394
PARTISAN REVIEW
the fact that, though I was young, it didn't spoil the occasion for
me either.
Robinson, if I remember rightly, was tongue-tied about
Mrs. Moody's plan. Just before dinner, in the main sitting room
of the colony, 1 observed him in an unforgettable, 'miserable cir–
cumstance - a revelation to me, of both his personality and life
in general, especially literary life.
Some
colo~y
conviviality had been planned for after dinner;
could it have been a dance? That has slipped my mind. Frost had
departed, I think; in any event he wasn't in the sitting room when
Robinson entered and sat down. Various other colonists came in,
all ready for the dance, in improvised fancy dress. Perhaps there
was to be some amateur theatrical performance, as well as a
dance. To my surprise, the guests had outfitted Robinson fancily
a lso, with a certain amount of florid silk, wound and pinned on
his head as an oriental turban. He was a handsome man, in a
rather unphysical, depressed way. There he sat, trying to be proud
and unobtrusive, shrinking slightly from everyone and every–
thing, even apparently shrinking downward from the burden
and ostentation of the turban. Whereupon, in came the other
important resident verse writer, one named Maxwell Bodenheim,
rather the worse for wear (I remember thinking), though young;
with a tooth missing, and red eyes, the sight of his confrere top
heavy with Asiatic shawl or table throw or sari vexed, even infuri–
ated him. Around and around Robinson Bodenheim paced
slowly two or three times, muttering, almost snarling. "You're
pretty proud, aren't you? 1 suppose your idea is that a poet ought
to put on something like that, so as to look like a poet, at least. I
suppose you think it's becoming to you. Well, let me tell you,
you're wrong; it isn't."
Around and around, focusing his red eyes on poo,r Robinson
as best he could, perhaps just trying to understand him-in any
case, making a bad impression.
Some people in the room pretended not to notice . A lady
sitting close to the antithetical poets, perhaps one of those who
had turbaned Robinson in the first place, giggled.
The turbaned one tried to say something in self-defense,
point by point, two or three words at a time : "Oh, no. 1 don 't. 1
didn't. Our ladies did it, just for fun."
Someone tried to take Bodenheim by the elbow and steer
