Ed,
   There are a number of places in his poems where the lack of punctuation
creates a very rich ambiguity. This is a later stage of an experimental
approach that dates way back to, if I remember right, late sixies and
early seventies. I say that as a loving reader, not as someone who has
read any critical response to this part of his work. It is careful,
deeply cultivated, very rich. He has been one of our most important
poets for some time.

Craig >

Ed,
>
> My first reaction is that punctuation would neither spoil nor improve it;
> poetry is meant to be heard, and if the punctuation is "accurate," it
> cannot change the music of the poem.
>
> Paul
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Edgar Schuster <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 4:31:43 PM
> Subject: punctuation anyone?
>
> Folks,
>      A friend just sent me the following poem by W. S. Merwin:
>
>      Before A Departure in Spring
> Once more it is April with the first light sifting
>       through the young leaves heavy with dew making the colors
> remember who they are the new pink of the cinnamon tree
>       the gilded lichens of the bamboo the shadowed bronze
> of the kamani and the blue day opening
>       as the sunlight descends through it all like the return
> of a spirit touching without touch and unable
>       to believe it is here and here again and awake
> reaching out in silence into the cool breath
>       of the garden just risen from darkness and days of rain
> it is only a moment the birds fly through it calling
>       to each other and are gone with their few notes and the flash
> of their flight that had vanished before we ever knew it
>       we watch without touching any of it and we
> can tell ourselves only that this is April this is the morning
>       this never happened before and we both remember it
>
> I love it myself, and had no trouble reading it in spite of its total
> absence of punctuation.  Thought I'd share it with fellow grammarians and
> punctuation lovers.
> Just one question:  Would the addition of punctuation improve it or spoil
> it?
>
> Ed Schuster
>
>
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