CECIL BROWN
291
Williams:
Oh, I think Emily Dickinson was a more private person.
Hart Crane was the opposite of private; I think he splashed his life
all over (hahaha), he spilled it like blood, but I don 't think he had
any choice.
Int.:
What's the first thing that struck you about Hart Crane's life the
first time you read him?
Williams:
Oh, the beauty of the poetry, the intensity and the beauty of
the torturer.
Int .:
Did you find the diction difficult?
Williams:
At first, yes. I had to read it repeatedly and then it became
quite lucid to me, quite clear. I liked the broken rhythm, so unlike
Emily Dickinson, you know, whose rhythm is da-da-da-da-da you
know, poor thing-her thoughts, her imagination were so fabulous
but there was such a monotony in her rhythms.
Int .:
Crane had a jazz rhythm to him.
Williams:
He did indeed. 1 loved the broken rhythm. I don't have that, I
can't get that jazz rhythm, you know, in writing because I like
cadence, but I don 't like iambic pentameter. I was in my early
twenties. The rhythm 1 always have you know, I can't escape from
cadence because it's too ingrained in that. I can't write without
cadence, I wish 1 could, because I know people writing right now
they are not confined to cadenced speech, but I'm hooked on cadence.
I have
to
hear the sound.
Int.:
The other influences on your life: who are some of the other poets,
who are some of the other people?
Williams:
Poets, you know there are very few good poets. Elizabeth
Bishop, I knew her in Key West, she's one of the greatest poets in
America; Marianne Moore, she's a great poet. Yes, a great gallantry
and humor. Of course, I don 't find her comparable to Crane. No, a
spinster likes to write about the intricate construction of a spider,
you know, the spots on an antelope; you see, it can be beautiful, but
he isn 't like a man eviscerating himself beautifully, you know, like
Crane-it doesn 't hit me that way- of course to some people it does.
I think Wallace Stevens is an excellent poet. You know, he was an
executive in a Hartford, Connecticut insurance company. And how
you can combine that with being a great poet I don 't know, but he
did. He was a great poet.
Int .:
William Carlos Williams was also a doctor.
Williams:
I understand that he was a great poet but I never could read
his poetry with much empathy. I've read some of his plays you know,
and 1 like them, but the poetry, never, maybe I haven 't exposed
myself to it sufficiently.
