Little big congressman

So we keep on movin' on, into the second Chapter of the second Part of our grand picaresque adventure Stubborn Grew.  Henry our Hero still pivots on his faux Fox Pt., his Pushkin pinpoint.  The whirring motion of his nervous windmill begins to take on a distinctly Ez Poundian tincture (Ezra Pound, another damaged Dantesque bard).  In the effort to integrate his personal turmoil with his epic ambitions, he finds new avatars - like Ignatius Donnelly, the midwestern populist firebrand and eccentric scholar of Atlantis(!) and the "Shakespeare authorship question".  Donnelly, a staunch defender of the Common Man against Big Money, unfortunately exudes the old-fashioned Poundian/populist skunk-odor of anti-semitism too.  So in a sense we are back inside "Shakespeare's Head" - and we are looking for a way out of the waterlogged deep-sea shipwreck island where Henry's psychic journey seems to be perpetually marooned.  It's a jambalaya of Hart Crane, Vachel Lindsay, and Ezra Pound - three haunted millenarian Americans.

In the background, like a mournful coyote howl, you'll hear the refrain of a Shoshone ghost dance song.

1

W.  M.  W.  ms. O.  Raven.  Ravine.

Start over.  The pen seemed to move on its own 

over the blackbound memo pad.  Go on. 

Personal trivia.  All farmland then,

up around Summit Avenue, near the Miriam. 

The hospital.  Henry sipped his wake-up call. 

[God, this is so lame.]  An uncle

of the owners before us–at 132 [damn

these rhymes!] – drowned in the '38 hurricane.

Worked for the city – carried in a whirlpool 

down a sewer hole.

Coffin

man underboard.  Guy full of wormholes, 

starboard hazy, green, tornadoish. . .

all black and blue [Jeesh,

Peatie-boat, c'mon, where are you?  What?  Moles?]

rose dusty out of the stolen contraption

beating his drumguitar, smoking cigar – some 

politician!  Clinton, wondering how to hum

about slavery while in Africa – lowly, with contrition.

If you stand over the manhole cover downtown,

in the dusky light the East Side is swiss cheese –

mountainous, with anonymous accounts – countless 

caves underneath, where the underground

railroad hid the runaways.  Earth Quakers, 

making freedom face the coppers of the realm. 

Still hollow there, under a. . . well, a spoken dream. 

[I love good scotch whiskey with crackers,

Bluejay.]  A dead man in a coffin – what

does he dream about?  Like Dorr at Swan Point? 

[East Side.  Go left at Rochambeau, right

at Blackstone Boulevard.]  Ghost dancing! – try it,

why not?  Because what a beautiful land

has the red man lost and the white man won. 

With all this there was the most un-

compromising impudence planned, unplanned.

[Unmanned? That's another rhyme for it. God,

this is sure gooey, Henry.  Think.  Try some 

history?  Evoke – Vico?  pp. 264 – Rome?

No time–Cesca going – take the kids

back to the library soon – 1. return books. 

2. call Ed.  3. do taxes.  4. write home. 

Donnelly did all that – while running farm!

Giants in the earth – Minnesota nooks,

brainy grannies –]  To build the city

of Nininger    lift the great little light acorn

even if one should be a Sour Kraut and

the other a Paddy

"hot house" techniques for town planning

Dost thou know how to play the fiddle?  No,

answered Themistocles, but    raising a little

village into a great city    lots on paper selling

Bill Mallen on the boat with his marked cards,

and Ingeneous Doemly with his city lots

Engaparai    yuwan    Wainaiyo    he yo

waina, Wainaiyo    he yo    wain.

Young Falstaff, with a round, chubby face, a round

well developed body, and round chubby hands

but with a mind    single, sequestered    upon diamonds

snowed in mini-Siberia under    crypto-mound

Verbally honed at Central High, City of Brotherly

Son of deceased Doc and serious "Scotch" Irish Mom

out of peddlar crowd of polite letters ambitious came 

for I am not one of those who believe politics is a mere

. . .base struggle for place and plunder   although   Fortunes

dropping out of the skies   those who would not gather them

were but stupids and sluggards   and   I can recollect 

in my boyhood Philadelphia was afflicted with

many riots   whites and blacks   natives and 

foreigners   churches and   fire companies.  All this 

has passed away.  The public schools have cured it all. 

With uncapped rim of honeyed oratoracles

I have a dream    Why should we weep to sail 

in search of fortune?  Cheer for the West

Dago donzi aiyo    wa ye wa    bangovia

sogovi     yaiyowain

       

Every man goes [West] on his own hook,

if you tired of your trade you could pre-empt 160 acres 

– steam on the prairie, steam on the mountain–across 

high buildings in a single–hissing, screaming–look!

It's – Ignatius Donnelly!  I.D. – the very witty best,

in persona!  Cheer one and all, stovepipes sky high now! 

Gonna wash that town, Congressman – and how!

We who come, Mr. Speaker, from the far West

have not that deep and ingrained veneration for State power 

State lines, State names, State organizations    creatures 

of accident    Our people move into a region of country

and make the State   off-shoots of the nation   [little lower

than Los Angeles subdivisions]  Nana suyage hombi

nana suyage horn    sinam bogombi engana    todowaina

sinam    I have drawn your salary in advance for a year, 

and am consequently flushed with funds    Ramsey hombre

raised up 1st Minnesota on the run for Lincoln 

fustest with the almostest    to Gettysburg it all 

comes down to    last full measure    a cupfull 

runneth over, before it's over, over their    conjunction

With nearly one billion [acres] of unsettled lands

and many millions of poor oppressed people

let them organize the exodus which needs must come 

and build, if necessary, a bridge of gold across the chasm

lectured before lyceum groups on non-political subjects 

Minnesota's "Indian Mound Builders"

– miserable thing this dignity without money is! –

reading included Anatomy of Melancholy    projects

for Ramsey    rum deals    acquainted with wire pulling

railroad the Chippewa commissions    lots for sale 

lots and lots for sale    everything for sale

now that Lincoln's gone    railroading

Ignatius on the outs at home again    forlorn in Nininger

reflects on the great waters of knowledge    Atlantis 

drowning    full fathoming    his cryptic galleys 

Damen    nuwitsi     zani-suano-ve    gemano

2

Damen    nuwitsi    zani-suano-ve    gemano    They only 

deserve success who are equal to the exactions of misfortune 

round man at homer node    seen it all wax and wane

out in field stubble    D.C. pump-handle parties    lonely

farms    and the sound of the railroad train

blows over the sound    of wind in the pine trees

a cold and naked wind    Grand Forks    Mississippi

bottomland toward    each rivulet    of rain

Ye    va    varuke    ye    va    varuke-penji

Water    water rising    water    water rising

It is all ancient forms and ceremonies

with a republic underneath    Queen always consents

dynasty would not last forty-eight hours    dismay 

of one usher when I got out of line of procession 

During the evening of May 31

Donnelly debated the authorship at Oxford    LLrnd.

[save the Bacon for later]  There are really but two parties

 in this state today–the people and their plunderers. 

Shall the people keep the fruits of their own industry

or shall the thieves carry them away?

Farmer's Alliance     Union Labor party

Donnelly's 7 rights:    1. to the full fruits of their labor 

2. to education     3. to rise & go forward

4. to acquire all forms of property

for property is comfort, peace, plenty & civilization 

Dave    bauwah    doiyave    dave    bauwah    doiyave    ena 

5. to obtain from this world all blessings benefits and 

beauties that are in it    6. to be esteemed a gentleman

even while he labors with his hands.

7. to combine to reach these results.

Donnelly now particularly hostile to the railroads

introduced severe regulation measure    granted

special shipping privileges to Minnesota grain producers 

Legislature wasted whole session attempting to bury one man 

defending the people from robberies of railroad corporation 

the Yankee blue blood of the Twin Cities

never tolerate that a damned Norwegian without boodle 

the men who encourage you will do nothing for you

only be reformed from the outside    yellow

oriental cunning Jew Caesar's Column of blood-

curdled whey for the voting pablum

vox populist    ghost dance

Ba    buhi    buhi–mande    ba    buhi    buhi-mande

Caesarean Rome

deal    very very rough and tumble Washington soaked

in graft    monopoly games     This continent

is the last great camping ground

of the human race    completely blood -sucked

base metals into gold    Ephraim Benezet

in a bottle    yet    unable to combine rural and urban 

working people reform groups    Beaten!

Whipped!  Smashed!  Our followers scattered

like dew     he goes back to his beloved cipher 

worth more than all the governorships in the world

greenbacks    gold & silver    coal combines    100

percent profit    rat-headed gang of reformers

peculiarly Donnellian    political lumber jugglers 

bribes    anonymous slander    bimetallism 

1890    latent [latent?] anti-Semitism

others are moving into the woods, building shanties,

reverting to Indian conditions

Buhi    wa    n-doiyavi    buhi    wa    n-doiyavi    yaiyowainde  

There are no more Minnesotas on the planet 

rat-tailed slant-eyed Mongolians

[or maybe Siberians?]   I am not a candidate 

for office and never will be    I am growing old 

and the grave is not many years ahead

best religion in the world is that

of doing good to our fellow creatures 

wooden buffalo nickel lndianhead penny 

all the rage    gloomglittering eyes

in the wall of Gehenna    a vast array

of starving men becomes a terrible thing now 

organized by Mr. Coxey and advancing on Washington 

capitalistic class of New York and London

45 cents a bushel    who's gone into

this conspiracy? No man has a monopoly on wisdom.

Sihivi    winogande    sihivi    winogande

Dugai -e ogande    dugai -e ogande

Go on, Mr. Bryan, we are with you!  Boom-boom

Bryan Bryan Bryan Atgeld Bryan Bryan Bryan and it's

 [Henry, by George, too!]  tenting tonight

on the old camp ground    can anything but

Divine Providence prevent the swarming idiots

from wrecking themselves [he noted pessimistically

in his memo]    Minnesota Pure Election Law

of this 60 cents was for railroad fare

I am 69 today    if I had not had a partial stroke of palsey[sic]

On July 4, 1900 [G'ma Gould's b'day] Donnelly 

had a novel sensation    when I came to speak 

my powers went back on me    I made a faux pas 

of it    dead failure    but my nerve held

had suffered a mild stroke    shortly after midnight 

January 1, 1901    fatal heart attack

Bagana-via    bagana-via    bagana-via

Dugum    bagana-via    dugumba    wanekinora

Ghost dance    swarms of hungry men    Falstaffs

afloat    in a porkbarrel    a railroad line to the

golden West    and Donnelly brings home the bacon 

round, chubby, bullish    reefs in

the sales    of the sinking Atlantean bark

one will all one of hungry desire under Northern

Star or    steadfast other one    [Venusian?]

and to the feast they come    ghosts    wind in the dark

"132"

Ignatius Donnelly