<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=389876" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Henry James in the Heart of the City</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">We have a small sculpture of Henry James on our terrace in New York City.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Nothing would surprise him.<br>The beast in the jungle was what he saw--<br>Edith Wharton's obfuscating older brother. . .</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He fled the demons<br>of Manhattan<br>for fear they would devour<br>his inner ones<br>(the ones who wrote the books)<br>& silence the stifled screams<br>of his protagonists.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To Europe<br>like a wandering Jew--<br>WASP that he was--<br>but with the Jew's<br>outsider's hunger. . .</div><div style="margin:10px 0">face pressed up<br>to the glass of sex<br>refusing every passion<br>but the passion to write<br>the words grew<br>more & more complex<br>& convoluted<br>until they utterly imprisoned him<br>in their fairytale brambles.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Language for me<br>is meant to be<br>a transparency,<br>clear water gleaming<br>under a covered bridge. . .<br>I love his spiritual sister<br>because she snatched clarity<br>from her murky history.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Tormented New Yorkers both,<br>but she journeyed<br>to the heart of light--<br>did he?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She took her friends on one last voyage,<br>through the isles of Greece<br>on a yacht chartered with her royalties--<br>a rich girl proud to be making her own money.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The light of the Middle Sea<br>was what she sought.<br>All denizens<br>of this demonic city caught<br>between pitch and black<br>long for the light.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But she found it<br>in a few of her books. . .<br>while Henry James<br>discovered<br>what he had probably<br>started with:<br>that beast, that jungle,<br>that solipsistic scream.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He did not join her<br>on that final cruise.<br>(He was on his own final cruise).<br>Did he want to?<br>I would wager yes.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I look back with love and sorrow<br>at them both--<br>dear teachers--<br>but she shines like Miss Liberty<br>to Emma Lazarus' hordes,<br>while he gazes within,<br>always, at his own<br>impenetrable jungle.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Erica+Jong">Erica Jong</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=389876" data-title="Henry James in the Heart of the City de Erica Jong" data-description="We have a small sculpture of Henry James on our terrace in New York City. Nothing would surprise him. The beast in the jungle was what he saw-- Edith Wharton's obfuscating older brother. . . He fled the demons of Manhattan for fear they would de..."></div> </div> </div>

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