Technical Notes

By James Laughlin 1914–1997 James Laughlin

Catullus is my master and I mix

a little acid and a bit of honey

in his bowl love

is my subject & the lack of love

which lack is what makes evil a

poet must strike

Catullus could rub words so hard

together their friction burned a

heat that warms

us now 2000 years away I roll the

words around my mouth & count the

letters in each

line thus eye and ear contend in-

side the poem and draw its move-

ment tight Milton

thought rhyme was vulgar I agree

yet sometimes if it’s hidden in

the line a rhyme

will richen tone the thing I most

despise is quote poetic unquote

diction I prefer

to build with plain brown bricks

of common talk American talk then

set 1 Roman stone

among them for a key I know Ca-

tullus knew a poem is like a blow

an impact strik-

ing where you least expect this I

believe and yet with me a poem

is finally just

a natural thing.

Source: Poems New and Selected (1998)

Biography

While a sophomore on leave of absence from Harvard University, James Laughlin met Ezra Pound in Rapallo, Italy, and was invited to attend the "Ezuversity"—Pound's term for the private tutoring he gave Laughlin over meals, on hikes, or whenever the master paused in his labors. "I stayed several months in Rapallo at the 'Ezuversity,' learning and reading," recalls Laughlin in an interview with Linda Kuehl for the New York Times . . .

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