"4" [The Classroom]

Night 120

1) "A deep [warm] swell." Ink, pencil, draft paper. Draft includes lines from "Love. Warmth."

Night 121

2) "Shed their remote enhancement." Ink, pencil, half sheet notepaper.

Night 122

3) "Oct 30. Adapted from a journal." Ink, pencil, draft paper. One sketch.

Night 123

4) "30 Nov. Now if the class." Pencil, draft paper.

Night 124

5) "Quatrains give way to different forms." Ink, pencil, draft paper. Recto of a "Carnival" manuscript.

Night 126

7) "A point or two. Quatrains give way." Ink, pencil.

Manuscript 3 is dated "Oct 30" and the heading is "Adapted from a journal." A note identifies two features: a "gradual mellowing of a viewpoint - the long wait for this - REBIRTH" and "the use of other poets." Manuscript 1 contains the phrases "objects of desire" and "love without an object."

See the link to "Langdon Hammer's Criticism" on this poem's "classroom parody" and carefully stated conception of form: “'Form' is shorthand for style or manner, the poet’s bearing on the page and not simply his skillful prosody, although that is essential to it. 'Form' implies a contract with the reader, an intimacy grounded in shared respect" (328).