[lit-ideas] Re: W. S. Merwin, Departure's Girlfriend
- From: Mike Geary <gearyservice@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 9 Oct 2013 18:45:19 -0500
I have a rather different take on Departure's Girlfriend's which I hope to
expound on -- briefly tomorrow -- but at the moment God is calling me to
go eat. Until tomorrow then...,.
On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 9:26 AM, <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> In "Happy Birthday", M. J. Geary reads:
>
> >I've read and re-read this poem hundreds of times, but still I cannot
> guess
> >why Merwin calls it "Departure's Girlfriend" -- why girlfriend?? Any
> >suggestions?
>
> More below, in ps.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Speranza
>
> ---
>
> OK. Let's analyse the thing in closer detail. Recall Matisse, "Untitled",
> a beautiful painting, now in Paris, bearing a rather ambiguous title.
>
> Merwin writes:
>
>
> > Departure's Girlfriend
>
> This is meant as the _title_ of the poem. He is implicating, "Is the title
> of a poem _part_ of a poem?". Mutatis mutandis: Is the title of a song part
> of a song. It isn't. When I sing, "The last chord" I always start with
> "seated one day at the organ". It's different with "Tiptoe thru the
> tulips" --
> admittedly.
>
> Merwin goes on. Note that it's "Departure's Girlfriend", with departure in
> the genitive. The girl of departure. This should be distinguished from the
> "Goodbye Girl", which is not necessary a _friend_.
>
> ---
> > Loneliness leapt in the mirrors, but all week
> > I kept them covered like cages.
>
> The poet's voice: "I" -- "I kept".
>
> > Then I thought
> > Of a better thing.
> > And though it was late night in the city
>
> --- which remains unnamed. Cities keep coming in in verse and songs, and
> some of their references are ambiguous. My favourite has to be "Barbara
> Allen": "In Scarlet City, were I was born, there was a wicked girl
> dwelling".
> Poet students interpret this, alla Grice, as a homophonic pun on "Reading"
> (pronounce, "redding", i.e. scarleted).
>
> > There I was on my way
> > To my boat,
>
> --- the city is by the sea, or a lake.
>
> > feeling good to be going, hugging
> > This big wreath with the words like real
> > Silver: Bon Voyage.
>
> The implicature here is that the reticent English speaker is guarded to
> say, "Good voyage" in the vernacular and turns to a foreign language,
> French
> in this case. Cfr. "Aloha".
>
> > The night
> > Was mine but everyone's, like a birthday.
>
> Cfr. "The night was mine AND everyone". Cfr. Grice on implicatures of 'but'
> ("She was poor but she was honest/and her parents were the same, till she
> met a city fella and she lost her honest name").
>
> > Its fur touched my face in passing. I was going
> > Down to my boat, my boat,
> > To see if off, and glad at the thought.
> > Some leaves of the wreath were holding my hands
> > And the rest waved good-bye as I walked, as though
> > They were still alive.
>
> ---- waved goodbye to be distinguished from bid farewell. Is a farewell a
> goodbye? Etymologically, there are value-oriented elements in both
> expressions: "fare WELL", where 'well' implicates goodwill on the part of
> the
> utterer. The 'goodbye' is trickier, in that while we can agree what
> 'good' means,
> we're never sure about the 'bye'. In fact, A. E. Manson suggests, and
> rightly, that 'goodbye' has nothing to do with 'good' but is a euphemism
> for
> 'God be with you'. Cfr. "Oh my!" implicating, "Oh my God".
>
> The leaves waving goodbye can be interpreted literally, since leaves do
> wave. But the expression is semi-metaphorical in that while a leave can
> wave
> it can only figuratively (where 'figure' does not mean 'literal figure')
> that the leave has a goodwill to desire that the addressee perceiving the
> waving 'be such that God will be with the addresee'. Or something.
>
> Merwin continues:
>
> > And all went well till I came to the wharf, and no one.
>
> I suspect sea rather than lake. But there ARE lake wharfs.
>
> > I say no one, but I mean
> > There was this young man, maybe
> > Out of the merchant marine,
> > In some uniform, and I knew who he was;
>
> Note that "And no one" implicates "was there".
>
> ---
>
> Merwin makes a Griceian distinction between meaning and saying: "I say
> 'potAYto', but I mean 'potato'. In this case, "I say, "no one" but I mean
> 'maybe a merchant marine'.
>
> -----
>
> The 'knew who he was' possibly implicates: "HIS NAME". In general, when
> people do use 'know' as applied to people (unless you are Adam who 'knew'
> Eve)
> you mean his name or profession. Since in this case, he was 'maybe one of
> the merchant marines," the implicature is "I knew who he was: to wit: a
> merchant marine, in a merchant marine uniform" -- rather than, say, Robert
> Smith.
>
> > just the same
> > When he said to me where do you think you're going,
>
> Note the absence of quotation marks. A pedant teacher would have that as,
> "when he asked to me, "Where do you think you are going?"
>
> > I was happy to tell him.
> > But he said to me, it isn't your boat,
> > You don't have one.
>
> ----
>
> The implicatures here involve 'negation' (or "~" in symbol). In logical
> terms: "Since you don't have a boat, this can't be your boat". Note that
> the
> second clause, "You don't have a boat" cancels the implicature, "This isn't
> your boat, THAT is".
>
> ----
>
> Merwin goes on:
>
> > I said, it's mine, I can prove it:
>
> Here the 'it' stands for 'a Popperian argument of sorts' -- NOT the boat.
> For one cannot prove a boat.
>
> Merwin goes on:
>
> > Look at this wreath I'm carrying to it,
> > Bon Voyage. He said, this is the stone wharf, lady,
> > You don't own anything here.
>
> ---- At this point, 'lady' becomes the 'departure's girlfriend', and the
> poet's "I" becomes female. It's not Merwin's voice, but the 'lady''s voice.
> Note that as merchant marines use 'lady' they possibly don't mean it. Cfr.
> "Lady Thatcher". "I'm not a lady, I'm a woman". A few (and males too) take
> offence at being referred to as 'ladies' (by merchant marines or other).
>
> ----
>
> Merwin, now speaking as the 'departure's girlfriend', goes on:
>
> > And as I
> > Was turning away, the injustice of it
> > Lit up the buildings, and there I was
> > In the other and hated city
> > Where I was born,
>
> ---- This relates to Barbara Allen, "In Scarlet city were I was BORN". Note
> that birth place specification can be vague. I have met people who say, "I
> was born in..." when, upon specifying the hospital or house where the act
> of being born (if that's an act) took place, it turns out that they were
> not really _born_ in the mentioned city, but in, perhaps, the outskirts.
>
> It is said that the departure's girlfriend hates the city where she was
> born.
>
> ----
>
>
> > where nothing is moored, where
> > The lights crawl over the stone like flies, spelling now,
> > Now, and the same fat chances roll
> > Their many eyes; and I step once more
> > Through a hoop of tears and walk on, holding this
> > Buoy of flowers in front of my beauty,
> > Wishing myself the good voyage.
>
> Note that as 'Departure's Girlfriend' wishes _herself_ the thing she
> reverts to the vernacular: 'good' rather than 'bon' voyage, which is what
> the
> leaves on the wreath read in silver-like letters.
>
> Or something.
>
> It may relate to 'The French Lieutenant's Daughter'. And since I follow the
> intentionalist fallacy, and avoid internal-only criticism, I may want to
> know more about the circumstances in which Merwin wrote this.
>
> Note that the 'wreath' has become a 'buoy' and that the Departure's
> Girlfriend's beauty is in the eyes of the Departure's girlfriend.
>
> A boat can be a ship. And ships are often referred to, by sailors, alla:
> "She's a beauty". But interestingly, 'ship' was neuter in Old English.
> "Boat"
> on the other hand is Anglo-Norman. Or something.
>
>
>
>
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