You are encouraged to read everything, but here is a guide to poems we are likely to discuss, to poems critics tend to discuss, and others I just like too much to exclude. This list seems long because I’ve made a single list for the first two weeks of our work on Niedecker. We may cycle over and around some of these poems many times.

Jenny Penberthy's notes are mostly textual, rather than interpretive or annotating, but some include quotes from Niedecker's letters or other sources. Some also supply variant versions of the poems. The notes are organized by date, as are the poems, and each section begins with a brief biographical context.

From New Goose:

Don’t shoot the rail 92, Hop press 92, She had tumult of the brain 94, Mr. Van Ess 95, Remember my little granite pail? 96, My man says the wind blows from the south 97, Black Hawk held: In reason 99, The clothesline post is set 100, I said to my head 100, Grampa’s got his old age pension 100, There’s a better shine 101, That woman! eyeing houses 101, A monster owl 103, Well spring overflows the land 107, Audubon 107, What a woman! hooks men like rugs 108

From “New Goose” Manuscript (unpublished):

            She was a mourner too 110, Just before she died 112, Depression years 114

From 1945-1956:

Swept Snow Li Po 126, Lugubre for a child 128, If I were a bird 130, Two old men 132, So this was I 133, In moonlight lies 135, The cabin door flew open 135, The elegant office girl 136, When brown folk lived at a distance 136

From For Paul and Other Poems:

From “For Paul”: In the great snowfall before the Bomb 142, Not all that’s heard is music 143, What horror to awake at night 147, Old mother turns blue and from us 149, Dead / she now lay deaf 150, My father said 154, Paul / when the leaves / fall 156, I’ve been away from poetry 157, I’m sick with Time’s poor buying sickness 157, The death of my poor father 157

From 1957-1959

You are my friend 189, The men leave the car 190, The wild and wavy event 191, My life is hung up 191, Easter 191, Get a load 194, Poet’s Work 194, Property is poverty 194, Now in one year 195, To my small / electric pump 197, TE Lawrence 198

Consider at the outset 200, Ah your face 200, To my pres-/sure pump 201, Something in the water 202, Frog noise / suddenly stops 203, Watching dan-/cers on skates 205, Fall (Early morning corn) 206, I knew a clean man 208, Who was Mary Shelley 212

Popcorn-can cover 218, Truth 218, Lights, lifts 218, O late fall 219, A student 220, Bird singing 221, City Talk 222, My mother saw the green tree toad 223, Nothing to speak of 226, I lost you to water summer 227, I married 228, You see here 228, Alone 229, Why can’t I be happy 230, Cleaned all surfaces 231

On Line Reading:

Instructor's Notes: Quotes from Niedecker & her readers

Nothing at the The Electronic Poetry Center is required this week, but the Niedecker page is excellent and will lead you to more resources, including the only recording ever made of Niedecker reading her poems. We'll read the Peter Middleton essay (linked there) next week.  http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/niedecker/bibiography.html

And here's Niedecker page at the Modern American Poetry site http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/niedecker/niedecker.htm

Reading at the JC Reserve Desk:

Peter Quartermain: "Reading Niedecker," in Lorine Niedecker: Woman and Poet (hereafter LNWP). p. 219