A
Few Comments Regarding “The Other World of Richard Wright: Perspectives on His
Haiku”
I
have been reading a collection of critical essays on the Haiku of Richard
Wright. The collection is titled, “The
Other World of Richard Wright: Perspectives on His Haiku”. It is edited by Jianqing Zheng, a Wright
scholar who is the chair of English at Mississippi Valley State
University.
In
this post I am going to make a few general observations rather than comments on
specific essays in the collection. I
hope to have time to make specific comments later.
The
essays are informative about the life of Richard Wright and the history of how
Wright came to compose Haiku during his last years. You learn a lot about how that happened and
the processes Wright engaged with in order to enter into the world of
Haiku. There is also intriguing
information about the editorial process Wright used to cull the 4,000 Haiku he
composed down to the 817 for publication.
For example, I found out that Wright originally categorized the Haiku in
accordance with a system proposed by Blyth.
Later Wright thought better of this scheme and reorganized his Haiku
into the series we presently have. I
found this intriguing and it raised questions in my mind as to what criteria
Wright used to finally place his Haiku in the order that they currently have.
For
the most part the essays are biographical and sociological. I mean that the essays focus on the
biographical circumstances of Wright’s life and his interactions with society
at large. There seem to be two main
views. The first view is that with
Haiku, Wright freed himself from the world of political engagement and at the
end of his life entered into a larger context, particularly the context of the
natural world. The second view is that
the Haiku of Wright are an extension of the political focus that his previous
works embodied; but the Haiku are more subtle, at times almost coded in what
they are communicating. Personally, I
don’t find the two views mutually exclusive, though I tend, for the most part,
to favor the first view, the view of Wright entering into a larger context with
his Haiku.
For
me, though, there was a dearth of appreciation for Wright as a poet. I wanted to find discussions of how Wright
used metaphor, personification, alliteration, etc., in his Haiku. In my opinion Wright uses these poetic
devices to great effect and I had hoped there might be something about these
aspects of his Haiku in the collection; but there is not a lot that is focused on these aspects. It's not completely absent, but it doesn't seem to be a primary focus.
And
what about Wright’s use of rhythm and meter?
I have discovered, for example, that some of the Haiku use meter
effectively; for example in the Haiku where the concluding words for all three
lines are trochees. And there are other
rhythmic devices Wright uses to good effect.
I
would also like to see an examination of Wright’s approach to lineation. My observation has been that there is almost
always a consistency between line and grammatical unit and I think that is one
of the reasons that his Haiku are so effective.
I think this is significant because free verse at the time Wright was
working on his Haiku was moving towards a more arbitrary lineation,
particularly among the beat poets. But Wright doesn't seem to have been touched by these developments.
In
addition, I think there is insufficient appreciation for the contribution
Wright has made to English syllabic verse.
“This Other World” may be the most significant collection of English
syllabic verse published in English thus far.
I realize that could be a controversial statement and that there are
other contenders; for example Marianne Moore’s collected verse would be a
candidate.
My
reasons for making the suggestion regarding Wright and syllabic verse are
first, this is a collection of English syllabic verse in a specific form. My observation has been that in cultures
which have a tradition of syllabic poetry, the syllabic tradition is centered
on a few specific forms, or even a single form.
For example, in Japan, Tanka is the central syllabic form for Japanese
poetry. Great Japanese poets are, for
the most part, Tanka poets (Basho, of course, would be a significant exception). In Welsh poetry, the Englyn occupies a similar
place. In China, the rhymed quatrain has
this function. And the Rubai serves this
purpose in Persia/Iran.
Previous
to Wright, English language poets who have written syllabically, such as
Marianne Moore, have not centered their efforts on a specific form. I think this is one of the reasons why a
syllabic approach to poetry in English has had difficulty taking root. Moore, and others, were strongly influenced
by certain codes of modernism and one of the consequences of this is that each
poem is supposed to have its own form.
Moore, in spite of her many talents, did not establish a syllabic form
that other poets can base their own poetry on.
But Wright did exactly that. In
my opinion this makes “This Other World” a breakthrough for syllabic verse in
English.
Wright
made a choice to write syllabically at a time when English language verse was
focused on a free verse approach. Wright
chose a ‘third way’ of composing English language poetry. His poetry is neither metrical in the
traditional sense (though, I think he does use meter at times), nor is it free
verse. I am intrigued by this choice. It is the kind of choice an ‘outsider’ would
make. Someone more connected to what was
going on in American poetry would, I suspect, have opted for a free verse
approach. I say this because American
Haiku poets in general were systematically incorporating into their Haiku the
norms of free verse at the time Wright was composing his Haiku and I think if
Wright had been connected to American Haiku he would have been influenced by
this. On the other hand, Wright didn’t
fall back onto traditional western metrics.
Instead he found his own voice, and his own approach (a syllabic approach) and in doing so demonstrated the efficacy
of a syllabic approach for English language poetry.
A
second reason I suggest that Wright holds special significance for syllabic
verse in English is that Wright demonstrates how natural lines of 5 and 7
syllables are for the English language.
In general, it is easier to compose syllabically in odd-numbered lines
because odd-numbered lines tend to undermine the tendency to fall back into
iambics. It is, of course, possible to
compose syllabically in even-numbered lines; think of the Crapsey Cinquain
which consists entirely of even-numbered lines.
But Wright’s focus on odd-numbered lines, and the way he makes them
sound completely natural, broadens the basis for a syllabic approach to English
syllabic poetry. I think his usage is a
real breakthrough in this regard.
It
is true that there were others composing syllabic Haiku at that time; for
example James Hackett has produced a significant body of work. But Hackett’s influence and presence seems to
be largely confined to the world of Haiku and his place in that world appears
to be problematic. In addition, the
range of subject matter in Hackett’s Haiku is, in my opinion, more restricted
than what one finds in the Haiku of Richard Wright. Several reviewers, such as Higginson,
remarked approvingly on the wide-ranging nature of Wright’s Haiku. And I feel that because of this Wright’s
Haiku have a broader appeal and a greater impact than others who were writing
syllabic Haiku at that time.
I
don’t want to overstate what I am saying; there are some essays that comment on
Wright as a poet. In particular Zheng’s
essay, “Nature, the South, and Spain in Haiku:
This Other World” contains insightful observations. For example, on page 160 Zheng comments on
this Haiku, 501, by Wright:
Autumn
moonlight is
Deepening
the emptiness
Of
a country road.
Zheng
comments, “The beauty of this haiku is that it uses the technique of narrowing
focus that starts with a contrast between the sky and the earth: the wide-angle
lens on the autumn moonlight switches to a close-up of an empty or down-hearted
country road.” This is followed up by
noting how Wright was influenced by blues, and how Wright incorporates some of
the imagery often found in blues. This
is a good example of the kind of analysis I would like to see more of; that is
to say more about Wright’s poetic craft.
For
the most part, with some exceptions, the essays in Zheng’s collection are
embedded in the contemporary post-modernist view of what constitutes literary
criticism. For this movement the real
meaning of a poem is always either political, autobiographical, or
psychological. I think this is why there
is a relative absence of a discussion of the specific poetic features that make
Wright’s Haiku so effective. And
post-modernism has an aversion to anything which hints at transcendence and I
suspect that this aversion to transcendence is one reason why some essays in
the collection want to turn Wright’s Haiku into coded political observations. In addition, Wright lead a very interesting
life; so it makes sense that those interested in Wright would want to weave
Wright’s biography into discussions about his Haiku. And, like I said at the beginning, I did
learn much about the creative process that drew Wright to the Haiku form. Still, I would like to have had more essays
about the specific achievements of Wright as a poet. Perhaps there will be room for such essays in
a second collection.
Overall,
though, I have found the essays well worth the time. It is a valuable collection. I even found Lee Gurga’s highly contentious
and critical essay, “Richard Wright’s Place in American Haiku” a good read in
the sense that Gurga is an articulate spokesman for a certain point of view and
it is a view shared by a significant portion of Haiku enthusiasts. Personally, I disagree with Gurga’s stance,
and I plan to say more on that in a separate post, but I appreciate Gurga’s
clarity and willingness to engage in a discussion regarding Wright and his
Haiku. So overall, this is a book well
worth reading. In particular, if you are
attracted to Wright as a poet, or want to learn how Wright came to Haiku so
late in his life, this book will be richly rewarding.
The
Other World of Richard Wright:
Perspectives
on His Haiku
Edited
by Jainqing Zheng
University
Press of Mississippi
ISBN:
9781617030222
$55.00
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