A Momentary Longing To Hear Sad Advice from One Long Dead (Quarter 3)

            For our poetry essay, I decided to read the works of Kenneth Koch. One poem of his is titled “A Momentary Longing To Hear Sad Advice from One Long Dead”. It is about the author’s reflection of his time spent with his former teacher, Delmore, who has passed away. Though his full name is never mentioned, this is an allusion to Delmore Schwartz, a twentieth century American poet and short story writer. Koch also makes allusions to Finnegans Wake, James Joyce’s final novel, and Pogo, a comic strip created by Walt Kelly. The poem includes unusual sentence structure. This makes it feel awkward to read, but the structure makes the reader focus on exactly what Koch is trying to say. It seems to me that the theme of this poem has to do with the desire for the unobtainable from the past. The theme becomes apparent in line nineteen where Koch writes: “I want to hear him tell me something sad but however true.” Koch wishes that he could have Delmore give him advice, but this is impossible due to Delmore’s death. The ending of the poem confused me. Koch writes: “But here read this happy book on the subject. Not Delmore. Not that rueful man.” I am not sure whether this is supposed to mean that the subject of the happy book is not Delmore because he is rueful or that Delmore could not read the book because he is dead. I suppose that the ending is up to the audience’s interpretation. That may actually be true for the entire poem as its meaning is rather vague. After reading this poem, I feared that the rest of Koch’s works would have a similar sentence structure. However, this is not the case. I am looking forward to reading more of Kenneth Koch’s poems.