that it (the internet) is likely turning into a convenient
new forum for gossip and banter, there are certainly quite a few positive
aspects to it. The ability to find
information, nuggets of wisdom, discover or re-discover history, and, of
course, when done right, hunting for documents on an auction resource such as
ebay -- these are clearly some of the redeeming features of the internet. It was on ebay, therefore, that I recently
came across a printed and signed copy of a speech by Poet Laureate W.S. Merwin
that was presented to an audience at the State University of New York at
Buffalo in 1970. The content of the
speech, which spoke about the Poet Laureate's refusal to sign a "humiliating"
declaration, as he puts it, immediately drew my attention. Out of great curiosity, I took possession of
the document, and having read it, was moved enough by both the principled
position displayed by a noble human being, and also by the striking relevance of portions of it to political and social affairs
today that I feel impelled to present it here for dissemination to the
caring and sentient world. I am
convinced that Poet Laureate Merwin will be sympathetic to my taking the
liberty to present his words here, since I find these to be words of uncanny
and highly relevant wisdom, and their educational value is immeasurable.
In what follows, I present Poet
Laureate Merwin's speech as it appeared in the printed document, verbatim. While the text speaks eloquently as it
stands, I have interspersed occasional commentary of my own, which I have
italicized and placed in parentheses.
*******
A
Personal Statement Read before Poems at the
State
University of New York at Buffalo, October 14, 1970
W.
S. Merwin
I must ask your forbearance for not following that introduction
at once with poems, as I had expected to do, and would have preferred to
do. There are a few things that I feel I
have to say first.
I was invited here last August, to
spend the best part of three days, give a reading of my poems, and talk with
students twice in some manner that might be construed as lecturing them. I did not know, when I accepted, that there
was a string attached. I must say at
once that the members of the faculty here who invited me were unaware of this
string when they did so, that they told me about it at once, and with shame
when they discovered it a couple of weeks ago, and that they have since tried
their best to disentangle it. It was not
until a few hours ago that it became clear that the string was inseparable from
the pocketbook.
This was the form of it. When I came here I would be asked to sign the
following, pursuant to Section 3002, Education Law of the State of New York, as
amended:
"I do hereby pledge and declare that
I will support the Constitution of the United States, and the Constitution of
the State of New York, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the
position of ___________ (in my case, I understand, the wording here would be
"visiting lecturer') according to the best of my ability."
[We
may note that this was at a time when the relentless bombardment of Vietnam and
some of its neighbors was going full swing during the first Nixon
administration. I have since found that
many prominent American poets and intellectuals, to their lasting credit,
strongly protested these obscene and genocidal imperial campaigns.]
Words have something essential to do
with my having been asked here in the first place -- but not this kind of
language. I suppose I understand the
purpose of the demand for such pledging and declaring. I mean, I cannot imagine what other purpose
it can have than to serve as a trap for such teachers as might be tempted to
voice political views unwelcome to those currently in positions of political
power. At least while the teachers are
within the walls of what are probably still the freest institutions of our
society. (I mean, in case anyone wonders
what institutions I am referring to, the universities- even the state
universities.)
[Here,
I wish to add parenthetically that I have been associated with academic
life throughout my career, and have seen sadly little of the dissent or moral
indignation towards warmongering, war crimes and violations of human rights by
the corporate war machine that existed in the "60s and "70s at UC Berkeley, UW
Madison or Kent State, in this new century of smart bombs and drone-killings. This unconscionable silence or tendency
towards self-preservation over all principles is a clear marker of the lowering
of the moral soul of humanity that perhaps science, technology and easy access
to material comforts have wrought.]
I
have not asked who else may have signed this statement nor for what
reasons. That is none of my
business. Others perhaps stand to lose
things of real value to them, by refusing to sign. As for me, I was told that it could be made
easy for me; that I might append to my signature my reservations, whatever they
might be. But I saw no reason why I
should be thus maneuvered into rendering my signature meaningless -- for that is
what it would have come to -- for the sake of money. In my own case, if I did not sign I could not
be fired. I would merely not be paid the
money that I had been offered when I was invited to come here. The money is Caesar's, and those are Caesar's
terms. It seemed to me that I had no
choice, and I will not sign this thing.
I believe I owe those who framed this condition no explanation for my
refusal. I am not sure that they would
understand one. I am not sure, to tell
the truth, that I can fully explain my refusal to anyone, but I want to take
this occasion to try to set down a few of my reasons, not for them, nor for
anyone who might have been paid to sit here tonight, but for us. Well, yes, for them too; for all of us. I hope you will bear with me if my reasons,
as I try to formulate them, seem to you -- as Thomas Jefferson put it --
self-evident.
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