“The End of Art” - ETD - University of Notre Dame

Adams as poet in the cloak of historian, sets the stage for his use of Adams in “A”-8, where
it might be said that he casts himself as historian in the cloak of poet” (P+, xi).
That Zukofsky reads Adams as a poet is clear. The original subtitle of the thesis was
“Henry Adams: Detached Mind and Poetic Undertow: A Criticism in Autobiography.” 9 As a
passage that did not make it into the revised version (and that has been mostly crossed out in
an earlier draft) reads,
As far as it is known, Adams resorted to verse for the expression of his thoughts
only twice in his life. 1. once, when death made him seek for a vision of things; and
again, when he found this vision in the Virgin of Chartres. In both instances the
technique is surprising. There are no beginner’s inversions for the sake of the line
rhythm or rhyme; the writer varies the [caesura] successfully; he knows when to use a
word at the end of the line to call for an image or a feeling, or when to run lines on,
one into the other; he knows the effect of naturalness that is obtained through
feminine endings in a blank verse line; he knows enough to write as naturally as one
speaks. The vowels are clear so that the lines are resonant. 10
Zukofsky also treats Adam’s prose as a form of poetry; an early essay by Adams is said to
give “the impression of precise phraseology and order of thought—two prerequisites not the
least important for a poet; and of hidden paradox not in the least dispensed by a wit” (P+,
97). Zukofsky adds, “Passage after passage [of Adams’s historical writing] must be quoted to
give an adequate idea of the sentence rhythm, which always meets the subject with a master’s
grace. Poetry, in the simple direct phrasing, is concentrate” (P+, 106).
9 Louis Zukofsky, “Henry Adams” (1924 version). The original thesis is in a folder which has written on it,
“the growth of a poet.”
10 Ibid, 34-35.
24