The Project Gutenberg eBook ofBehold this DreamerThis ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.*** This is a COPYRIGHTED Project Gutenberg eBook. Details Below. ****** Please follow the copyright guidelines in this file. ***Title: Behold this DreamerAuthor: Elizabeth BartlettRelease date: October 30, 2018 [eBook #58207]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Al Haines, produced from scans provided by Steven Bartlett*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEHOLD THIS DREAMER ***
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online atwww.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
*** This is a COPYRIGHTED Project Gutenberg eBook. Details Below. ****** Please follow the copyright guidelines in this file. ***
*** This is a COPYRIGHTED Project Gutenberg eBook. Details Below. ***
*** Please follow the copyright guidelines in this file. ***
Title: Behold this DreamerAuthor: Elizabeth BartlettRelease date: October 30, 2018 [eBook #58207]Language: EnglishCredits: Produced by Al Haines, produced from scans provided by Steven Bartlett
Title: Behold this Dreamer
Author: Elizabeth Bartlett
Author: Elizabeth Bartlett
Release date: October 30, 2018 [eBook #58207]
Language: English
Credits: Produced by Al Haines, produced from scans provided by Steven Bartlett
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BEHOLD THIS DREAMER ***
BEHOLD THIS DREAMER
Elizabeth Bartlett
Behold This Dreamerwas originally published in 1959 by Editorial Jus in Mexico City, and is now out-of-print. The authorÂ’s literary executor, Steven James Bartlett, has decided to make the book available as an open access publication, freely available to readers through Project Gutenberg under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs license, which allows anyone to distribute this work without changes to its content, provided that both the author and the original URL from which this work was obtained are mentioned, that the contents of this work are not used for commercial purposes or profit, and that this work will not be used without the copyright holder's written permission in derivative works (i.e., you may not alter, transform, or build upon this work without such permission). The full legal statement of this license may be found at:
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Behold this Dreamer
ByELIZABETH BARTLETT
BOOKS
poems of yes and noBehold this Dreamer
POEMS
Accent, American Weave, Approach, Arizona Quarterly, Beloit Poetry Journal, Canadian Forum, Catholic World, Chelsea Review, Coastlines, Commentary, Cresset, Epos, Fiddlehead, Folio, four quarters, Harper's, Harper's Bazaar, Literary Review, Mexican Life, Naked Ear, New Mexico Quarterly, New Poems 2, New Voices 2, N. Y. Herald Tribune, N. Y. Times, Nimrod, Odyssey, Outposts, Personalist, Poetry Chapbook, Prairie Schooner, Quixote, Saturday Review, Shenandoah Review, Southwest Review, Sparrow, Step Ladder, Venture, Views, Western Review, Western Humanities Review, Whetstone, Wisconsin Poetry.
Acknowledgements: Certain of the poems in this collection have appeared in publications listed above.
The title,Behold This Dreamer, is taken from an anthology of that name, in tribute to its author, Walter de la Mare (1873-1956).
Elizabeth Bartlett
Editorial Jus, S. A.Mexico City
First Edition© 1959 Elizabeth Bartlett
ToCHARLOTTE HOWELL REED
CONTENTS
Vision
The poet's dream
Time will tell
Afternoon of a journey
The cave
The test
In his image
All this, before
The creation
EYEcenter of the universeWhose pupil is the worldTeach us to see the lightEmbracing night
Between the sunset and the dawnTo see the unicornWithin that crystal ballOf pure recall
Where time is an iris mirrorA pointillated blurOf image and of formCaught in its storm
With every moment held insideThe frame of canvas mindForever captive, stilled,Motion fulfilled
Where memory and dream evokeThe future like a windowMade of stained glass, one castFrom the fractured past
As retina and perspectiveFor our darkness, the bridgeConnecting what has beenWith things foreseen
Through your bright lens, illuminateThe galaxy that waitsInvisible as trustIn stars and dust
WHENthe waters of the sunFall on the flaming sea
When the desert rose is oneWith the snow sipping bee
All that our senses now shunTime's alchemy will free
On the coral shores of nightThe ghosts of fish shall wake
And offer incense to the lightThat gives them bread to break
From the singing shells with wingsAn artist's eye shall peer
With violin hands for stringsAnd a poet's ear
Then white silence like a nunShall lift her long white sleeves
And shake the treasures she has spunFrom dreams whose thread she weaves
From the surf of mountain cavesA billion stars shall gush
And whirl on the windward wavesThrough the darkened hush
In the valley of moon treesThe glowing fruit shall sway
And rise by twos and threesAbove the cradled day
On the jungle's peaceful floorLion and deer shall meet
A crucifix made of oreBetween their kneeling feet
All of this and more shall beWithin that shining net
When time redeems mortalityFrom its mortal debt
Then magnet age shall point its northTowards youth's eternal pole
That alpha star in the fourthDimension of the soul
Where love curves back in heartspaceWithin its chrysalis
And gravitates the imaged faceOf the all creating this
From the light years of the pastThe undeflected force
Shall bind the future fastTo God's own source
As cause and word unendingRepeat the rhythmic plan
Of universe transcendingMan's origin as man
WHEREfireflies are starsAnd the evening sky a sea,There you will find me, farFrom the leveling demandsThat leveled you and me.
When distant mountains bendLike deep swells toward the shore,Then you will see the endsFor which I built my dikesAgainst the lowly roar.
Though breath was all I ownedTo force my heart to climb,Though words were all the stonesI had to seal my mind,You will know why, in time.
THEREwill never be another,That day was forever.
We dove through tropic noonInto a green sky. The palms stoodQuiet, still, their frondsLike swollen waves aboutTo break, transparent, lime limnedAnd streaked from base to rimWith icy light.
Lungs gilled and arms finned wide,We slipped into the paleOf that dry sea, following downraysUntil we reached the coolOf silence, a sandpaved lagoonUpholding its weight of timeUnder trees that climbed.
Perched on a log, we scannedThe currents, the drifting shaftOf shadows, instinctively alertTo armadillo's crawl, the stirOf something red,The eye of an iguana met...Ourselves. Perceiving
We were not alone in breathing,Being witness,As well as evidenceIn that primal air,How all of us sharedIn the serene of a sunless glowWhich waterless flowed.
Gently, we moved along a pathThat opened as we passed,Whispering our affirmationsTo those secret onesWho flickered and flashed,Carrying our echoes backFrom near, then far, far off.
And slowly, the silence arced,Leaped high—and broke,With parrots in the undertowAs the waves rolled overAnd the green tide floodedThe forest floor, whirling,Swirling a world set free.
Now all of us were cellsIn a chemistry of shellsOlder than snails,Plankton or sunbaked clay,Fellow creatures in an afternoonAs joyous as a long lost tuneAbout to be remembered.
Oh all of us thereIn that drenched, tropic greenBegan to sing and sing,Shedding our tiesWith root and rock and sky,As we found our songIn our living bond.
Pod and leaf, mouth and beak,Whatever lived and breathedThat sudden afternoon,Sang wonder through the woods,As we heard and discoveredEach in the otherWithout a word.
Until a metallic bird,On roaring wings,Crashed our song beneathThe hammered surf,As it thundered,Like lightning in a storm,Fearfully born.
Then all of usGrew motionlessIn the sculptured underseaOf silenced green,Knowing, as we did again,The thing forbidden and forgottenIn a world of men.
There will never be another,That day was forever.
DROPby dropThe earth is bornA billion yearsFrom dark to dawn
Drop by dropAs rivers flowPast sunless cliffsNo wind has known
Where no grass blowsAnd no birds singThere time drips slowAnd patient clings
Drop by dropTill waterfallsAre turned to stone
Here new stars formAnd mountains riseClear of the stormsThat twist the sky
Drop by dropWhile caverns tallCarve crystal bones
What dream lies walledWithin this nightWhat shape shall crawlUp to the light
Drop by dropAs silence growsInside its vaultOf carbon snow
When glaciers haltBefore no zonesWhen both the polesAt last are one
Drop by dropThe dawn shall comeA billion yearsFrom cave to sun
HEwho would climb the heights of toneAnd scale the peaks beyond the listening ear,Must first walk over waterAnd learn to stand on air, alone.
He who would swim the waves of lightAnd dive past shores into a sunless glow,Must first merge with his shadowAnd melt through solid glass, like night.
Where eyes are fins and sound is leap,The rhythmic force performs its own ballet;When dreams are fired in clay,They burn a path through timeless sleep.
WHOhas not looked into the heart of nightand seen the darker light,concealed like spectral starsbeyond the rim of Mars,
Who has not listened to the sound of mindand heard the silence wind,like rivers undergroundout to a sea profound,
has only eyes and ears.
Who has not reached above the clouded spanand touched the cosmic plan,upheld like spider's climbupon the spokes of time,
Who has not followed the labyrinthine threadAnd crushed the monstrous dread,that other men may gleamthe glory of the dream,
has only hands and feet.
Who has not lived within his hour of spaceand etched it with his face,as portrait of the sunreflects the solar one,
is only shape and dust.
I RACED,I rushed, I ran,to catch the empty hand of time—Before the wind, the blowing wind,This breathless gift.
I willed, I worked, I wept,To melt the frozen face of time—Before the sun, the burning sun,This frenzied bone.
I drank, I danced, I dared,To tempt the stony foot of time—Before the rain, the driving rain,This raptured flame.
I leaped, I laughed, I loved,To ease the burdened heart of time—Before the dust, the settling dust,This flesh and blood.
OUTof the white and the blueOut of the mist and the iceOut of the wind and the flameThe creature came.
With eyes as brilliant as the lightWith ears as lucid as the soundWith feet as sudden as the thoughtThe creature caught
A breath from the yawning skyA drop from the nodding seaA root from the sleeping earthAnd from their birth
Measured the length of the seasonsBalanced the rhythm of the tidesSecured the growing of the seedAnd woke the need
Of the dream inside the eggOf the thirst within the cellOf the shape beneath the boneThen took a stone
And breaking the silent voidAnd loosing the swollen streamAnd cutting the golden threadThe creature said:
Here on this dot of bounded spaceHere in this point of moving timeHere with this seal of life and deathI fix my breath
That all the works of my handsThat all the passions of my heartThat all the wonders of my brainShall here remain.
I, Gilgamesh, Rama, AdamI, Phoenician, Saxon, MayanI, Peasant, Leader, ArchitectBy this reject
Perpetual day or nightEverlasting rain or droughtEternal struggle or peaceUntil words cease
Between infinite men and godsBetween partisan young and oldBetween ultimate right and wrongFor each is strong.
Let calendar be as recordLet monument be as witnessLet history here determineWhich shall win.
Then the sky hurled its lightningThen the sea roared its thunderThen the earth reared its fireTo show their ire
At the vanity of the egoAt the rashness of the sowerAt the folly of the dreamerAnd redeemer
Who would thus destroy the sunWho would thus defy the floodWho would thus pollute the airAnd showed him there
The blinding vision of the truthThe deafening echoes of the damnedThe crashing madness of the planThat he began.
And when he saw the facesAnd when he heard the weepingAnd when he knew the sicknessThat men possess
As mortal children of ambitionAs transient strangers of desireAs fatal victims of perfectionReleased by none
From the essence of the grapeFrom the music of the reedFrom the incense of the bowlThe creature stole
The power of forgetfulnessThe illusion of contentmentThe promise of exaltationMaking them one
That the lost and unfulfilledThat the laughter and the painThat the glory and defeatBe complete
Seeing how frail is the candleHearing how brief is the songKnowing how soon is the templeDarkened and still.
Then slipped the root from his feetThen poured the sound from his earsThen blew the light from his eyesAnd went more wise
Into the white and the blueInto the mist and the iceInto the wind and the flameThe way he came.
[Editorial note: The author's literary executor discovered in Elizabeth Bartlett's personal autographed hardbound copy ofBehold This Dreamerher own marginal notations relating to the next-to-the-last stanza of the above poem, accompanied by her confirming handwritten revision of that stanza. The stanza as printed here incorporates her revision.]
Behold This Dreameris a signed, limited editiondesigned by the authoron Corsican rag paperin Baskerville type
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth Bartlett (1911-1994) was an American poet and writer noted for her lyrical and symbolic poetry, creation of the new twelve-tone form of poetry, founder of the international non-profit organization Literary Olympics, Inc., and known as an author of fiction, essays, reviews, translations, and as an editor. She is not to be confused with the British poet (1924-2008) of the same name. For more detailed information about her life, work, and critical commendations, see the Wikipedia articlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bartlett_%28American_poet%29.
BartlettÂ’s most notable achievements include:
• Creation of a new form of poetry, "the twelve-tone poem," adapting Arnold Schonberg’s musical system to the verbal, accented sounds of language. Called "the Emily Dickinson of the 20th Century," her concise lyrics have been praised by poets, musicians, and composers alike.
• Publication of 16 books of poetry, a group of edited anthologies, and more than 1,000 poems, short stories, and essays published, for example, inHarper’s,Virginia Quarterly,New York Times,North American Review,Saturday Review,Prairie Schooner, and in numerous international collections.
• Recipient of many fellowships, grants and awards, including NEA, PEN Syndicate, fellowships at the Huntington Hartford Foundation, Montalvo, Yaddo, MacDowell, Dorland Mt. Colony and Ragdale, travel grants, and honors for introducing literature as part of the Olympics.
• Founder of the Literary Olympics, to restore literature, specifically poetry, as a vital part of the Olympics as it once had been in ancient Greece.
BartlettÂ’s poetry came to the attention of leading poets, writers, and critics as diverse as Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, Mark Van Doren, Conrad Aiken, Allen Tate, Alfred Kreymborg, Robert Hillyer, Louis Untermeyer, Rolfe Humphries, John Ciardi, Richard Eberhart, Richard Wilbur, Maxine Kumin, Robert M. Hutchins, Kenneth Rexroth, William Stafford, and others. Over the years, Bartlett maintained an active and extensive correspondence with eminent poets, writers, and literary critics; evident throughout this collected literary correspondence are strong statements attesting to the importance of her work.
Behold This Dreamerwas published in Mexico City in 1959. By 1961, Jonathan Williams wrote of the book: "Your language is cultivated, employed consistently and lucidly. To my observation, it seems fair to say that you belong with the best of your generation, which I would say includes May Swenson, Denise Levertov, Garrigue, et al." Louis Untermeyer added his voice: "I particularly like your fusion of observation and whimsicality, as well as your avoidance of the poetic stereotypes." Rolfe Humphries was intrigued by BartlettÂ’s poetic techniques: "I enjoyed your poems and admire many...." AboutBehold This Dreamer, Gustav Davidson wrote: "I enjoyed reading these poems. I was impressed by their precision, clarity, and technical competence." About the same work, critic Paul Jordan-Smith wrote: "Your poems were begotten of a strong, imaginative sense. My congratulations on this beautiful collection."
Elizabeth Bartlett's husband, Paul Alexander Bartlett (1909–1990) was an American writer, artist, and poet. He made a large-scale study of more than 350 Mexican haciendas, published novels, short stories, and poetry, and worked as a fine artist in a variety of media. For more detailed information about his life and work, see the Wikipedia articlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Alexander_Bartlett.
Elizabeth Bartlett’s son, Steven James Bartlett (1945– ), is a psychologist and philosopher who has published many books and articles in the fields of philosophy and psychology. For more detailed information about his life and work, see the Wikipedia articlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_James_Bartlett.