"Rigor Vitae" [The City and the Wen]

Defintion of wen from the Oxford Dictionary: a boil or growth on the skin, and (archaic) a very large or overcrowded city.  

Following the sonnet form of "The Hamam," the four pentameter quatrains of this section describe the old and modern sections of Istanbul, separated by the "mirror of the Bosphorus." (The description recalls the city descriptions in the "Related Verses" section of this site.) The poem is interrupted after the first quatrain by a prose description of the wen on a beloved grandmother. Manuscript 4 is dated "Istanbul. 21 March. I."

Night Bosphorus

View of the Bosphorus Strait, 1960s.  Charles W Cushman Photo Collection, Indiana University Archives.

Night 47

1) "On the back of her wrist." Journal entry. Ink, notebook paper.

Night 48

2) "Here sit effaced. / On the crest of her wrist." Ink, draft paper.

Night 47A

3) "Smile. On the back of her wrist." Ink, pencil, draft paper.

Night 49

4) "Istanbul. 21 March. I." Ink, pencil, draft paper.

Night 50

5) "This only made me sad." Ink, pencil, draft paper.

Night 51

6) "Behind the gray glass of the Bosphorus." Pencil, ink, two sketches.

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