Perfect in Their Art

by Hedin, Robert; Waters, Michael; Schulberg, Budd

• ISBN13: 9780809325313
• ISBN10: 0809325314
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-11-25
• Publisher: Southern Illinois Univ Pr

Summary

Two combatants, one ring, and a battle governed as much by determination and drive as by rules and referees: that's boxing.Perfect in Their Art: Poems on Boxing from Homer to Alispans the millennia to present more than one hundred of the finest in pugilism poetry from both oral and written traditions, celebrating the lasting literary, historical, and cultural significance of boxing's storied heritage. Editors Robert Hedin and Michael Waters pulled no punches in assembling the definitive poems and poets of the sport. Works by such classical poets as Homer, Virgil, and Pindar are gathered here side-by-side for the first time with the poems of Lord Byron, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This provocative collection also features more recent literary heavyweights, including Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Joyce Carol Oates, Philip Levine, Wislawa Szymborska, Ai, Yusef Komunyakaa, James Merrill, and Norman Mailer. Equally impressive is this anthology's rich sampling of boxing music, including ballads, blues, marches, waltzes, and pop lyrics. Irving Berlin, Memphis Minnie, Leadbelly, Paul Simon, Warren Zevon, and Bob Dylan are only a few of the songwriters in this volume compelled to honor the sweet science. Complemented by a foreword fromOn the Waterfrontauthor Budd Schulberg,Perfect in Their Artoffers glimpses into the boxing ring's literal and metaphoric place as a popular stage for brutal but artful combat. Together these poems celebrate the heroes and traditions of this most primal competition across its many eras to provide an accurate, graceful, and spirited evocation of boxing's cultural legacy as both sport and art.

Author Biography

Robert Hedin is the author, translator, and editor of fifteen volumes of poetry and prose, most recently The Old Liberators: New and Selected Poems and Translations. He is the founding director of the Anderson Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Red Wing, Minnesota.



 

Michael Waters is a professor of English at Salisbury University in Maryland and coeditor of Contemporary American Poetry. He is the author of numerous volumes of poetry, including Parthenopi: New and Selected Poems. 

Table of Contents

Foreword	xv
Budd Schulberg
Introduction	xix
Late Round	1	(1)
Kim Addonizio
The Shadowboxes	2	(13)
Ai
Narrative: Ali
Elizabeth Alexander
Today's News	15	(1)
Elizabeth Alexander
Clay Comes Out to Meet Liston	16	(2)
Muhammad Ali
Recited by Cassius Clay
Written by Gary Belkin
Fightin' Was Natural	18	(1)
Maya Angelou
Epitaph	19	(1)
Anonymous
Hallowed Ground	20	(1)
Anonymous
I Went Down Last Tuesday Night	21	(1)
Anonymous
The Kid's Last Fight	22	(4)
Anonymous
Parody on Part of Gray's "Elegy in a Churchyard"	26	(2)
Anonymous
You Valiant Sons of Erin's Isle	28	(1)
Anonymous
A Dream of the Ring: The Great Jack Johnson	29	(1)
George Barlow
That's What the Well-Dressed Man in Harlem Will Wear	30	(1)
Irving Berlin
The Boxing Lesson	31	(1)
Richard Broderick
Crispus Attacks McKoy	32	(4)
Sterling A. Brown
Strange Legacies	36	(2)
Sterling A. Brown
the loser	38	(1)
Charles Bukowski
From Letters and journals	39	(2)
George Gordon, Lord Byron
September in the Bleachers	41	(1)
Tom Clark
Each Poem of Mine	42	(1)
Danida Crdsnaru
Passing	43	(2)
Jim Daniels
Moorer Denies Holyfield in Twelve	45	(1)
Olena Kalytiak Davis
Everywhere the Pacific	46	(2)
Wayne Dodd
Boxing	48	(3)
Page Dougherty
Bendys Sermon	51	(3)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Boxing Towards My Birth	54	(1)
Jack Driscoll
Pornography	55	(3)
Joseph Dueroer
On Hurricane Jackson	58	(2)
Alan Dugan
My Father's Fights S	S9
Stuart Dybek
Hurricane	60	(4)
Bob Dylan and Jacques Levy
Jack Johnson Does the Eagle Rock	64	(1)
Cornelius Eady
The Feats of Prime Jack Randall, O!	65	(2)
Pierce Egan
The Man Who Beat Hemingway	67	(2)
Martín Espada
Bus Depot Reunion	69	(2)
David Allan Evans
Shadow Boxer	71	(1)
David Evans Jr.
Fists	72	(1)
Richard Foerster
Boxing	73	(1)
Richard Frost
Champ Joe Louis	74	(1)
"Little Bill" Gaither
A Fighter Learns of Hands	75	(1)
Charles Ghigna
Dempsey, Dempsey	76	(2)
Horace Gregory
British Lads and Black Millers	78	(1)
Bob Gregson
Fighting	79	(1)
Donald Hall
Buck	80	(3)
Michael S. Harper
Homage to the Brown Bomber	83	(2)
Michael S. Harper
Free Fantasia: Tiger Flowers	85	(2)
Robert Hayden
A Ballad of the Life and Times of Joe Louis: The Great Brown Bomber	87	(10)
Calvin Hernton
KO	97	(1)
William Heyen
Relics	98	(1)
John Hildebidle
From The Iliad: Boxing at the Funeral Games of Patroklas	99	(2)
Homer
Joe Louis	101	(1)
Langston Hughes
To Be Somebody	102	(1)
Langston Hughes
The Boxing Match	103	(1)
David Ignatow
The Man Who Boxes	104	(3)
Ana Istarú
Winner Joe (The Knock-Out King)	107	(2)
Lil Johnson
A Referee Toasts the Champion	109	(1)
Billy Jordan
The Boxers Embrace	110	(2)
Richard Katrovas
Owed to Joe Louis	112	(1)
John Kieran
The House of Blue Light	113	(5)
David Kirby
Boxing Day	118	(2)
Yusef Komunyakaa
Titanic	120	(1)
Leadbelly
After His Athletic Father's Death	121	(1)
Charles Levendosky
Baby Villon	122	(1)
Philip Levine
The Right Cross	123	(4)
Philip Levine
Shadow Boxing	127	(1)
Philip Levine
To a Fighter Killed in the Ring	128	(2)
Lou Lipsitz
Epigrams	130	(2)
Lucilius
The Time Is Two, Not Three	132	(2)
Norman Mailer
From The Setup	134	(1)
Joseph Moncure March
Joe Louis Blues	135	(1)
Carl Martin
From The Everlasting Mercy: Wood Top Fields	136	(3)
John Masefield
Fist Fighter	139	(3)
Dan Masterson
He's in the Ring	142	(1)
Memphis Minnie McCoy
The Nonpareil's Grave	143	(2)
M.J. McMahon
Sonny Liston	145	(1)
Jay Meek
The Seventh Round	146	(1)
James Merrill
Sonny Liston	147	(1)
E. Ethelbert Miller
Irises at Ringside	148	(1)
John Minczeski
Undefeated Heavyweight, 20 Years Old	149	(1)
Joyce Carol Oates
"Angel Firpo" Waltz	150	(3)
Salomon Pacorah
Boxers Hit Harder When Women Are Around	153	(1)
Kenneth Patchen
I Corinthians 9:25-27	154	(1)
St. Paul
To Let Go	155	(1)
Michael Pettit
Olympia 7	156	(4)
Pindar
Olympia II	160	(1)
Pindar
Joe Louis Is the Man	161	(1)
Joe Pullum
Petite Kid Everett	162	(2)
Ishmael Reed
White Hope	164	(1)
Ishmael Reed
None but Himself Can Be His Parallel	165	(1)
John Reynolds
No, No	166	(1)
Yannis Ritsos
Dead Shepherd's Hut	167	(2)
Don Schofield
Steel Chin	169	(1)
Peter Serchuk
The Boxer	170	(2)
Paul Simon
Closed-Head Wounds	172	(1)
Jeffrey Skinner
Knockout	173	(1)
John Skoyles
Men Versus Men	174	(2)
John Skoyles
Sonny Liston	176	(1)
John Skovles
Alphabet for the Fancy	177	(1)
Charles Sloman
Confessions of a Licensed Professional Boxing Judge	178	(1)
Claude Clayton Smith
Blues for Benny "Kid" Paret	179	(2)
Dave Smith
Championship Fight	181	(2)
Dave Smith
Muhammad Ali at Ringside, 1985	183	(3)
Wole Soyinka
Joe Louis	186	(2)
David Spicer
Monster	188	(1)
David Steingass
Cuban Bon Bon	189	(2)
Virgil Suárez
Poetry Reading	191	(1)
Wislawa Szymborska
Shadowboxing	192	(1)
James Tate
The Fight of Sayerius and Heenanus	193	(4)
William Makepeace Thackeray
The Gym on Tchoupitoulas Street	197	(2)
Eric Trethewey
In the Louisiana State Prison at Angola	199	(2)
Eric Trethewey
Amateur Fighter	201	(1)
Natasha Trethewey
Liston	202	(1)
William Trowbridge
Queer Street	203	(1)
William Trowbridge
From The Aeneid The Boxing Match	204	(2)
Virgil
Punch-Drunk	206	(1)
Michael Waters
Boxing Lesson	207	(1)
Charles Harper Webb
King Joe (Joe Louis Blues)	208	(2)
Richard Wright
Boom Boom Mancini	210	(2)
Warren Zevon
Suck It Up	212	(3)
Paul Zimmer
Acknowledgments	215