"Claire du lune"

Clair de lune

[The moon has spilt

her milk

in silver fountains

until like silk

It falls upon my knee, the poet.

Nor do I stand alone, for Romeo

Does he not lean from his high balcony

And speak to Juliet?

And does not Aeneas watch the Alpenglow

Fade, fade, from this high roof where slow

Burns his fair love, his love, the queen Dido?]

And the This music that clangs

I cannot tell

Whether it is the a madrigal

That stringsing the fretted leaves of

That mozart plays so fast; or slow 

The heart-apalling swell

of Beethoven

In the valley

- Deep –

Below

Or And sSee Stravinsky on the snow

Saw the white air (and) yet again

The foodly John Sebastian

Who moves the golden stars about their queen.

Their queen,

O(h) lovely moon.

67

     "Claire du lune" was an interesting, albeit challenging, poem to transcribe.  The work is one of the last in the book, placing it after the break (mentioned before) where it seems Spender began to adjust to a more draftsman like approach towards the page (i.e. no prose 3rd person abstract on the verso, more editorial markings, etc).  In this poem we see, perhaps, Spender's most clearly editorial hand.  I've bracketed the first dozen lines in an attempt to express the mark which appears to cut through the first half of the poem.  It's hard for me to see this as a purely deductive aim on Spender's behalf.  The line seems to begin on l. 13 and extends to the top of the poem.  As if in frustration (perhaps with this line? ("This music that clangs")), Spender extends the black mark to the top of the page.  It's perplexing to consider the poem without the first 12 lines, because there's some good stuff in there (the first five lines, for example, are lovely).  If we are to assume this mark was a decisive and ultimately reductive one, then the question then becomes why would Spender cut this chunk out?  If I were to venture a guess, I'd say it'd have something to do with the subject matter of the first twelve lines in comparison with the rest of the poem.  Namely, there is a contrast between the literary allusions to Shakespeare and Virgil in the first, ostensibly deleted section and the references to composers (Beethoven, Stravinsky, Bach) in the second, unmarked one.  Perhaps in editing Stephen decided that when discussing moonlight it is more effective to evoke a musical rather than literary sensibility to his reader.  Maybe he was listening to Debussy's version and got inspired.  Who knows.

Obviously there are some words that were a little up in the air ('slow' is one that comes to mind and obviously 'foodly' is incorrect but, I swear, this is what it looks like...maybe Spender knew something we didn't about Bach's eating habits) and could be discussed further.  That being said, I am quite proud of 'Alpenglow', a word we should all feel better for knowing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpenglow

-a