Ian Hamilton Finlay
Private Tutor Issue 8 (text only)
March 1968
Arcady
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Some Questions on the poem
1. The poem is no more than an alphabet with a title. Why should an alphabet be
presented as a poem and given the title 'Arcady'?
2. 'Roam' is a verb we associate with Arcady. Can one roam among the letters of
the alphabet? Might it be that the letters are compared to the fields and the
forests, mosses and springs of an ancient pastoral landscape? If so, why?
3. Is it relevant to the effect of the poem that the letters are given caps. when
they might be in lower case? Could letters possibly have existed before words?
Can you imagine their appearance?
4. The original Dada-ists of 1916 wrote a number of poems composed entirely of
single letters. Do you think that 'Arcady' is, a) a non-poem; b) a neo-Dada
poem; c) a poem that tries to civilise a neo-Dada cliche by turning it into a
light-hearted classical conceit?
A Question on the Questions
In your opinion do the questions show a classical conceit?
Ian H. Finlay
Tarasque Press The Trent Book Shop Trent Bridge Nottingham
By Courtesy of the Estate of Ian Hamilton Finlay.
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