on ''the day lady died

8/14/2019 On ''the Day Lady Died''

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On "The Day Lady Died"

Anthony Libby

The extreme vividness of "The Day Lady Died" depends not so much on visualization as evocation; aprecise state of consciousness is delineated largely through the abstract color of proper names. The poem's

final image"she !hispered a song along the eyboard"is enormously effective# in part because it is

almost the poem's only image.

$rom "%&ara on the (ilver )ange." Contemporary Literature*+,-/.

0eal 1o!ers

As an elegy for 1illie oliday# the poem could easily follo! tradition and have the !hole !orld mourn

her loss; instead# things go on as usual# and the only odd occurrence involves 2iss (till!agon at the ban#

!ho "doesn't even loo up my balance for once in her life." Apart from that small act of grace# the city is

its normal self# and %'ara follo!s his routine up to the moment of buying "a 034 5%)6 7%(T !ith

her face on it"8

and 9 am s!eating a lot by no! and thining of

leaning on the :ohn door in the (7%T

!hile she !hispered a song along the eyboard

to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing

The climax is the discovery of "Lady's" death and the indelible memory of one soft song that lives on# butthe poem is essentially about adayinthelife of $ran %'ara and his city. Death is one of many random

things that could punctuate and focus the seemingly unconnected activities of an other!ise typical day#

maing everything from a shoeshine to a bottle of (trega purchased in a liim 3lledge# ed.Frank O'Hara: To Be True to a City.?niversity of 2ichigan

7ress# +,,@.

6evin (tein

The tone at the opening of the poem is giddy and excited. After all# this is a some!hat glib speaer !ho is

readying himself for dinner at the home of someone he doesn't no!# !ho can smartalecly refer to the

"poets of Bhana#" !ho is prone to "stroll" and "casually as" for cigarettes# and !ho can "practically" go

"to sleep !ith


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results in image# scene# a moment of experience !hich itself is of ultimate value. The present moment and

the remembered one do not reim 3lledge. ?niversity of

2ichigan 7ress# +,,@.

1rad Booch

The ne!s of oliday's death led %'ara to thin bac to the last time he had heard her sing. 2s fullestexposure to her had been t!o years earlier at Loe!'s (heridan on (eventh Avenue and T!elfth (treet in

the summer %f +,- !hen she had appeared a fe! hours late for her midnight sho!. (he !as forced to

perform in the cavernous old movie theatre because she !as not permitteddue to an arrest for heroin

useto sing in a bar that served drins. "4e didn't leave#" recalls 9rma urley# !ho accompanied %'ara

along !ith 2ie Boldberg# >oan 2itchell# and 0orman 1luhm. "$ran said# '9 !ill !ait.' 9 thin she !as

coming from 7hiladelphia. (he finally arrived pretty zoned out. 1ut she did sing." %'ara's reaction to

her performance !as as exhilarated as his reaction to >udy Barland's sho! at the 7alace Theatre# after

!hich he had commented to >ohn 1utton# "4ell# 9 guess she's better than 7icasso." 1ut the last time

%'ara had heard oliday sing !as at the $ive (pot# a :azz bar on $ifth (treet and Third Avenue at

=ooper (ohn =oltrane# %rnette =oleman# Thelonious

2on# or =harlie 2ingus. 6enneth 6och and Larry )ivers had begun staging :azzandpoetry evenings

there in response to similar events in (an $rancisco initiated by Allen Binsberg and 6enneth )exroth. %ne

night 6och had read his poems !ith the accompaniment of 2al 4aldron# a blac pianist !ho usually

accompanied oliday. (he sho!ed up to visit !ith 4aldron and later in the night !as persuaded to brea

the la! by singing. "9t !as very close to the end of her life# !ith her voice almost gone# :ust lie a

!hisper# :ust lie the taste of very old !ine# but full of spirit#" recalls 6och. "3verybody !anted her to

sing. 3verybody !as crazy about her. (he sang some songs in this very !hispery beautiful voice. The

place !as


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%'ara# !ho had been silent about the matter throughout the trip# pulled a poem out of his pocet that he

announced he had :ust !ritten that afternoon and read it straight do!n to its concluding stanza8



!hile she !hispered a song along the eyboardto 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing

$rom City Poet: The Life and Times of Frank OHara. =opyright C +,, by 1rad Booch.

)obert von allberg

amburger indeed. The contours seem to have been shaved off the experience the poem reports. 7oetry

from 0e! 5or or Bhana# Eerlaine# esiod# 1rendan 1ehan# or Benet *lines +F+G/8 the time# the place

*trains named after "points in time#" as they say/# even the language matters little. The !hole !orld and all

of history is right there in 2anhattan# on +- >uly +,,# for the buying# piece by piece# of (trega#Bauloises# 7icayunes *lines H+H/. Distance is reduced by the pulp press# !hich is dominated by the

lo!ermiddle class *theNe!ork Post" not the Times/; poetry# modernism# these international zones of

experience have no special force here. A? art is brought close not by tradition# as 3liot had said# but by

mass production# cheapness.

All principles for arraying emphasis and registering discriminations have been flattened. The rhyme in the

third fine is only a chance thing# and the first of the poem's nineteen "and"s *in the same line/ maes an

arbitrary connection. And as syntax and prosody go# so does social order8 %'ara says that he !ill be the

dinner guest of strangers that night and then recounts his efforts to find suitable gifts for 7atsy and 2ie#

!ho are made to seem his hosts." This easy familiarity# %'ara suggests7atsy# 2ie# Lindashould notbe too easily sniffed at; the reference to the !ellno!n translator of omer invoes an ancient sanction

for gift giving and the entertaining of strangers and for paratactic syntax. The po!er of the poem is in its

inadvertent# banal approach to an earnest genre8 the sub:ect of the elegy does not even emerge until the

poem is nearly complete# as though the great theme *death/ can no! only be taled around8

... a 034 5%)6 7%(T !ith her face on it




to 2al 4aldron and everyone and 9 stopped breathing.

1eside the example of 1illie oliday# !ell eroded by the time she !ored !ith 2al 4aldron *+,-

+,,/#Partisan #e$iecomplaints about the difficulty of maing art in a culture so leveled by mass

culture as America !as in +,, sound disingenuous. $or most of her career# her audiences !ere small and

sometimes difficult of access. 9n +,F- the 0e! 5or 7olice Department denied her a cabaret licence# as

many other :azz musicians !ere similarly punished for drug offenses. *During her final illness# she !as

arrested in her 0e! 5or hospital room for illegal possession of drugs./ (he !as a singer !ho ne! !ell

ho! difficult reaching a fit audience might be# but even in her decline# %'ara says# she too one's breath

a!ay and this elegy is literally directed at the renovation of that clichI of massculture advertising# the

"breathtaing performance." The poem ends !ith much more than the apparent universal s!oon for a

great torch singer. "3veryone#" he says in the last line# suggesting that a poet might !ell tae pleasure in+,, from the fact that some art can directly reach us all# and that nearly all art# African# $rench# and 9rish#
http://www.amazon.com/City-Poet-Times-Frank-OHara/dp/0060976136/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292374746&sr=1-2http://www.amazon.com/City-Poet-Times-Frank-OHara/dp/0060976136/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292374746&sr=1-2


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can be had no! for the asing. The 1astille had been stormed# and if it turned out to be emptier than

expected only the expectations deserve criticism. 0e! 5or# even theNe !ork Post" !as moving still.

$rom%meri&an poetry and Cuture" ()*+,()-. =opyright C +,G by the 7resident and $ello!s of

arvard =ollege.

=harles Altieri

7aul =arroll is the first critic 9 no! to claim a really influential role for %'ara in the poetry of the

sixties. . . .

e maes clear for poets ho! the dada and expressionist doctrines of creation can !or for them# for his

poems continually insist that they are not representations of reality but the enactment by the artist of

certain attitudes and choices !ithin that reality. =onse


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attention to the rush of time piling up details united only by seohn 1arth has called "the literature of exhaustion." 0ot only poetry# but even some of the basic values of

civilized life can be discovered by pushing further than the past into the manifold particulars and the

texture of domestic contemporary life.

$rom/nar0in0 the Tempe: Ne 1ire&tions in %meri&an Poetry durin0 the ()2s. =opyright C +,-, by

Associated ?niversity 7resses# 9nc.

=harles 2oles!orth

The alienation and confusion of urban life# especially at the street level# come into disorienting focus !ith

the ne!s of the death of 1illie oliday# the :azz singer !hose selfdestructiveness *"eroin ills you the

slo! !ay"/ clearly mesmerizes %'ara !hen it is transformed into a lyrical !hisper. The poem# for all its

looseness# tries to mimic that improvisational


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some tragic "event#" serve as a sudden# crude displacement of our reverie. %bviously# more people in

America could recognize and empathize !ith the structuring e$ent in %'ara's poem than !ith the

e


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suspended sensibility of the speaers. 9nstead of !hat !e find in 1ishop# a !orld of aesthetic ob:ects

considered !ith fond irony# !e discover in %'ara's poem a gathering of mundane ob:ects fondled by an

aestheticizing irony. *9t mayalso be instructive to notice that in both poems the speaer gradually moves

his or her o!n affective response to the foreground as the poem ends./ 1ut the t!o attitudes are similar in

their gesture of holding up an ob:ect taen from its context# "lifted" in the several meanings of that !ord#

and using that ob:ect as a ind of cathexis for other!ise unformulable recognitions. This pattern is one ofthe traditional forms of lyric poetry"to be sure# but here it enables us to focus on ho! American lyric

poets !ant to approach the !orld of ob:ects but often do so by falling bac on traditional methods.

$rom The Fier&e /mbra&e: % 4tudy of Contemporary %meri&an Poetry. =opyright C +,-, by the =urators

of the ?niversity of 2issouri.

2ar:orie 7erloff

"9n one brief poem#" Ted 1errigan said in his obituary essay on %'ara# "he seemed to create a !hole ne!

ind of a!areness of feeling# and by this a !hole ne! ind of poetry# in !hich everything could be itselfand still be poetry." 4hat 1errigan means here# 9 thin# is that %'ara dispenses !ith all the traditional

props of elegythe statement of lament# the consolation motif# the procession of mourners# the pathetic

fallacy# and so onand still manages to pay an intensely moving tribute to the great :azz singer. 9t is not an

easy feat. 9n his o!n earlier elegies# for example the four poems prompted by the sudden tragic death of

the young >ames Dean in +,# %'ara often maes a straightfor!ard statement of lament and complaint#

thus rising sentimentality# much as 4illiam =arlos 4illiams does in his "3legy for D. . La!rence#"

!hich begins8

Breen points on the shrub

and poor La!rence deadthe night damp and misty

and La!rence no more in the !orld

to ans!er April's promise

!ith a fury of labor

against !aste# !aste and life's

coldness.

%'ara avoids the bathos inherent in such a frontal attac by maing no reference at all to Lady Day until

the t!entyfifth line of his poem# and then only obli


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heard/" disproves his expectations by not looing up his "balance for once in her life." e cannot decide

!hat boo to buy for 7atsy (outhgate and practically goes to sleep "!ith


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This extraordinary man lay !ithout a pillo! in a bed that looed lie a large crib.... e !as purple

!herever his sin sho!ed through the !hite hospital go!n. e !as a


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9f that is so# then there are also good reasons for rethining the categories of surface and depth that have

come to plague our debates about cultural politics in the t!o decades since %'ara died# or# more exactly#

ever since 7op inaugurated the ind of culture# no!n today as postmodernist# !hich seems to tae itself

at face value. A culture of surface is not simply a culture that declares its immunity to historical anxiety; it

is also a culture that has become suspicious of istory !ith a capital # moving !ith a!esome solemnity

and depth through our lives# a culture !hich recognizes that history# for the most part# is also made out ofparticulars by people !hose everyday acts do not al!ays add up to the grand aggregates of canonical

martyrdom that mae for reapolitics.

9n fact# it is a commonly held vie! that# !hen it comes to politics# cultural texts are east successful !hen

they are long on militant fiber *and short on pleasure/; in other !ords# !hen they are at their mostarticulate

or didactic# and !hen their explicit relation to the political is there for all to read# and to be deferred to or

bro!beaten by. 9ndeed# most of the cultural texts !e encounter are protopoliticalthey express an

imaginary relation to real conditions of oppression or resistance# a relation that is often difficult

to read" not least because of its contradictions# but more generally because it is expressed in a symbolic

form. Texts# in other !ords# spea more than they say# even !hen they seem to be about "surface things."

4e have learnt to recognize this state of affairs as the !or of ideology# often vie!ed by left critics interms similar to the !or of (atan. 1ut there are good reasons# 9 thin# for preferring the term

protopolitical to the term ideological. 7rotopolitical# for example# suggests submerged a&ti$ity" !hile

ideological suggests unremittingpassi$ity7protopolitical suggests embryonic# or future forms# !hile

ideological suggests the oppressive !eight of the past extending into the present. (o too# in looing at

texts that occur "else!here#" !hether in time or place# !e ought to be encouraged to loo for the

protopolitical in those things that &anbe said# rather than in !hat cannot be said!hat is suppressed# in

short# by the !or of ideology.

To illustrate generally !hat 9 mean# 9 have taen the example of one of %'ara's best no!n poems# "The

Day Lady Died." 9t !as !ritten in +,@# a ind of prepolitical age!hich is to say# an age that preexists

the more explicit formation# in the sixties# of the ind of political culture !hich most of us have come to

live and breathe. 9t !as !ritten esehere" in that prelapsarian period of innocencebefore the breaup of

consensus liberalism# before the conspiracy climate of all post6ennedy ideology# before the sixties

"changed everything"a period that has been celebrated# for over a decade no!# in that glut of yuppie

nostalgia culture that stretches from%meri&an 8raffiti to1irty 1an&in0. 9t !as !ritten by a poet# as 9

have suggested# !hose blithe disregard for politics is e


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available here# not through 3liotic tradition# but through the benefits of mass production and cheapness.

The last stanza# ho!ever# suggests that there are some cultural experiences. that are literally priceless and

that therefore lie beyond the realm of paperbac discount shopping8


leaning on the :ohn door in the (7%T!hile she !hispered a song along the eyboard


This memory of a "live" 1illie oliday moment# !ith its extreme effect on the motor functions of the

bodys!eating# constricted breathingcontrasts !ith the somnolent# lo!ey anxiety of "itterbugs#" Amiri 1araa put the matter more succinctly8 "though yr mind is

some!here else# your ass ain't." 1araa is addressing himself more to the contradictions of ghetto realism

than to the romantic spirit of the !hite bohemian in ritual thrall to the spectacle of :azz performance. 1ut

his tone here might serve as an earthy corrective to the rapt mood of %'ara's last stanza. 9n fact# if !e

loo bac through the poem# beginning !ith the encounter in the first stanza !ith the probably blac

shoeshine boy# !ho may be !orried about ho! he is going to be fed in a !ay that is different from the

poet's anxiety about his unno!n hosts in 3asthampton# !e begin to see ho! the references to

postcolonial "0egritude"Benet'sLes N90resand those "poets in Bhana"have indirectly# perhaps even

unconsciously# prepared the reader for the final confrontation !ith American "negritude."

1y +,,# scenes of :azz idolatry on the part of !hite intellectuals had become a commonplace# if not a

clichI# especially in the poetry !orld !here the 1eat cult of hipsterdom had become an ob:ect of national

media attention. 4hat is striing#ho!ever# is that %'ara is not lie that; he is not that kind of poet. (ure#

he fre


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gains of multiculturalismJ The po!er of !hite liberal fantasies# centered upon the idolizing of the purity

of blac culture and its fine artsJ %r the prospect of fully integrated dance floorsblac and !hite bodies

moving to recognizably blac rhythms# and the other racial crossovers !hich roc and roll culture has

generated ever since its scandalous originJ

$or !hite intellectuals# the sacred spectacle of the spontaneous :azz performer !as underscored# amongother things# by a highly romantic form of racism. 9t suggested that !or !as simply an extension of a

ind of presocial culture that !as at ease !ith play and had mastered leisure; in other !ords# maing :azz

!as !or that didn't loo lie !or# by people !ho !eren't supposed to no! the difference. 9n %'ara's

poem# !hat 1illie oliday does comes "naturally." er languorous "!hisper#" by contrast# precipitates an

unnatural response# a near cardiovascular attac# on the poet's part# !hich can be compared# diametrically#

!ith the nonchalance that he had earlier displayed during his bout of compulsive buying. Then# !hat !as

most selfconscious about consuming had been made to seem lie the most natural thing in the !orld.

">ust" strolling in here and there# and "casually" asing for this and that# at once indecisive and pragmatic

in his purchasing# he had behaved almost lie a practiced shoplifter# carefully covering his tracs !ith a

!hole range of consumer rituals. 1ut# for all of its !oredat insouciance# the art of consuming# unlie the

art of the :azz singer# proves to be hard !or8 after a !hile# he's "s!eating a lot#" unlie Lady Day# !ho isremembered as the very image of cool. 3ven no!# !hen she literally has stopped breathing# it is the poet

!ho taes on her symptoms as he reads of her death in the ne!spaper.

That it is a Lady Day and not a =harlie 7arer being commemorated in this !ay is# of course# %'ara's

o!n personal touch. As a gay poet# and one of the most spontaneous of all camp !riters# it is no surprise

to find that it is a !oman singer !ho shares the billing along !ith the goddesses of the screen !hom he

celebrates in other poems. 9n fact# %'ara's most celebrated camp line occurs in a poem in !hich the poet

sees a ne!spaper headline announcing that "LA0A T?)03) A( =%LLA7(3DK" 9t ends thus8

9 have been to lots of parties

and acted perfectly disgraceful

but 9 never actually collapsed

oh Lana Turner !e love you get up

(urvivalist exhortations of this sort lie at the very heart of camp's insistence that the sho! must go on# that

irony and parody can redeem even the most tragic and sordidevents# !hich color everyday life. The last

years of >udy Barland's life# for example# in !hich she transformed her career role as a selfdestructive

loser into that of a reliant# irrepressible fighter# came to exemplify this survivalist spirit for the gay

community# and the final period of 1illie oliday's checered life and career is certainly the closest

e


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The sometimes ma!ish sentimentalism of camp is often seen as an institutionalized expression of self

hatred# and thus adangerous form of acceptance# by an oppressed group# of the oppressor's definition of

the oppressed. Lie the eponymous ">e!ish selfhatred#" or "Tomming " in blac culture# or certain

expressions of "machismo" in Latin cultures# camp is a form of defense constructed by an oppressed group

out of conditions not of its o!n maing. That is !hy it is protopolitical; in other !ords# it is a response to

politically induced oppression# but at the same time# it is a response that accepts its current inability to actin an explicit political manner to combat that oppression. This response taes many covert forms and

baro


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!ell before the coming riots of selfliberation# this !as a mannered !ay of saying tae things into your

o!n hands.

9t seems impossible to end !ithout recalling the elegiac note !ith !hich 9 began# for death is a very

important part of "The Day Lady Died." 4ho can read this poem about 1illie oliday's death !ithout

thining of %'ara's o!n untimely death seven years laterJ 4ho can read it !ithout thining of the deathstoday# from A9D(# of thousands of young homosexual men# lie %'ara# in a culture that is only

beginning to recognize ho! public agendas !or by reorganizing and redefining private responsibilities. 9t

is in this context that %'ara's code of everyday responsibility begins to tae on a ne! ind of sense# three

decades later. 9t is in this context that thesur$i$aism of the camp sensibility# al!ays prepared to deal !ith

an apocalypse of !orst possible outcomes# taes on ne! meanings# !hen danger is located today in the

smallest things in our lives. 9t is in this context# perhaps# that the "surface things" in %'ara's poetry sho!

their unhidden depths.

%riginally appeared inPoeti&s ourna. =opyright C +,G, by Andre! )oss. )eprinted by permission.

2ar:orie 7erloff

Andre! )oss's provocative essay on "The Day Lady Died" . . . argues#


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it is +,, and 9 go get a shoeshine

because 9 !ill get off the F8+, in 3asthampton

at -8+ and then go straight to dinner

and 9 don't no! the people !ho !ill feed me

"Benteel" lady shoppers are hardly liely to go out to the 9sland on a summer $riday afternoon !ithoutno!ing !ith !hom they are going to have dinner. "The people !ho !ill feed me#" moreover# is an odd

!ay of referring to one's hosts8 !ho no!s !hat unladylie things that "feeding" is to includeJ Again# the

sense of immediacy and improvisation is underscored by the reference to getting a shoeshine. )oss's

suggestion that !e need only substitute "hairdresser" for "shoeshine" for the day to reveal itself as a

"lady's day#" curiously misses %'ara's nuance. Ladies' visits to the hairdresser are scheduled and regular

part of the routine of putting oneself together# rather lie brushing one's teeth and putting on maeup in

the morning. 1ut one doesn't schedule a shoeshine or mae an appointment to have one8 one does it *or

rather# a mandoes it/ on the spur of the moment so as to "loo good#" to mae an immediate impression#

especially !hen one doesn't no! "the people !ho !ill feed me." And the further irony is that# !hat !ith

the drining and the partying that could be anticipated at 2ie and 7atsy's# no one !ould notice $ran's

shoeshine any!ay. 9t is merely a !ay of *literally/ putting one's best foot for!ard.

%r consider the lines in the follo!ing stanza8 "9 go on to the ban and 2iss (till!agon *first name Linda

9 once heard/ doesn't even loo up my balance for once in my life." This seemingly casual and irrelevant

reference# far from lining the poet to genteel lady shoppers !ith their "busy social schedules#" has

precisely the opposite effect. 4hat ban teller !ould confront a 2adison Avenue matron by looing up

her balanceJ 4hat matron !ould give so much as a thought to the teller's nameJ The implication of the

lines is that the poet is al!ays selfconscious about being "different"8 polite and friendly as he is at the

ban# 2iss (till!agon evidently perceives him as :ust a bit ournal# "9 often !ish 9 had the strength to commit suicide# but on the other hand# if 9 had# 9 probably!ouldn't feel the need. BodK =an't you let us !in once in a !hileJ" *+@+-FG# 34 +@@/. 9f the sensibility


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here is indeed "gay#" !e must remember that not all gay sensibility of the period Allen Binsberg is a

case in point stries the note of comic pathos# of humor laced !ith tough common sense# and especially

of complex verbal play# that is %'ara's legacy to poetry.

fromFrank OHara: % Poet %mon0 Painters. ? of =hicago 7# +,,-. %nline

http8!ings.buffalo.eduepcauthorsperloffohara.html

>ohn Lo!ney

. . . %'ara's refusal to specify ho! a poem is significant or maes events significant transfers the act of

attention to the reader. There is minimal subordination of seemingly insignificant elements to greater

patterns of meaning in %'ara's "9 do this 9 do that" poems. 1ecause these poems are narrative# the

se


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design other than that of the speaer's lunchtime !al itself. The genre of the poem demands the

reconstruction of design from its disparate details# but the details resist such reconstruction. To insist on a

coherent design that unites the apparently random details is to ris reading too much symbolism into a

poem !hose tone is so casual; to avoid such a ris means accepting the clichI of the spontaneous#

unreflective poet.

There are a number of references to time in "The Day Lady Died#" typical for the lunch poems %&ara

!rote !ith one eye on his !rist!atch but particularly significant for a poem about death. These references

to time are hardly uniform# ho!ever; there is


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olliday in the context of 1astille Day and official oppression of artists# %'ara subtly comments on the

state of the "avantgarde" artist in +,@s America.

All of the actions represented in "The Day Lady Died" are acts of selection# especially the consumer's

selection of !hat to do and !hat to buy for specific social occasions. 2ost of these are automatic or

socially constrained acts of selection# but beginning !ith the decision of the ban teller# "2iss(till!agon#" to not "even loo up my balance for once in her life" *CP# H/# the process of selection

raises fundamental interpretive


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6enneth 6och came and read from the 2anhattan telephone directory !hile )ivers played saxophone.

After!ard 1illie oliday# !ho had !andered in to greet 4aldron# told 6och# "2an# your poems are

!eird." oliday# !hose cabaret card had been revoed because of her heroin use# consented to brea the

la! for one song !hile 4aldron hit the eys. (he sang in a husy !hisper. %'ara stood leaning against

the bathroom door# listening.

aving digested the ne!s of Lady Day's death# %'ara !ent up to his office and typed out a poem# folded

it# and put it into his :acet pocet. 4hen he and >oe Le(ueur arrived in 3ast ampton# 2ie Boldberg

met them in his olive drab 1ugatti# !hich he had bought the previous fall on his and 7atsy's honeymoon in

9taly. Boldberg had brought a Thermos of martinis along# and the friends passed it around as Boldberg

drove them to 1riar 7atch )oad# !here 7atsy !as !aiting. 2ie put on a 1illie oliday record. 7atsy

brought out a tray of hors d'oeuvre# and the four of them sat on the screen porch# !here %'ara announced

that he'd !ritten a poem that afternoon. This is !hat he read8 . . .

"The Day Lady Died" is a classic instance of a poem chronicling its o!n coming into existencePyou can

trace the poet's footsteps up to the moment !hen he sat at his type!riter recapitulating the hour he had :ust

spent. 7art of the poem's charm lies in its mix of populist and elitist elements8 a hamburger and a maltedand "a little Eerlaine#" a trip to the ban to cash a chec# the purchase of exotic cigarettes and liohnson among themP!ho felt that the poem's pastoral


20/23

conventions !ere artificial# that the poem therefore laced sincerity# and that it !as moreover unseemly of

2ilton to acno!ledge# as he does# that one of his motives in !riting this elegy for a dro!ned classmate

!as the hope that he# in turn# !ould be similarly memorialized. As the detractors of "Lycidas" !ere

!rong# so the critics of "The Day Lady Died " mis:udged the poet's conversational ease and seemingly

selfcentered stance. "The Day Lady Died" is a moving elegy not in spite of the poem's preoccupation

!ith the poet's self but because of it; the death of the great singer at age fortyfour occurs as aninterruption# a shoc that the reader is invited to share. The sharpness of the contrast bet!een the vitality

of the living man# attending to the errands and tass of life# and the dead singer is lie a last percussive

note held in an expectant stillness. The poem's breathless ending virtually enacts the death of the "first

lady of the blues" *as theNe !ork Postput it/ !hose nicname# "Lady Day#" is inverted in the poem's

title# a gesture as !itty as it is poignant. To the charge that %'ara is too ironic to be sincere# 9 !ould

borro! the distinction Lionel Trilling made bet!een sincerity and authenticity8 %'ara's suspicion of

sincerity as a rhetorical mode is paradoxically !hat maes his !or more authentic.

A delicious irony about "The Day Lady Died" is that this most casual of utterances !ill# in becoming an

anthology standard# someday re


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fromHypers&apes in the Poetry of Frank O'Hara: 1ifferen&e=Homose>uaity=Topo0raphy. Liverpool ?7#

H@@@. =opyright C H@@@ by azel (mith.

2ichael 2agee

"The Day Lady Died" is one of the "9 do this 9 do that poems#" !here the notion that !ords dosupplants

the notion that !ords mean# and !here truth happens to one's !ords in the course of their reception and

redirection. %'ara clearly !ants to celebrate oliday SM but# contrary to most critical vie!s of the

poem# he is !ell a!are of the hazards involved in his undertaing# and the poem is designed so that it

might avoid descending into either "traditional elegy" *1lasing 2utlu 6onu 1lasing#Poiti&s and Form

in Postmodern Poetry: O'Hara" Bishop" %shbery" and


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demands" *0athanie 2acey#1is&repant /n0a0ement: 1issonan&e" Cross,Cuturaity" and />perimenta

;ritin0. 0e! 5or8 =ambridge ?7# +,,.M F/. 9 noted earlier ho! %'ara's move to the "free# glamorous

Eillage" coincided !ith Thelonious 2on's famous run !ith >ohn =oltrane at the $ive (pot. 2on's

influence on the young :azz avantgarde that congregated at the $ive (pot *=oltrane# Davis# =ecil Taylor#

%rnette =oleman# and others/ !as profound S.M 2oreover# 2on's influence extended beyond young

:azz musicians to include young poets such as 1araa# (pellman# and =reeley. %'ara# 9 thin# belongs inthis mix8 the inds of associations 2acey maes bet!een =reeley and 1araa and 2on# Taylor# and

=oleman might :ust as valuably be made bet!een these musicians and %'ara S.M And !hat !e have in

the milieu of the $ive (pot is an instance !here artists involved in different mediums !ere consciously

tampering !ith each otherconsciously transgressing the la! of genrein order to invent ne! forms of

democratic symbolic action. 9nsofar as %'ara's "The Day Lady Died" represents activity in the $ive (pot#

it is one of these ne! forms.

....

4hat is most interesting to me about the conclusion to "The Day Lady Died" is that it is a practical

application of 7ersonism8





To !hom did oliday !hisper# and !ho stopped breathingJ The absence of punctuation is an impediment#

precludes a definitive ans!er. Did she !hisper "to 2al 4aldron and everyone" or only to "2al 4aldron#"

her fello! blac :azz musician# and to no one elseJ And !hat of "9#" !hich# in such a chatty# vernacular

poem# seems to !ant to be an indirect ob:ect despite the rules of grammarJ Then# if "everyone" and "9" are

separate ob:ects# did oliday !hisper "to 2al 4aldron and everyone" or "to 2al 4aldron and everyone

and 9"that is# has %'ara someho! been left out of the communicative loopJ 4hether %'ara heard and

ho! he heard are only tentatively defined. 4hat !e have as evidence of his reception are a physiological

response *"stopped breathing"/ and the !riting of a poem called "The Day Lady Died." 4hat !e do not

have is anything !e might confidently call "understanding" or "no!ing." The fact that !e cannot decide

!hether the members of this collective are sub:ects or ob:ects has the uncanny effect of obscuring their

position in space. 2uch is dependent on !hether 4aldron and %'ara can both be included in

"everyone"Pthe only noun !hich# in true grammatical fashion# occupies the position of both sub:ect and

ob:ect. And here is the genius of %'ara's invention8 4aldron and %'ara are irreconcilable sub:ects

mediated by a collective "everyone" !hich creates the potential position bet!een sub:ect and ob:ect#

though neither of them occupies it alone# and their inclusion is dependent on dispensing !ith thegrammatical la!s that !ould separate them.

S.M To observe is to be overcome !ith# first# a sense of anesthesia *blurring to the point of blindness/

and# second# the need for a synesthetic leap of faith8 the "privileged eye" *"9"/ is supplanted by an

unnamed actor !ho chooses verse *versatility/ over verity *verisimilitude/. $aced !ith the irresolvable

tangle of sub:ects and ob:ects# the operative metaphor becomes not the eye but the eyboard8 "she

!hispered aon0the eyboard." %'ara's choice of prepositions has the effect of emphasizing :ust

ho! on0the eyboard is# to the exclusion of several common definitions of "ey"8 "something that

secures or controls entrance to a place"; "a systematic explanation of symbols." The multiplicity of

interpretive possibilities implied by the eyboard puts to rest these more confining definitions. 3ven the

common musical definitionP"the relationship perceived bet!een all tones in a given unit of music and asingle tone or ey note"P!on't accommodate %'ara's verbal play. $or oliday does notsin0 ina ey
http://www.amazon.com/Discrepant-Engagement-Dissonance-Cross-Culturality-Experimental/dp/052110999X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292374330&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Discrepant-Engagement-Dissonance-Cross-Culturality-Experimental/dp/052110999X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292374330&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Discrepant-Engagement-Dissonance-Cross-Culturality-Experimental/dp/052110999X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292374330&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Discrepant-Engagement-Dissonance-Cross-Culturality-Experimental/dp/052110999X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292374330&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Discrepant-Engagement-Dissonance-Cross-Culturality-Experimental/dp/052110999X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1292374330&sr=1-1


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but# rather#hispers aon0 a eyboard. 9n doing so she gestures outside the realm of 4estern musical

notation.

....

2oreover# %'ara's poem erects a generational bridge !hen it introduces 2al 4aldron. 9t is clear enoughthat# as the final scene of "The Day Lady Died" taes place in the $ive (pot# one !ould have to at least

loosely associate it !ith the aesthetic environment of that venue. 1ut the fact that 4aldron is one of the

players should provoe further scrutiny. Booch identifies 4aldron as "a blac pianist !ho usually

accompanied oliday" *HG/# but this is misleading in its suggestion that 4aldron !ould have been

identified by the $ive (pot community simply as oliday's pianist. 9n fact# 4aldron !as an important

member of the :azz avantgarde !ho figured prominently in groups led by =harles 2ingus and 3ric

Dolphy among others# and !ho !as heavily influenced by 2on. S.M The point is that by the time

%'ara composed "The Day Lady Died#" 4aldron's significance as a player lay much more clearly !ith

the :azz musicians being touted by 1araa than !ith 1illie oliday. S.M %ur reading of the "!hisper

along the eyboard" should tae into account the fact that %'araPas an accomplished pianist familiar

!ith 2on# =ecil Taylor# and 4aldron and conversing !ith *and reading/ 1araa !as a!are of theimminent :azz experiments in liberating "ey" from even its flexible meaning as defined in bop

improvisation.

from "Tribes of 0e! 5or8 $ran %'ara# Amiri 1araa# and the 7oetics of the $ive (pot#" Contemporary

LiteratureFH no. F *4inter H@@+/8 ,F-H.
http://uwpress.wisc.edu/journals/journals/cl.htmlhttp://uwpress.wisc.edu/journals/journals/cl.htmlhttp://uwpress.wisc.edu/journals/journals/cl.htmlhttp://uwpress.wisc.edu/journals/journals/cl.html

on ''the day lady died

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