{"id":2146,"date":"2012-04-27T14:41:19","date_gmt":"2012-04-27T18:41:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=2146"},"modified":"2014-01-10T15:34:44","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T19:34:44","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-june-3-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-june-3-1982\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: June 3, 1982"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"Letter<\/a>\"Letter<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

June 3, 1982<\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

All praise to Joey\u2019s obsessions! I, too, would like to see
\none of my poems end up there and would therefore as soon wait
\nwith the poems I sent you, adding others through the summer
\ntoward October.<\/p>\n

Between now and then, I will have a chance to mull
\nover your comments about the poems. I think you are right
\nabout the \u201cheartbreakingly\u201d of the brother poem. Actually, I
\nworry about clich\u00e9s while working on many of my poems–
\nthe consequence some<\/span> of the time of working on \u201cpopular\u201d
\nsubject matter or trying to speak in an \u201cunliterary\u201d,
\na \u201creal\u201d voice. Any suggestions about what might
\nreplace the above word?<\/p>\n

About \u201cThe Longing of the Feet\u201d: You did<\/span>
\nremark about that stanza<\/p>\n

discovering,
\nsuddenly, the feet
\nare for carrying\u2026.<\/p>\n

Originally, the stanza looked this<\/span> way (over)<\/p>\n

2\/<\/p>\n

discovering, suddenly,
\nthe feet
\nare for carrying<\/p>\n

I changed the lineation so the sentence could be felt more
\nas a unit, and so I could leave out<\/span> the \u201cthat\u201d which
\nyou thought might clarify the meaning of the stanza.
\nI decided against a \u201cthat\u201d because I wanted the sense
\nof discovering \u201cfeet\u201d and \u201care for carrying\u201d more or
\nless at once. The word \u201cthat\u201d, I felt, would restrict
\nthe stanza to one discovery. Thus, my revision (again,
\nwith notes):<\/p>\n

[enjambment,
\npicking up new
\nmeanings, lending
\nto surprise
\n“hands” of next
\nstanza]
\ndiscovering, suddenly, the feet are for carrying<\/p>\n

You may be right about the shape of \u201cThe Before People.\u201d
\nI will have time to think about that, too.<\/p>\n

Anyway, I am very glad you like these poems.
\nYou have made my week.<\/p>\n

My manuscript bombed at all presses except
\nPittsburgh, from which I will receive word by June\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Thanks for your letter<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

Wes<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

Editorial note about this letter:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 <\/em>McNair finally decided to keep “The Before People” as he originally had it, and though discussion of the two other poems continued until June 18, he settled on minor revisions Hall suggested for “My Brother in the Revolving Doors” and “The Longing of the Feet,” avoiding Hall’s objection to the “mysterious flight” of the feet (“I really don\u2019t\u00a0know what they\u2019re doing or why it is the feet would do that.”)<\/p>\n

Read The Longing of the Feet<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(published version)<\/span><\/p>\n

Read My Brother Inside the Revolving Doors<\/span><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>(published version)<\/span><\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Click image to view] June 3, 1982 Dear Don, All praise to Joey\u2019s obsessions! I, too, would like to see one of my poems end up there and would therefore as soon wait with the poems I sent you, adding others through the summer toward October. Between now and then, I will have a chance […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35294,35504,42979,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2146"}],"version-history":[{"count":30,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11535,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2146\/revisions\/11535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}