WILLIAMS HAS REMAINED a foundational poet for me for decades: the exuberance, variety, and transparency of his formal experimentation; the surprising eloquence amid his sometimes bumptious democratic stylistic affirmations; the complexity of the political-formal negotiations throughout Paterson; his unflagging honesty--there are many ways his writing remains of the greatest interest. However, during the decades I've been reading and re-reading his work, there have always been the lesser moments in poems I value very highly, the not particularly notable pieces, and even some downright clunkers like "Tract": "I will teach you my townspeople / how to conduct a funeral--." My intuition is that the problems are quite closely bound up with the strengths. "The Sea-Elephant" has moved from somewhere in clunker/not-interesting territory to become a poem I find quite fascinating. This is not due to any perspicacious reading on my part; rather, it's because I listened to Williams reading it (CD track 2).
