W. H. Auden, Un Homme d'Esprit (Forewords and Afterwords, 8)

7/28/2019 W. H. Auden, Un Homme d'Esprit (Forewords and Afterwords, 8)

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UN HOMME D'ESPRIT

To di scu ss li tcra tur c writt e n in any to ngu c o ther th :1n onc's ow n i s a

qu cstio nabl c und crt a kin g, bu t for an English-spcaking wr ite r todi sc uss a Frcn ch writ cr bo rd crs o n folly, for no two langua gesco uld b e mo re diff e rcnt.

To di scovc r the essential a nd uniqu e qu aliti es of a languag e,o ne must go to its poctry f o r it i s thc poct, as Valry says , whoattempts to rcmove a ll th c no iscs fr om s pe e ch leav in g only thcsound s. Th c co nv ent io ns of a po ctr y, its pr o so dic rule s, th e kind sof verbal ornam cn tat ion, rh ym es, allit c ra tion s, cte. , which it encouragcs or condenms ca n telJ us much about the way in which anative ear draw s thi s distin c tion. 1 vc ry mu ch doubt w het hcr aFr enchman ca n cvcr lcarn reall y to hea r a lin c of English verscthink of Baud elaire and Poe - and I am perfec tly certain th a t noEnglishman can l ea rn to hc a r French poetry correctly. Wh cn Jhea r a nati ve rec ite German or Spanish or ltalian p oetry, I b el ieve ,however mi stake nly, th at I h e ar more or less what he hears, butif th e reciter is Fr ench , I know I am hearin g nothin g of th e sort.l know, in an aca de mic way , thc rul es of Classical Fr enc h ve rse,but the knowl edge docs not change my habit o f hearing. Fo r example, to m y ea r , tra ined on En glish ve rse, th e prevailing rh ythmof the Fr enc h alcxandrin e so und s like the ana pa estic rh yt hm of

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UN HOMM E D'ESPRlT

Th e Assyrian carne down like a wolf on the fold

thus

1"e su fs bel!e, 1 ~ mo"rte;! , c:nnme ;;n r e ~ e1 d ~pi;,re

l know this is all wrong but it is what I he ar. * Further, mostunfortun atc ly , th e natur e of the English langu age forbids the use ofanap aes ts for tragic subj ects. I am convinced that , when he go esto he ar P he d re a l th e Co mdie Fr anc;aise , an Englishman, howeverwell he may kn ow French, how e ve r much he admire thc cxtraordinar y va ried and subtlc d c livcry o f the cas t, cannot help findingRacin e comic .

1 ha ve k nown Valry' s poern E/Jau che d'un serp ent for overtwe nty -five years , rer ea d it often with in creas ing admiration and,as 1 thought , comprch cn sion , only to discovcr th c ot h er d ay, onr ea din g a lette r b y the p oet to Alain, tha t I h ad mi sse d the whol epo in t, n amcly, that thc tone of th e p oem is burlc sq ue, that theasso nanc es and alliteration s ar e delib e ratel y exaggerated , and that

the se rp e nt is in end ed to sound likc Bcckmesscr in Di e M eiste r-singer.

H ow co uld I , to whose ea r a ll French verse so unds a bitcxa ggerat ed , hop e to get thi s?

In pr o se, the difticulti es of communication , though not soformidable, are st ill se riou s e nou gh. It is not ju st a m atte r of theob viou s tran sla tor 's hcad ac he s, that th ere is no Engli sh equival entto e sprit , for ins tancc , or th a t amour an d /ove a re not synonym ou s,but of th e e ntirel y different rhe tor ical s tructure of French an dE nglish prosc , so tha t a n Engli sh rcader ma y cntirely ignore sorneimpo r tan t effcct an d b e over-impr esse d b y a nother.

In writing a bout Val ry, therefo re, l ca n only console myselfwith thc thought that , if the Val ry 1 admir e is in lar gc mca s ure acreation of m y own, th e m an wh o wr o te- " the prop cr object ofthou ght is that which do es not ex ist " -wo u l d be th e fir s t to apprc cia te t he joke .

F rorn th e age of twe n ty, Val ry mad e it his daily habit to risc

'' Anoth er diffi cu lt y fo r my ear is the caes u ra; a n En gl ish poet wo rk s j ust ashard to vary its pos it ion fr o m line to lin e as a French poe t wo rk s to keep itin the sam e few pl ac es.

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W.H. AUDEN

befare dawn a nd spend two or th rce h o urs st ud yin g the int er io rm ane uve rs of hi s frcshly awoken mind. This h ab.it bec a me aph ys iologi ca l n ee d so that , if ci rcu m s tan ce m a de him mi ss th csehour s of in trospect io n , he felt out of so rts for th e rest of th e da y.Th c observations he ma d e during thi s pe ri od h e wrote down inn oteboo k s, without a th o ught , he says, of their ever bein g rca db y another. From time to t im e, how ev e r, h e was pc rsua d ed topubli sh select ion s. Th e reluct ance he expresses seems mo r e primad o nna-i sh th a n r eal.

1 n eve r dreamt that on e day 1 wo uld ha ve th ese fragmentsprinted as they stoo d . Dr . Lu d o va n B ogaer t an d M. Al exandre Stols had thc id e a for m e. They tempted me to doso by p o intin g ou t th e " intim a tc" qualit y of thi s littl e ve nt ur e, a nd by the typogra ph i ca l perf ec tion of th c samplepagc s th ey showe d m e.

Th e rc ar e time s when o nc h as to give way to tb e pr epost ero us d esires o f l ove r s of the s pon taneou s a nd id eas

in the ro ugh.

Thi s do es not ring quit e tru c, espccially w h e n on e find s him writing pri vatcly to a fri end ( P aul Souday) th a t h e con s iders hi s notcb ooks his real teuvre .

In a n y case, we may be vcry g lad th a t he overcamc hi s re luctance, fo r , takc n togcther, th csc note s form o ne of the m os t in teres ting an d original d oc um e nt s of " th e inner Iife" in ex is te nce.

Most o f su c b documcnts a re concerned with th c so-ca lledpersonal , that is, with the confes sio n of si ns a nd vices, m emoriesof childhood , thc fcclings of tb e s ubjec t about God, the weather,his mi strcss, gossip, se lf- reproac h , a nd th e ordinary m ot ive forpr od ucin g them is a dcsire to de m ons tr a te th a t th e ir a uthor is m o rein t e re s tin g, m o re unique, more human than other folks .

Fo r th e personal in thi s se nse, Valry ha d no thing bu t contemp t. l t is in what th ey sh ow, he believed , th a t m cn di ffe r , wha tthey hide i s a lw ays th c same. Co nf ess ion , th er e fo re , is like undr essin g in public ; cve ryo n e knows wbat he is go ing to see. Further,a m a n 's sec ret s are often much more . apparent to others than tohim se lf .

UN HOMME D'ESPRIT

On e of Gid e' s most ob v io us traits, for example, was his t ightfist edn ess; after rea di n g hi s journ als, o nc is curious to know if h ewa s aware of this.

A cultivation of m em o ry fo r i ts own sake, as in Pr oust, w asincompr e hens ible to Valr y , who prcfcrred to forgct everyt hi n g inh is p as t th a t was ju st a picture, retaining on ly what h e couldass imi la te an d co n ve rt in to an ele m e nt o f hi s present m e ntal life .

A s for confiding o ne 's sullc rin gs to papcr , he thought it respo nsibl efo r a ll th e worst books.

Th c task which Va l ry se t himsclf wa s to obse rve the hu m a nmind in the ac tion of think ing; the only mi n d that he ca n ob serveis, of co ur sc, hi s own, b u t thi s is irrele vant. H e is not a phil osophe r,excep t in the e ty mo logica l m ea nin g of that wo r d, no r a psychologist in sofar as psyc hol ogy is co nc e rn ed w ith hidd e n d c pthsfo r Val ry, humani ly is confincd to the sk in an d cons cio u sness;below that is physiol ogica l ma ch ine r y - b u t an a mazingl y kc en an drus observer o f conscious pr ocesses of thinkin g . Fo r th is ne ithera special tal en t , like a talen t for mathematics , no r esoteric Jearning

is required, b ut only wh a t might be ca lled intellectual vir tue ,which it s p oss ibl c for every m a n to d cvc lo p, if he cho oses .

Fo r the c ulti va ti on of such a n E1hiq u e spo rli ye, as Valryonce ca lled it , o ne must devc lop a v ig ilance that imm cd iatelydi stin g ui shes between fieti o ns a nd re al p syc hic eve nt s, betwccn th cseen, the th ought, th e re aso n cd a nd th e felt , an d a prccision ofd esc rip t io n th at rcsists a ll t empta tion to fine li tera r y effec ts. H enccVal ry' s rep eate d attack s on thc popular n o tio n of " profundity."A thou gh t, he says, ca n properly be ca llcd profouncl on ly if it profoundly changcs a qu es tion or a g iven s itu a ti on, a nd such a t ho u ghtis ne ve r found at the bottom of th e mind whi c h cont ains only afew s toc k pr ove rb s. M os t peo pl e call sorne thing pr ofo un d , no tbecausc it is n ea r some important truth but beca u se i t is di s tantfrom ordinary life. Th u s, d ark ness is p ro foun d to th c eye, s ilen ceto the ear; what-is-not is the profundity of wh at -is. Ths kind ofpr of undity is a literary effect, wh ic h ca n be calculated lik e an yother literary effect , an d usually depl o ra ble. Fo r Va l ry, Pasc a l' sfamous rema rk about th e si lence of th e eterna ) spac cs is a cl assicins tance of literary van ily passing it sc lf off as observation. I f

P asca l wa s ge nuinel y int e res te d in statin g a t ru th , thcn w hy, Valry


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maliciously asks, did he no t also writ c: "The intermittent hubbubin the small corners whcre we li ve reassures us."

After reading hi s notebooks, we know no more about Va lryas a person than bcfore - we are not told, for cxamp le, that hesuffere d from depressions-he has on ly shown us that he was agood observer a nd that he expressed bis observa tion s in preciselangu age. To judgc if his observations ar e true or false, we have

on ly to repeat the expe rim en t on ourse lves. Fo r insta nc e, he saysthat it is imp oss ible consciously to pu t a distance between onesclfan d an object without turnin g round to sce if onc is succeeding.I try, and I find that Val ry is right.

Valry's at ti tud e to life is more consiste nt than he admits , andbcgins with a conviction of thc essential inconsistcncy of t he mindan d the need to react against it. Th e following three notes mightbe taken as mottoes for a ll his work .

Cognition reigns b ut does not rule.

Somet im cs I think; and somctimes I am .

I invoke no in sp ir a tion except that element of chance , whichis common to every mind; the n comes an unremitting toil,which wa rs against this e lement of cha nce.

Yalry 's observat ions cover a wide rangc of s ubj ccts. As one mightexpect, the leas t in te resti ng, thc ones in which he sounds lcast likcValry and most like ju st one more French writer of mordantaphorisms, are tho se concerned wit h !ove , self-love, good, and evi l.

He ha s extremc ly int cresting things to say abo u t ou r cons c iousness of our bodies , about those c urious psycho -physical expressio ns, laugh ing, crying , and bl ushing , about the phy sical behav iorof people when they ar e concentrating on a mental problem. Heis excellent on drcams-he observes, for instance, th at in dreamsthere i s "practically no present t ense." But for poets , nat u ra lly ,and for m any others too, J believe, his most valuable contributionsar e his remarks on the ar t of poetry . A cr itic who docs not himselfwrit e poct ry may be an admirab le judge of what is goo d and bad ,bu t he cannot hav e a first- h and knowled ge of how poetry is written ,so that not infr equ ently he critic izes, favorably or unf avorably,sorne poem for achieving or failing to achieve sornet hing that thc

UN HOMME D'ESPRIT

poet was no t intcrested in doing. Many poets have wr itt en defensesof poetry against ch arges that it is untru c or imrnoral, but surprisingly few have to ld us how they wrote . There are two reasonsfor this: the poets ar e mo r e interested in writing more poems and,lcss laudably, they , like lawyers a nd doctors, have a snobbishrelu ctance to show th e laity the secrets of their mystcr y. Behndth is snobbcry, of coursc , les the fear that, if th e general public

knew what goes on , that a poem is not sheer logomancy , forinstancc , or that an intensely cx pres sive love poem does not ne cessa ril y presuppose a poet intcnsely in love, that public would l oseeven thc little respect for poets that ir has .

lt is unfortunate th at onc of Val ry's few predece ssors, Poe,shou ld have use d as hi s case history of composition a poem , " Th eRa v en," which does st rikc the readcr as "c o ntrived" in a bad way,whi ch means that i t is not cont rivecl cnough. Th e form Poe employed for the poem , which demands many fcmin ine rhyrnes, hasin Engl ish a frivolous c ffect out of key with thc s ubject. A readcr,who wishes to c lin g to a more magical view of the poetic process,

can fine! reasons to confinn his illu sio n. Valry's achievements as apoet makc his critica! doctrines harder to wish away. His statemcnts are obvious ly intendcd to be polemical. H e dislikcs twokinds of w r.iters, th os c who try to im pr ess with sonorous or violen tvagueness, an d natura listic wr iters who would simp ly record whatthc camera sees or their st rearn of accidental thoughts. For Va lry,all loud and violent writing is comic, Jike a man alone in a room,playing a trombon e. W hcn onc reads Carly le, for in stance, one getsthe irnpre ss ion that h e had persuaclcd himself that it takes moreeffort , mo r e work, to write fortissimo than pian o, or universe thangarden.

Of the Zola schoo l of naturalism V alry disposes very neatly,by asking what kinds of scents p cr fumers wou ld bottle if theyadopted this aesthet ic.

Fo r Yalry, a poem ought to be a festival of the int ellect, thatis, a game , bu t a solernn, ordered , and significant game, and apoet is sorneonc to whorn a rbitrary difficulti es s uggest id eas. It isthc glory of po e try that the la ck of a s ingle word can ruin everything , that th e po et cannot continuc until he discov e rs a wordsay, in two sy ll ables, contain ing P or F, synonymo us with b r e a k ~


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in g-up, yet no t to o uncommon. Th e formal restrictions of poetryteach us that the thoughts which arise from ou r needs, feclings ,an d expcricnces ar e on!y a small part of th e thoughts of which wear e capable. In a n y pocm sorne Iin es were "g iven" th e poet , whichhe then tried to perfect, an d ot he rs which he ha d to calculate an dat the same time make th em sound as "na t ural " as possible. It ismore becoming in a poct to talk of versification than of mysterious

voices, a nd his genius shou ld be so well hidden in hi s talent thatth e r cadcr attributes to hi s ar t what comes from hi s nature.

Needless to say, Va!ry found very little in th e French poctryof hi s age which seemed to him anythng more than a worship ofchance and novelt y, and concl ud ed that poetry was a freak surviva!, that no on e today wo u ld be capab le of arriving at the notionof verse if it werc no t already th e re.

In hi s ge n eral principies 1 am convinccd that Valry is rightpast all possibility of discussion , bu t I cannot h el p wondering ifl sh ou ld a lso agree in daily practicc as much as 1 do , if I were aFrenchman trying to write French poetry. Fo r polemical reasons ,probably, Valry overstresses, T th i nk , thc arbtrariness of poeticformal restrctions, an d ovcrdra mati zes th e opposition betweenthcm and th e "N atural." l f they really were pure!y arbitrary, th cnthe prosodies of diff erc n t languages would be interchangeable ,an d th e experience wh ich evcry poct ha s ha d , of being unabl e toge t on wth a poem becaus c he was trying to u se th e "wro ng "form for this particular poem until, havng fo un d th e rght form ,th e natu ra l fo r m , composition proceeded freely, would be unknown. Whle it s tru e that nothin g which is w ithout effort andattention is likely to be of much val ue, th e reverse proposition sno t tru e : it would ta k e an immense cffort, fo r examp le, to writehalf a dozcn rhopalic hexameters in E n glish , bu t it is v ir tuallycertain that the result wo u ld have no poetic merit.

To an En glish po et, French poetry see m s to s uff er from a lac kof formal varie t y , as di d E ngli sh poetry between 1680 an d q8 o .An y form, be it the French alexand rine or the English h eroicco upl c t, h owever admirable a vchicle originally , tends to exhaustits possibilities in th e h a nd s of two or three masters, an d theirsuccessors must either find qu it e dfferent forms or be doomed torcmain epigoni. I f it is rare to find a mo d er n French poem that

UN HOMME D'ESPRIT

. . . . no t forget that Valry1s. no t wn tt en m ~ r e everse ( and_ on e m_ st osie brute), whileh1mself wrote qutte a lot of what h e Ctllled P

1. h oetrv th e lack

l n En g s P - 'formal poems are stlll common In m oc CI , be partly . f F h verse r n < ~ Y

of resilience in th e offica l form s 0 re n e1

h eems an anar -. h p . eh E ng IS s

responsible. * By companson ": 1t rc n ' if 't stimulates thcchic amate ur Jangua ge, bu t tlus very ana rch y, d. J . g s tructures.

. . . t ne w an JVt npropcr revolt agan st 1t, ca n gtve ns e 0 d

1' ' e finished bis

, . . t ' 11 won er I l 'Would Valcry I somct 1mes patno tea Y ' f . tongue' . . . eso ur ccs o ow '

poctic career so soon if he h ad h a d th c vust 1 . Hables. . . . 1 h 1ts common sy 'wi t h a ll th e prosodic po s s thiliti cs w 11c

p e rmit, t o play with '> t th c notebooks.Bu t thcn, of cour sc, we mght n ot havc go . r)lt well h a ve

1 l b1nner m1g I t is fitting that th e ma n w 10se cnuca ' . ' tten 1 ' e ~pa sh 1 1 ha v e wn '

carried thc device Vade retro, Musa , s ou e r 1 vocat on s to

. f 1 t beaut1 u 111 'enfants de mo n sllence, on e o t le mo s M 1 )!TI he somc -. 1 d u se w 1cth e Muse in any language . H1s wors nppe , ' f poetry or , if. t 1 s thc Muse o . .

time s c alled Laura , wa s no , perla p ., . . h . 1 sc lf -rcnewalM. f ISig t an o .so, only accdcnta ll y, bu t the use o 11

whom he d a ily expected in th e dawn hour s .

Mv mind thnks of my mind,My as t is forcgn to me ,My name surprises m e,M y body is a pure idea .What I was is with all other se lves .An d I am no t ev e n what I am gmng to be .

. . an C1ive bu t small sa tis-Aside from the money , ht c rar y succcss e, o h t d oc s literary. Fo r w. a fact10n to a n author , e ve n to h ts va n it y h h a ve no t rea d

success m ean? To be condemncd by pc rsonsV:d

o f t llent Therc. . , . . . d c VO I O ' h1s works and to be ImLI


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master gcnerations la ter find s a n essential clue for so lving someproblem; th e othcr is to bccomc fo r so meo nc clsc an ex ampl e o fthe dedicated l ifc,

being sec ret ly invoked , pictured, and placed by a s trangerin an inner sanctum of bis thou ght s, so as to se rve him asa witn ess, a jud ge, a father, and a h allowe d mentor.

lt was this rol e, rather than that of a liter ary nfluence, whichM allarm playcd in Valry 's life, an d I ca n vo uch for at lea st onelife in which Valry doe s lik ew ise. Wh cneve r 1 am more th anusuall y torm cnt ed by on e of th ose horrid mental imp s, Contradiction, Ob stinat io n, lmita tion, Lapsus, Brouillamini, Fange -d' Ame,whenever I fe d m yself in d ange r of b cco ming un homme srieux ,it is on Valry , un ho m m e d 'espr it if ever there was one, moreoften than on any other poe t, I belie ve , that I call for aid.

ONE OF THE FAMILY

I never enjoy ba ving to find f a ult with a book, and when theauthor s someone I h ave met an d like , 1 hate it. L ord DavidCecil posscsses a ll the qualifications for wrting a first-class biography of Max Be e rbohm-an und ersta nding ) ov e of bi s h ero,th e indu str y and scholarship to insure that tbe facts are both correc t and complete- but his Ma x is no t nearl y so good a book as itcould h ave been. What h e has publi sh ed should , 1 fe e l, hav c beenhis fir st draft , wbich h e should then have sp ent anotber six monthscondensing to at least half its pr ese nt vo lum e. As it is , h e has givenus a ponderous , repetitious Victorian tome of four hundr ed an dni n e ty-s ix dens ely print ed pag es. So expans ive a comm emo rationis s ingularly unsuit ed to th e man who once counscled a pr osp ectivebio graph er thu s :

My gifts a re sma ll. I' ve used tbem very well and discreetly , never s trainin g th em; an d the rcs ult is that I'vemade a charming Jittl e reputaton. Bu t this r ep ut atio n is afrail plant. D on' t over-attend to it , ga rd en er L ynch! Don'tdr e nch it and d elu ge it! Th e contents of a quite small waterin g-ca n will be quit e eno ugh . Th i s I ta k e to be superfiuouscounsel. 1 find mu ch reassurance and comfort in yourphra se, "a little book." Oh , keep it little!--in du e proportion to its t hem e .

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W. H. Auden, Un Homme d'Esprit (Forewords and Afterwords, 8)