Princeton University, Nassau Hall.

Alumni; Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann.

AMERICANA 

from  Going Home to Wyoming

after John Ford’s Cheyenne Autumn

 

. . .Saintly Gardiners of Olivet, or of Magdala, send us food

We’re starving, we hear your orchards have no rival in Cheyenne.

You, my erstwhile lot, within Wyoming sandstone, quarried from Wyoming ledges, pray for us

Within the arches of steel and concrete, trimmed with oak

Within earshot of the Visser-Rowland tracker pipe organ at St. Mary’s

–Keyboards, naturals of macasser ebony, sharps of maple, encased in red oak of Appalachia

Beneath the stained spin-offs and the sunlight of Raphael.  Hi Barbara, look-me-in-the-eye, –

Pray for us.

St.  John Godina, Olympic shot putter, pray for us.

St. Tom Horn, hired lawman, outlaw and assassin, pray for us.

St.  Shirley E. Flynn, Cheyenne author and historian, add a footnote for us.

All you male and female patrons of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, pray for us.

St. General Grenville M. Dodge, in your City of God, who named Crow Creek Crossing after us, the Cheyenne,

All you martyrs, blessed patricians of the five spires rid us of the rattlesnake Wessel,

St. Bernadette of the Gallic town we’re twinned with,

Pray for us.

All you folk who walk the windy city of Cheyenne, pray for us.

All you seniors at the 80ft. Burke Senior Centre, pray for us.

Saints of the Chinook wind downslope from the Rockies, warm our faces.

Saints of Mount Rushmore, Little Big Horn and Grand Teton, pray for us.

Old Faithful at your geyser, pray for us, spirit of all the dead bears and buffalo

Strengthen us.

 

Cheyenne Warriors, re-group under new management.

Play for us,

shorten our trek home. . .

 

Ode to Billy Joe

prayer for Billy Joe McAllister

 

Though to the rocky fields of furthest universe you go

You’ll come back, fall off Tallahatchie, where the muddy waters flow

Polish the eggs, re-seed the five-acre field, up the clover you know

Then slip off Tallahatchie, where the muddy waters flow

Failed male on the slopes of Croghan, where the ashy acres grow

You’re pushed off Tallahatchie, where the muddy waters flow

Though your hair be gelled from Galicia, only the best you know

Go, son, quick, jump off Tallahatchie, where the muddy waters flow

Let the preacher preach in best shirt and tie, deaths and ascensions all the go

He’s bound too for Tallahatchie, where the muddy waters flow

Yeshua, catch young Billy Joe in free fall from the bridge now you know

He’s falling, falling off Tallahtachie,  where the muddy waters flow

Dry your eyes, Billy Joe, take Bobby Lee home, there’s nowhere left to go

Only fall off Tallahtachie, where the muddy waters flow

 

In the Spring of 2017, Princeton University acquired John Ennis’s extensive archive.

 

Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. The institution moved to Newark in 1747, then to the current site nine years later, where it was renamed Princeton University in 1896. Princeton provides undergraduate and graduate instruction in the Humanities, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences and Engineering. It offers professional degrees through the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Architecture and the Bendheim Center for Finance. The university has ties with the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton Theological Seminary and the Westminster Choir College of Rider University. Princeton has the largest endowment per student in the United States.  From 2001 to 2017, Princeton University was ranked either first or second among national universities by U.S. News & World Report, holding the top spot for 15 of those 17 years.

The university has graduated many notable alumni. It has been associated with 41 Nobel laureates, 21 National Medal of Science winners, 14 Fields Medalists, 5 Abel Prize winners, 10 Turing Award laureates, five National Humanities Medal recipients, 209 Rhodes Scholars, 139 Gates Cambridge Scholars and 126 Marshall Scholars. Two U.S. Presidents, 12 U.S. Supreme Court Justices (three of whom currently serve on the court) and numerous living billionaires and foreign heads of state are all counted among Princeton’s alumni body. Princeton has also graduated many prominent members of the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Cabinet, including eight Secretaries of State, three Secretaries of Defense and two of the past four Chairs of the Federal Reserve.

Latin: Universitas Princetoniensis
At the Battle of Princeton, during which King George’s soldiers briefly occupied Nassau Hall, American forces, led by George Washington, fired cannon on the building to rout them from it.

Former names College of New Jersey (1746–1896)

Motto: Dei Sub Numine Viget (Latin
Type: Private
Established 1746. Academic affiliation  AAU, URA, NAICU[2] Endowment $22.153 billion (2016)

President. Christopher L. Eisgruber. Academic staff, 1,238. Administrative staff 1,103. Students 8,181 (Fall 2016). Undergraduates 5,400 (Fall 2016).  Postgraduates 2,781 (Fall 2016). Location, Princeton, New Jersey, U.S. Campus suburban, 500 acres (2.0 km2). Colors Orange and Black. Nickname Tigers.

Bonfire.  Ceremonial bonfire that takes place in Cannon Green behind Nassau Hall. It is held only if Princeton beats both Harvard University and Yale University at football in the same season.

Sporting affiliations. NCAA Division I, Ivy League, ECAC Hockey, EARC, EIVA, MAISA.

The Princeton University Library System houses over eleven million holdings including seven million bound volumes.

Holder Howl. The midnight before Dean’s Date, students from Holder Hall and elsewhere gather in the Holder courtyard and take part in a minute-long, communal primal scream to vent frustration from studying with impromptu, late night noise making.

House Parties, Lawn Parties, Newman’s[Paul] Day (24 beers x 24 hours. Disputed). Nude Olympics -in the original Grecian style – in the first snows 1970. Co-ed, 1979. Press notoriety. Banned, alas, 2000. Loss to Education.

Princeton Students after a freshman v. sophomores snowball fight in 1893.

Website princeton.edu
(Data on Princeton, via Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The archive of poet John Ennis at Princeton comprises a unique collection.

  1. Mss copies of the works of John Ennis to date, including early unpublished poetry mss (some collected and bound with annotations by mentor poet and prof. Seán Lucy UCC ) and an unpublished short story sequence.  Mss copies of the author’s nineteen published works, along with draft unpublished future volumes being completed.
  2. Mss copy of the author’s unpublished Ph.D (1997) What Verities Remain, of which his academic extern, poet professor Robert Welch, University of Ulster at Coleraine says “it shows that Ennis is, by any standard, a poet of international significance whose work is characterized by an integrating moral and humane perspective, which is fortified by its contact with the structures of consciousness itself”. Copies of some of the author’s poetry reviews, including his critique of Derek Walcott’s Omeros printed in the special AGENDA  for Walcott.
  3. Mss to do with the four acclaimed  gender-balanced Irish-Canadian anthologies for which John Ennis acted as co-editor, or editor,  co-published or published, through School of Humanities Publications, WIT: The Backyards of Heaven, However Blow the Winds, The Echoing Years and How the Light Gets in.
  4. Mss of other writers: mss. to John Ennis as Creative Writing Facilitator – Agee, McKenzie; mss accumulated through readings for PIC (Poetry Ireland Choice) – Thomas Kinsella, Eavan Boland, Medhbh McGuckian . . .; mss. submitted for the cross-atlantic anthologies, especially of poems about to be published, Rosanna Deerfield . . . .; Down to the Dirt by Joel Hynes, award-winner, a Newfoundland Portrait of the Artist.
  5. Creative Writing Workshop Material. John Ennis facilitated writing groups for a period of some fifteen years.
  6. Correspondence.  General  correspondence on poetry matters (ex-Canadian) over a period of half a century. This includes especial folders for Seamus Heaney, Peter Fallon, J.F.Deane as well as a large number of others, poets mainly.   Correspondence (Canadian), round the four anthologies and stored in the related archive boxes for ease of synchronisation.   Correspondence Poetry Ireland(in related archive box). This includes a rejection letter to Seamus Heaney! Too bad.
  7. Poetry Ireland Archive. (John Ennis was a founding member of Poetry Ireland, as well as an executive member for the first eleven years.) This archive box includes details of organisational set-up, agendas for meetings, personal input, newsletters, correspondence with the director(s), and poets and reviewers submitting work, as well as draft mss, for PIR 22,23,24 and 25 for which Ennis was editor   .
  8. Special archive stretching from the late 1960’s till today (The Irish Times), comprising New Irish Writing pages by David Marcus (The Irish Press) including first views of poems by Seamus Heaney and John Montague’s “Hymn to the New Omagh Road”; weekend literary supplements from The Irish Times, The Irish Press, The Irish Independent, The Sunday Tribune and Hibernia. (On the demise of New Irish Writing, The Sunday Tribune under Ciaran Carty ran a new Irish Writing Page, as did The Irish Times and Hibernia all along). Also included are review sections from The Sunday Times and The Observer.  The biggest collection is from The Irish Times (1960s to date), comprising not only literary reviews but also reviews of music, theatre, fine art, film and social issues, which give a comprehensive and holistic picture of the arts in context, in Ireland.
  9. Poetry Anthology publications. Ireland and the world.
  10. Spanish Poetry, 20thC Archive Box.
  11. John Ennis and Music.  Recordings. Also, press and profile.

                                                      

                                                           ARCHIVE SUMMARY

The John Ennis Archive, as presented, runs to 51 archive boxes. Numbers in brackets indicate the number of archive boxes per area.

  1.   John Ennis Collection:  Own Poetry Publications Archive (12), Early Personal Manuscripts (2),  Manuscripts, other poets (1), Creative Writing Workshop (1). Sub-total 16.                                       
  2. Editorial Roles, Irish-Canadian: The Backyards of Heaven (3), However Blow the Winds (3),  The Echoing Years (6), How the Light Gets in . . .  (2).  Sub-total 14.
  3. Arts Review Supplements The Irish Times (6), Education & Living (1), Working & Living  (1)                               The Sunday Times Books/ Observer  (2), Hibernia (1), The Irish Press / Irish Independent (1), New Irish Writing, The Irish Press (1), The Sunday Tribune (1),The Cork Examiner – The Examiner (1), Misc. (1).    Sub-total 16.
  4. Various: Correspondence (1), Poetry Ireland (1), Library: Anthologies  Eng./Dual (1), Spanish Anthologies /Individual (1), Misc. Tapes, Poems for Music (1). Sub-total 5.                          TOTAL: 51 Boxes.

                                                 

Audio Tapes Archive

Beckett, Samuel   All That Fall; Donoghue / Richard Kearney Interview

Broderick, John (Folio Interview, 1979), Poetry Competition, Poems, Comments.

Brontes, The (RTE)

Cohen, Leonard    Selte

Colum, Padraic (RTE)

Conrad (RTE)

Coriolanus, RTE Players, Mercier Educational

Deane, Seamus   A Poetry Ireland casette

Delaney, Shelagh   A Taste of Honey (RTE)

Durcan, Paul reading from “Christmas Day”

Ennis, John    Poems recorded including “God Save Biafra”. Two tapes.

Ennis, John     “Art Poems”, Anthology Prepared for Students of Art. Two Tapes.

Ennis, John interviewed by Theo Dorgan, Poetry Now (RTE)

Friel, Brian    Dancing at Lúnasa

James, Henry and Emily Dickinson (RTE)

Higgins, Aidan (Folio Interview, RTE)

Hogan, Des (Play), The Burren / Des Hogan Interview with Andy O’Mahoney

Jordan, Neil (Play), Poems (Ennis)

Kavanagh, Patrick  The Great Hunger

Kilroy, Thomas  The Death and Resurrection of Mr. Roche(RTE)

Lawrence, D.H.  Reading

Magee, Heno    Hatchet (RTE)

McNeice, Louis (Tom McGurk, RTE), tape also includes Moby Dick section

Muggeridge on Blake, Hugh McDiarmuid,  Ray Lynott  February

One Man’s Island, poems by Thomas Kinsella (RTE)

Pinter, Harold The Birthday Party (RTE), two tapes

Poetry Quarterly (RTE), Gallery Books

RTE Recording: Patrick Kavanagh, Robert Lowell . . .

RTE Talks on Poetry: Austin Clarke, T.S.Eliot, Louis McNeice, W.B Yeats

Sophocles Electra, Beckett Commentary

Thomas Davis Lectures (RTE):Anglo-Irish Idiom in Synge, O’Casey, Joyce. Clarke, Kavanagh, Kinsella. Augustine Martin

Various 1 Tape: John Jordan, Hugh Maxton, Thomas Kinsella (A Technical Supplement), W.H.Auden, Francis Stuart (poems), Samuel Beckett, Kinsella Reading Austin Clarke, Paul Muldoon reading his poems

Various 2 Tape, Francis Stuart on Kafka’s The Castle; Gordimer’s Monkey; Eileán Ní Chuilleánáin.

Various 2 (cont’d), Stuart on Kafka, Padraic Colum’s Joyce, Galdós Miau, Seamus Heaney’s Wintering Out

“Vladivostok”  by Maurice Kennedy (Irish Short Stories, Faber, no date of publication recorded)

Walcott, Derek Reading with Seamus Heaney (1991) with Copeland’s Appalachian Spring and El Salon Méjico

Welles, Orson The Future   (RTE)

Williams, Tennesse    A Street Car Named Desire (RTE)

Woods, Macdara reading from “The Hanged Man was not Surrendering”, Padraig J. Daly (Poetry Thursday), John Ennis, Frank Harte’s Sean Nós

Yeats’s Poems (Telefís Scoile,RTE) –“Sailing to Byzantium”, “Among School Children”, “The Circus Animals’ Desertion” read by James Plunkett; Lord of the Flies by William Golding, extract.

Yeats, On Baile’s Strand (RTE)