George Starbuck (1931–1996) is known among poets as a formalist virtuoso, and in political circles as the SUNY–Buffalo lecturer who in 1963 refused to take a loyalty oath and was fired, then took his case all the way to the Supreme Court and won, the Court finding all such oaths illegal. “Of Late” draws on the virtuoso and the protester equally; appropriately, the equally talented virtuoso Anthony Hecht has argued that, “‘Of Late’ is not merely the best ‘protest poem’ about the Vietnam War that I know [but] the only one of any merit whatever.” It first appeared in Poetry in October 1966.
Like Josephine Miles in “Necessities (1),” Starbuck in “Of Late” is concerned with extreme political speech, with extreme political action as a mode of signifying; unlike Miles, Starbuck turns his attention to a domestic version of such action, namely, the Quaker Norman Morrison’s self-immolation in 1965 below the office of then–Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
“Stephen Smith, University of Iowa sophomore, burned what he said was his draft card.”
And Norman Morrison, Quaker, of Baltimore Maryland, burned what he said was himself.
You, Robert McNamara, burned what you said was a concentration
of the enemy aggressor.
No news medium troubled to put it in quotes.
And Norman Morrison, Quaker, of Baltimore Maryland, burned what he said was himself.
He said it with simple materials such as would be found in your kitchen.
In your office you were informed.
Reporters got cracking frantically on the mental disturbance angle.
So far nothing turns up.
Norman Morrison, Quaker, of Baltimore Maryland, burned, and while burning, screamed.
No tip-off. No release.
Nothing to quote, to manage to put in quotes.
Pity the unaccustomed hesitance of the newspaper editorialists.
Pity the press photographers, not called.
Norman Morrison, Quaker, of Baltimore Maryland, burned and was burned and said
all that there is to say in that language.
Twice what is said in yours.
It is a strange sect, Mr. McNamara, under advice to try
the whole of a thought in silence, and to oneself.