Welcome to Pretzels & Bullfights. I’m Beth Winter and today I am featuring American poet Alan Dugan. Mr. Dugan’s first book of poetry won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Awards in 1962. His later work was also honored with a Rome Prize, Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships, the Lannon Foundation Award and the last of his nine books of poems won another National Book Award in 2001.
Alan Dugan’s style was ironic and unsentimental while focused on finding freedom and purpose in the ordinary. He used straightforward language, simple and at times, in- your-face with a hard edge, vulgarities and bawdy terms. When Robert Pinsky presented his review of Mr. Dugan’s “Poems Seven” in The New York Times Book Review, he said that Dugan “set a glittering barb into every phrase.” Nonetheless, his poetry has a message that extends beyond the sensibilities of more upright verse and in this sense, should not be overlooked for his choice of expression.
Although his poetry has some rather provocative titles (“The Asthetics of Circumcision” “Perverse Explanation for Mutilated Statuary” and “Funeral Oration for a Mouse”), he used over-simplified titles for his books, Poems, Poems Two, Poems Three, Collected Poems, Poems Four, Poems Five: New and Collected Poems, Poems Six and Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry.
His imagery, presented in every-man’s language is both vivid and unforgettable as demonstrated in the following poems:
Now his nose’s bridge is broken, one eye
will not focus and the other is a stray;
trainers whisper in his mouth while one ear
listens to itself, clenched like a fist;
generally shadowboxing in a smoky room,
his mind hides like the aching boys
who lost a contest in the Panhellenic games
and had to take the back roads home,
but someone else, his perfect youth,
laureled in newsprint and dollar bills,
triumphs forever on the great white way
to the statistical Sparta of the champs.
(from Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry. Copyright © 2001 by Alan Dugan)
Nothing is plumb, level, or square:
the studs are bowed, the joists
are shaky by nature, no piece fits
any other piece without a gap
or pinch, and bent nails
dance all over the surfacing
like maggots. By Christ
I am no carpenter. I built
the roof for myself, the walls
for myself, the floors
for myself, and got
hung up in it myself. I
danced with a purple thumb
at this house-warming, drunk
with my prime whiskey: rage.
Oh I spat rage’s nails
into the frame-up of my work:
it held. It settled plumb,
level, solid, square and true
for that great moment. Then
it screamed and went on through,
skewing as wrong the other way.
God damned it. This is hell,
but I planned it. I sawed it,
I nailed it, and I
will live in it until it kills me.
I can nail my left palm
to the left-hand crosspiece but
I can’t do everything myself.
I need a hand to nail the right,
a help, a love, a you, a wife.
(from Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry. Copyright © 2001 by Alan Dugan.)
I have read “Love Song: I and Thou” several times to wrap my mind around his message. I have convinced myself that the poem is related to his marriage to his wife but not in the obvious, romantic way. Mr. Dugan and his wife did not believe in marriage as it was as though the establishment had some control over his life. The choice became more difficult when they faced eviction for living together outside of the bond of marriage. I feel this poem is his expression of frustration, surrender and his plea to his wife to join in marriage in order to keep peace. Others have differing opinions of the meaning behind this poem. I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Alan Dugan was born in 1923 and died of pneumonia in 2003. This literary maverick left behind a wealth of poetry, all true to his voice and ever-questioning.
ha i may need to re-read his love song again as well a few times….really interesting…i rather like the straight forward language and def a hard edge….nice intro to him beth…will look up some more of his…
Brian, Imagine winning a Pulitzer Prize for your first book. There is power in his words.
Welcome to the pub lady! 🙂 And a great article featuring an amazing voice! You’ve prompted me to dig deeper…off on another adventure!
Thank you, Natasha. I love Alan Dugan’s voice. I believe you will, too.
I fell in love with Dugan a few years back. I read about him while studying The Beats
Isn’t he fab? I love reading his work and re-reading his work. It is definitely poetry that takes on strength when read out loud.
awesome beth.. thanks for introducing him to us.. def. love poets that speak a clear language.. and think i need to re-read both poems and let em wrap round my mind to fully get the depths
Glad you enjoyed it, Claudia. His work is extensive and some of the best that I’ve read.
Thanks for this, Beth… I will definitely be looking up more of his poems.
My pleasure, Laurie. He was an amazing talent.
Fascinating stuff. Thank you for acquainting me with this astonishing poet. I agree with your interpretation of the poem to his wife – but would not have been able to arrive at that conclusion without your background knowledge.
There are many other interpretations. I could be way off in left field. If you read more of his work, you will see the brilliance of the man with simple words. Thanks so much.
It feels sensational reading” Love Song:I and Thou” aloud in my very feminine voice. try it if you haven’t. Thank you for the thorough introduction to Alan Dugan’s work. It calls me to work.
Thanks so much. I’m glad it speaks to you.
Beth, you’re worth your salt(y pretzels… oh, grooooan). This is a wonderful article, especially your final thoughts. I, too, read it twice, twisting it… interesting how the house is within and without and with someone… Really inspiring writer. Thank you so much for this, Beth, and welcome to the arena! Peace, Amy
Great post Beth. Love Song its very rough, but delightful, especially with your interpretation. Thanks
Hi guys…worked on something, not quite sure about it.
I read the second poem first — and I can see the vagueness. He built something — a life, a relationship, a career, a family — and confesses it was full of mistakes and rage. Then he pleads with his wife to help finish/continue it. But there ain’t enough to go further.
Personally, I consider such poems as “unfriendly” — it is code that is not intended for us. But that is my aesthetic preference now. I loved his language but he did not go far enough to help us understand. Thus, every one is guessing.
I had to do more research for the first poem, “On Hurricane Jackson”. I wondered if it was about an actual hurricane that he was using a fighter to describe. But found it was about Tommy ‘Hurricane’ Jackson”. His life ended shining shoes and driving a taxi. He died after being hit by a Taxi at 51 years old. He never won the heavyweight championship.
This poem makes me think that there is some political code in there which I will not understand unless I read more about Jackson’s life.
“his perfect youth,/ laureled in newsprint and dollar bills,/ trimphs forever on the great white way/ to the statisical Sparta of the champs.”
So I’d guess that he is saying “Jackson was black and the White boxing industry used his youth to make money while he died forgotten and poor even if he was a great fighter.”
But I had to do research to get that. Probably when he wrote that poem, lots of people got it. That is why I wish anthologies and stuff offered background to enrich poems.
Thanx for the Intro, Beth.
Beth,
I was thinking more about Dugan’s poem on the boxer, Jackson. Perhaps Dugan was autobiographically (conscious or not) illustrating his similarity to Jackson — skilled and amazing but history’s cruelty has left him less famous than, perhaps, many of the less accomplished.
As you emphasized to Brian, it is amazing that his first published work, at age 38, won him the Pulitzer Prize. But even more amazing (and personal to me) was that his work “Poems Seven”, published at 78 years-old, was still reviewed as brilliant with no sign of decline with age — and he died 2 years later.
I am curious to read more of his stoic skepticism crafted with everyday language — with no need for flowery adjectives, elitists allusions, confessional stream-of-consciousness or other poetic vices! 😉
So I ordered his “Poems Seven” from our Library. Thanx again.
So pleased you enjoyed this article. He is one of my favorite poems, his work not puzzling my mind so much as making it alive.
Thank you for introducing us to his writing Beth ~
Great power in his words indeed ~ Now off to check his other work ~
Thank you. I’m pleased you enjoyed it 🙂
An excellent and interesting choice–I think your interpretation of I and Thou is optimistic, Beth, but that’s the beauty of poetry, it bends itself to the vessel it fills like water or wine. Thanks for this introduction–all those poems, all those prizes, all my reading, and I’ve never heard of the man. It’s very humbling. Great job with P&B, Beth.
Thanks, Joy. Dugan is one of my favorite poets, always engaging my mind and offering up surprises.