Musicality in Frank O'Hara's Poetry

How O'Hara's poetry shares commonalities with both literary and musical conventions.

O'Hara typing something that he heard while on the telephone.

For someone who spent the first two decades of his life dedicated to music, it is no surprise that Frank O'Hara incorporated some instances of musicality in some of his most popular poems. Due to their musical nature, many prominent composers have even written music that fits the rhythm of the words that O'Hara wrote.

A primary example of this type of composition can be found in Ned Rorem's "Four Dialogues for Two Voices and Two Pianos".

"Four Dialogues for Two Voices and Two Pianos" - Words by Frank O'Hara, Music by Ned Rorem, and Art by Joe Brainard. Picture via Emory Library.

"Four Dialogues" includes four songs: "The Subway", "The Airport", "The Apartment", and "In Spain and in New York". Each song features words that O'Hara wrote specifically for Rorem. Obviously, this writing would have had to contain a certain musicality about it, because Rorem had to compose a melody and harmonies in a 8/8, 3/4, and 6/8 measure. This illustrates O'Hara's musical talent that he drew upon when writing the words to these songs. He knew that the words had to have a certain rhythm and be able to be read in time with a certain tempo.

Pictures of the entire score of "Four Dialogues for Two Voices and Two Pianos" can be found under the "Provided Resources" tab on this site. An audio recording of "The Airport" from "Four Dialogues for Two Voices and Two Pianos" has been provided below.

Ned Rorem also wrote the song "For Poulenc", which uses the words from O'Hara's poem "For Poulenc". This poem has a certain musicality about it with the way in which it is read. It tends to flow from one line to the next, placing emphasis on the beginning of each line, and then letting the end drift away. This is the same method that Rorem uses in the song with each line of music. The song and poem can be seen below:

For Poulenc by Frank O'Hara

My first day in Paris I walked from Saint Germain to the Pont Mirabeau in soft amber light and leaves and love was running out city of light and hearts city of dusk and dismay the Seine believed it to be true that I was unloved and alone how lonely is that bridge without your song the Avenue Mozart, the rue Pergolèse the tobaccos and the nuns all Paris is alone for this brief leafless moment and snow falls down upon the streets of our peculiar hearts

One poem, however, that O'Hara did not plan on being set to music is "Wind", a poem that O'Hara dedicated to the composer Morton Feldman.

WIND

to Morton Feldman

Who'd have thought

that snow falls

it always circled whirling

like a thought

in the glass ball

around me and my bear

Then it seemed beautiful

containment

snow whirled

nothing ever fell

nor my little bear

bad thoughts

imprisoned in crystal

beauty has replaced itself with evil

And the snow whirls only

in fatal winds

briefly

then falls

it always loathed containment

beasts

I love evil

This poem was set to music by Feldman in "The O'Hara Songs". These songs consist of two different settings of the complete text of "Wind" and another version which only sets the poem's first two lines to music. These pieces utilize Feldman's compositional system in which each instrument begins simultaneously but performs their own part independently of the other instruments' parts. In each case, the words are sang with a downward tending melody that amplifies the word "falls".

The ability of O'Hara to write a poem that is able to follow these musical tendencies without any prior knowledge of a musical adaptation showcases O'Hara's ability to use his musical knowledge and create a work that is read as an ordinary poem before listening to "The O'Hara Songs."

And O'Hara's work doesn't just apply to instrumental music from decades ago. The poet Cassandra Gillig noticed a similarity between O'Hara's reading of the poem "Ode to Joy" and the Drake song "The Best I Ever Had". She explains in her blog that:

“I think that pop music has a way of capturing our emotions in their most palatable form,” she says, adding that “the musicality of these poets is often ignored and we so often forget that poetry can exist beyond the page. (Epstein)

When listening to her mashup, it is remarkable to see how O'Hara's voice and the music move together so fluidly and are timed perfectly. This shows O'Hara's tendency to read in rhythm, something that he could have learned and gotten in the habit of doing in his music classes.

The mashup, titled "Ode to the Best I Ever Have" can be played below.

O'Hara's poem titled "Music" includes many references to instruments and musical ideas. He mentions different musical instruments such as the pianoforte and the trumpet as similes to support a typical day in O'Hara's "I do this, I do that" style. He states that the water spraying over leaves resembles "hammers of a glass pianoforte". O'Hara also describes his nerves as humming. This humming that O'Hara describes can be taken in the context of his whole body humming with music, something that his nerves may have been doing since he was a boy taking piano lessons. The line that sticks out as most resembling music is "of distress and clarity". This phrase perfectly describes the very nature of music and its ability to constantly drift apart and come back together; a feature that makes music so beautiful and unexpected. This is what O'Hara could have been thinking about while writing "Music" and composing in his earlier years.

The full text of "Music" is provided below.

MUSIC

If I rest for a moment near The Equestrian pausing for a liver sausage sandwich in the Mayflower Shoppe, that angel seems to be leading the horse into Bergdorf's and I am naked as a table cloth, my nerves humming. Close to the fear of war and the stars which have disappeared. I have in my hands only 35c, it's so meaningless to eat! and gusts of water spray over the basins of leaves like the hammers of a glass pianoforte. If I seem to you to have lavender lips under the leaves of the world, I must tighten my belt. It's like a locomotive on the march, the season of distress and clarity and my door is open to the evenings of midwinter's lightly falling snow over the newspapers. Clasp me in your handkerchief like a tear, trumpet of early afternoon! in the foggy autumn. As they're putting up the Christmas trees on Park Avenue I shall see my daydreams walking by with dogs in blankets, put to some use before all those coloured lights come on! But no more fountains and no more rain, and the stores stay open terribly late.

By reading O'Hara's poetry, it is evident that O'Hara kept the music that was with him as a young man alive in his writing. Although some instances may not be as obvious, it is no wonder that so many musicians and composers turn to O'Hara's poetry for inspiration when writing.