at Length

Notes on Bye Bye Land

—Christian Barter

(Numbers refer to–in order–section, stanza, and line.)


Part 1

1,8,2: Thomas Wyatt, “Forget Not Yet.”

2,1,1: “Ships, towers, domes, theaters and temples lie / Open unto to the sea, and to the sky,” Wordsworth, “Lines Composed on Westminster Bridge, 1802.”

2,5,1: Ronald Reagan, campaign slogan of 1984.

3,1,1: “History is ours and the people make it.” Salvadore Allende.

3,4,1-5: from an interview with Eddie House, Boston Celtic, after a game.

3,5,1-7: Adel Hamad, interview, with Amy Goodman, 31 May 2008, transcript from humanrights.ucdavis.edu.

3,7,1: John Berryman, Dream Song 10.

5,1,1: “Let them come to Berlin.” John F. Kennedy, 26 June 1963.

5,5,4: “And each man kept his eyes before his feet,” T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland.

6,1,1: Jdimytai Damour, a Wal Mart worker at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York, was trampled to death by shoppers the day after Thanksgiving in 2008.

7,1,1: Las sich nach Berlin Kommen (“Let them come to Berlin”), op cit Kennedy.

7,5,3: Columbus, in a letter to the King and Queen of Spain, about the Tainos (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown, pp. 1, 2)

7,6,3: “With what delight could I have walked thee round, / If I could joy in aught; sweet interchange / Of hill and valley, rivers, woods, and plains.” Milton, Paradise Lost, IX, 114-116.

8,1,4: Numbers 1:5.

8,4,4: op cit, Adel Hamad interview.

10,1,4: White Eagle, on being shown his new reservation, from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Dee Brown.

11,1,3: “First of all, sir, the President has said we are not going to engage in torture under any circumstances. And so you’re asking me to answer a hypothetical.” Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General confirmation hearing before Congress, 6 January 2005.

12,4,2: Hamlet, I,ii.


Part 5

1,1,5: “We stand today on the edge of a new frontier, the frontier of the 1960’s.” John F. Kennedy, July 15, 1960.

1,2,3: “Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.” John F. Kennedy, May 25,1961.

1,3,6: “This land is your land, this land is my land.” Woodie Guthrie.

2,2,1: “Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo. / Shovel them under and let me work— / I am the grass; I cover all.” Carl Sandburg, “Grass.”

2,7,1: Hamlet, to Pollonius. Hamlet, III, ii, Shakespeare.

2,12,2: “Dull would he be of soul who could pass by / A sight so touching in its majesty. / Ships, towers, domes, theaters and temples lie / Open unto the fields and to the sky.” Wordsworth, “Lines Composed on Westminster Bridge, 1802.”

4,5,1: op cit Shakespeare.

6,1,1: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General confirmation hearing before Congress, 6 January 2005.

7,1,1: “Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor: / What place is this? / Where are we now?” Sandburg, “Grass.”

7,7,6: “Only / There is shadow under this red rock, / (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), / And I will show you something different from either / Your shadow at morning striding behind you / Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; / I will show you fear in a handful of dust.” T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland.

12,2,3: John, 20:25.

13,1,4: Jdimytai Damour, a Wal Mart worker at Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, New York, was trampled to death by shoppers the day after Thanksgiving in 2008.

15,2,3: “For wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction.” Matthew, 7:13.

15,4,3: Adel Hamad, interview, with Amy Goodman, 31 May 2008, transcript from humanrights.ucdavis.edu.

15,5,1: “I’m Just a Gigolo,” Brammar, Caesar, Cassucci, as adapted by David Lee Roth.

15,6,1: “Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend / with thee,” Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord.”

16,1,15: “One of these days—Pow! Right in the kisser! One of these days, Alice, straight to the moon!” Ralph threatening his wife, Alice, on the hit TV show The Honeymooners.

16,1,28: “O none, unless this miracle have might, / That in black ink my love may still shine bright.” Sonnet 65, Shakespeare.

17,1-3: “I should like to object to the indictment. I should like to say that in my opinion, as far as Schaefer is concerned, the indictment does not conform to Article VII. I can explain that.” Dr. Pelckman, defense attorney for Konrad Schaefer, standing trial at the Nuremberg Trials for using jews in human experiments.

20,8,1-2: Edwin Muir, “The Wheel.”

20,9,1-3: op cit, Pelckmann, Nuremberg Trials.

20,12,1: “Gentile or Jew, / Oh you who turn the wheel and look to windward, / Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.” T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland.

20,13,1-3: Amelia Earhart’s last received transmission

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