>> So we have another Lorine Niedecker poem. Another well known one, You Are My Friend. Who's she talking to? Who's the speaker talking to? We don't really know, but let's take some guesses. Marise? >> It's not really a guess, because autobiograph, autobiographiically, I think she's referring to her lover, at the time, who. >> Was averse to marrying her. So he. >> Oh, you know something about [inaudible]. >> Yeah. You Are My Friend is not exactly a positive title. >> It's not positive? >> Don't think so. >> Oh, goodness. You're doing some biographical reading. Okay. In the poem, do we have some evidence about who this person is? >> Clearly a companion who accompanies her, who prepares things for her. >> Right. >> Helps her, assists her. >> Right. >> And holds her hand. >> Right. Someone who helps her, okay. And your reading, knowing a little more about [inaudible], is that there is a certain edge to this. About how friendly this friend is, okay. Dave Poplar. Any other ideas about, ... >> Who is, what's the, what kind of address is this? What kind of poem is this? It's, it's the'You Are My Friend' and all this help suggests that the poem might be in the love poem tradition. >> I, I read it as her talking to her own hand. >> Okay, so you jumped right to the end. >> The, the, the punchline right at the beginning. >> After multiple readings... >> Does that mean? Okay. That means we're gonna have to, we'll have to come back to that. Okay, good. We, we have to come back to that. Okay, so, so tell the story, Anna, in the most pedestrian sort of way. Not that you usually do anything that's pedestrian. But, you know, tell us, what's going on here? What does the friend do, and... >> Looks like she's speaking to a friend of her who very nicely runs her peaches and cranberries, and carries her fish pole for her. And.... >> What kind of activities are these? >> It seems like summertime friend things. >> Okay. You're doing, you're doing it temporally. But can you be, what kind of, is this manufacturing? Is this you know, a professional assistance? >> [inaudible]. Kind of country type. >> This is a. >> [inaudible] the woods. [inaudible]. >> You know, this is somewhat pastoral. This is a, a, you know, someone who helps you out with, the, the good things in life peaches, oh so sweet. Peaches have lots of connotations, should we go back to the. The two of you who differently are having. Do, do, sort of sexual power political reason for this. >> [laugh]. >> On one hand you have, peaches, you know, with, with its sexual connotation maybe. >> [inaudible] >> It has a negative edge to it and Dave eat a peaches you know lets face it, if. >> Yeah, it can be a very sensual type of thing. >> Okay. So we've got peaches, very nice. We've got cranberry, highbush cranberry. That's very, that's terrific. And fishing fresh fish. So it's rural. It has a feeling of, kind of, requirements for living. But it's also very nice. Okay. So what kind of life is she leading? >> It's. >> It's not a city, this is not urban. >> It seems laid back. >> Seems sort of full of basics, good. Alright. Molly, anything to add about the. >> [inaudible]. >> It seems that the friend is maybe doing things that she can't do. Sort of, I don't wanna say man work. But, maybe the highbush cranberry is very high, and she can't reach. And somebody iii... >> They're not that high, but I think that's... >> Oh. >> That's okay, though. >> [laugh]. >> That's good. Speaker [inaudible] worms [inaudible]. >> So this is, you carry, you carry my fishbowl, you know? It's, like, sorta like, you carry my books on the way to school. There's a certain parnterishness about this. Okay, so, it seems to be positive, right? [inaudible]. >> You are my friend, you bring me peaches et cetera, you carry my fishbowl, you water my worms. What's happening there towards the end? The fishbowl, you water my worms. What does it mean to water worms? Anybody know anything about fishing? Oh we may not have a lot of fishing people in here. Does anybody want to guess? >> Well, I mean I would assume that the worms would have to be alive for the fish to want them. >> Yes. >> So maybe watering the worms just adds moisture. >> Keep the, keep the worms from drying up, I think that's right. Patching my boot? >> What's that all about? >> It enables her to continue the journey that she's on, without injuring herself. Her. >> With your mending kit. So, he or she, the you, has a mending kit. What is a mending kit? >> Or a boot. >> Like a patch kit. Maybe a. >> It's a patch kit. >> Needle or. >> I mean I wish I had a mending kit, but you know, Glorine living in her rural location has a mending kit, or, or he does. The partner does. >> And then that's when the turn happens, right? >> Oh. What's the turn? >> The turn is, you go with your mending kit nothing in it, but my hand. >> It is. >> So, it. >> It refers to. >> The mending kit. >> The kit. Right. Nothing in it. >> But my. >> But my hand. Why is her hand in it? >> Well how can it be her hand, but in? >> You're the friend's mending kit. I think that's exactly what David said, though. >> She's got her hand in his mending kit. And makes you want to do a little more of this biographical reading for us before we. >> Ignore it and move on. >> I just had this horrible, image of an amputated hand, in this box. And it seems like, it's like [inaudible] ticking. But I'm like. >> Oh. My goodness. >> That was just the [inaudible]. >> After I said [inaudible]. >> Let's back track. >> This is, this is Rod Sirling. I. Or, or some, something. >> Or Thing [inaudible]. >> Yeah. Thing from Adams Family. >> You, you [inaudible]. Anna calls this a turn. Nothing. The word nothing. With all this plenitude. >> Hm. >> You know, peaches, and cranberries, and fish. Suddenly we have nothing. >> Yeah. >> Is there even anything in the mending kit? >> Well. Her hand she's saying nothing in the mending kit. The mending kit is empty, mending will not take place. Alright Dave. Alright Dave [inaudible] with nothing else on his mind. >> She's saying that when it comes down to it she's self sufficient, she doesn't need anybody else. >> The only thing that's there is her hand and if it's a love poem... Go ahead Dave, if it's a love poem and the only thing she has is her own hand. >> Emily just thinks this is great. >> Mm-hm. They have to go there. >> I mean is she satisf? Is she giving herself pleasure having been. Maybe Almeres is right. Having been, disappointed by this friend? >> Ally thinks so. >> I think so. >> I have to say, I don't, I, you know, Marjorie Perlov, whom I tremendously respect, has written about this poem, and I think she refers to it as a love poem, as a poem about another person. So, I'm sure Marjorie would not disagree with this, this reading of, self pleasure. But since we're talking about this in the Dickensonian context, we at least need to talk about it as self dependence. A little like the job poem. You know I, I depend on myself. I can't be, I can't be fired because I'm a writer. So. >> And use of the other, lets talk about that. The use of this, the other, the, the sub position of another, turns out, how? I mean what kind of strategy is to talk about a friend and then have nothing in it, nothing in the [inaudible]. >> What kind of turn back on itself and that's sense it does become kind of a. >> A, a poem about, kind of a meta-poem about process about self, about. >> So it is recursive. It may be in the sci-fi sense of you opening the mending kit your hand or something. But if you open the mending kit and you put your hand in there, that, you don't have to have a severed horrible sci-fi hand. Just put your hand in the mending kit, and if you, if there's nothing in the mending kit and you look in it, then your hand is there. Okay. So. We have said that poems in this course, modern poems are often recursive, they're often self referential, and they're often meta-poems. And to the extent that this poem, if it doesn't shout out as a meta-poem, is a meta-poem, where do we find that evidence? >> Where do you find that answer? >> I mean, I think the'it' definitely immediately refers to'nothing in it the mending kit', but it can also refer to nothing in'it', the poem. >> Okay. That's a pretty fancy reading. >> 'But my hand'. >> I think there might be a more obvious part of this poem to seize on, but we'll get back to'it'. That's pretty good. Anybody else? >> Well the beginning is a list of these practical provisions that the friend carries along. >> Right. >> But I think you can read it two ways. If the but my hand had been moved up in the spacing of the poem to be right after the nothing in it, it might have a more positive tone, but here. >> Okay, so what you're saying, what you're saying is that there's, there's a way in which the form of the poem supports its content so I think that's always important here. Absolutely a condition of, of modernism. But there's something specific here, the hand at the end. >> Hand is like handwriting. Can you imagine? >> Mm-hm. >> Someone's hand. It's the way that they write. >> Yeah. >> So there's nothing at. >> It's. >> Off. >> It's. >> Of her. >> Skin off connotations of hand. >> Hand in marriage, I think is important. >> Hand in marriage. Keep going. You, you started off. >> Hand, handwriting of course. >> The hand. We, in the old days, when I was growing up, we would say, your hand is a little cramped. That is your handwriting. It's in his hand. Who's hand is this? Right. This is in Shakespeare's own hand. So hand, in our vocabulary not so much today it's a, it's a kind of a dying connotation. But certainly needed if it would have been aware of the connotation of, of hand meaning writing. My hand. The only thing in my [inaudible]. The only job I have. The only occupation I have is to dwell on this, this work, this thing. And my only friend is my poem. We may be over reading. But if we're going to describe this poem as ultimately about love, loneliness and maybe masturbation. There I said it. I didn't say the P word, but I did say [laugh], I said the M word. You don't have to go as far as to use masturbation to describe it self dependency. The, the woman who not in this case in her room but out there in her environment, who ultimately must depend on her own hand. She must depend on her own hand for economy and grandfather advised me and for occupation and life work. But here she must depend on her own hand for love. And one will find love in writing. >> In the imaginative space. Anrise did we finally come around to your view of what you take to be an angry poem? >> Well, not exactly angry, but. >> Or poem about rejection. >> Not even about rejection. I feel like it's a poem about disappointment that she ultimately feels not resigned to in a negative sense, but acceptant, accepts, ... >> That self sufficiency. >> And what I'm saying I think in the end is that, I agree with you. But I'm saying in the end is that this is a poem unlike Supermarket in California ... >> Not a. >> Which starts off embracing [inaudible] platitude and diversity. In the excitement of American life, but in the end it's kind of soured, about it and sad. This is a poem that starts off. May be disappointed by the failure of friendship but in end knows that it can depend on its own hand, which we what have in front of us, the words we have in front of us. So we have taken a poem that doesn't strike one as a meta-form because we are beginning to understand, why modern poetry works particularly in Dickensian mode, we see the self reference and we the see that the poem is always about itself
