"Farewell Performance"
Suzanne Farrell in Balanchine's Mozartiana (1981), New York City Ballet. Farrell dedicated a performance of the ballet to David Kalstone. In Manuscript 17, Merrill writes: "back Suzanne comes." Photo-Paul Kolnik.
This site provides teachers and students of James Merrill with an introduction and background to his elegy for David Kalstone, "Final Performance.” (Grand Street [Spring 1987], 12-13; Collected Poems [New York: Knopf, 2002], 581
The links to this site appear in the left margin. Commentary on the poem appears in the left margin under "Introduction to Three Late Poems" and "Survey of Literary Criticism." All material is copyrighted. For questions, contact Timothy Materer.