Hound Voice Hound Voice
December 10, 1938 Because we love bare hills and stunted trees And were the last to choose the settled ground, Its boredom of the desk or of the spade, because So many years companioned by a hound, Our voices carry; and though slumber bound, Some few half wake and half renew their choice, Give tongue, proclaim their hidden name—“hound voice.” The women that I picked spoke sweet and low And yet gave tongue. “Hound Voices” were they all. We picked each other from afar and knew What hour of terror comes to test the soul, And in that terror’s name obeyed the call, And understood, what none have understood, Those images that waken in the blood. Some day we shall get up before the dawn And find our ancient hounds before the door, And wide awake know that the hunt is on; Stumbling upon the blood-dark track once more, That stumbling to the kill beside the shore; Then cleaning out and bandaging of wounds, And chants of victory amid the encircling hounds. This article is part of The Nation’s 150th Anniversary Special Issue. Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Toni Morrison, Howard Zinn and many more, here. William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) published his first poem in The Nation in 1933; his last appeared three months after his death.
Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / William Butler Yeats
Dream Song Dream Song
January 25, 1965 The surly cop lookt out at me in sleep insect-like. Guess, who was the insect. I’d asked him in my robe & hospital gown in the elevator politely why someone saw so many police around, and without speaking he looked. A meathead, and of course he was armed, to creep across my nervous system some time ago wrecked. I saw the point of Loeb at last, to give oneself over to crime wholly, baffle, torment, roar laughter, or without sound attend while he is cooked until with trembling hands hoist I my true & legal ax, to get at the brains. I never liked brains— it’s the texture & the thought— but I will like them now, spooning at you, my guardian, slowly, until at length the rains lose heart and the sun flames out. This article is part of The Nation’s 150th Anniversary Special Issue. Download a free PDF of the issue, with articles by James Baldwin, Barbara Ehrenreich, Toni Morrison, Howard Zinn and many more, here. John Berryman (1914–1972) wrote five essays and eight poems for The Nation between 1935 and 1970. One month after the last poem was published, he sent a letter to the editor noting the “unremitting hostility” of an unfriendly review by “this bastard,” Hayden Carruth.
Mar 23, 2015 / Books & the Arts / John Berryman
No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear No Place for Self-Pity, No Room for Fear
In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.
Mar 23, 2015 / Feature / Toni Morrison
Why the New Film About the Gang Rape and Murder of Jyoti Singh Is Required Viewing Why the New Film About the Gang Rape and Murder of Jyoti Singh Is Required Viewing
The documentary has been banned in India—which makes watching it only more urgent.
Mar 20, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Nitasha Kaul
Silence and Slow Time Silence and Slow Time
The art of On Kawara.
Mar 20, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Barry Schwabsky
Interview With Steve Earle Interview With Steve Earle
"Everybody thought everybody was fooling everybody. And both of us were probably right to a certain extent, everybody was fooling each of us."
Mar 19, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman
Cookie Don’t Crumble Cookie Don’t Crumble
Fox’s Empire made TV-ratings history by letting a black woman be her multidimensional self.
Mar 18, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Kristal Brent Zook
I’ve Got a Little List, Continued I’ve Got a Little List, Continued
The best TV shows, albums and concerts: it's all inside today's Altercation.
Mar 12, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Eric Alterman
The Great Chastening The Great Chastening
For Francis Fukuyama and John Dunn, our democratic crisis is the result of an intellectual failure.
Mar 4, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Thomas Meaney
‘Insoumission’ ‘Insoumission’
The categorical imperative “Do Not Draw the Prophet” clashes with the thousand nuances of art.
Mar 4, 2015 / Books & the Arts / Stéphane Delorme