work,--for poetry. I shall do my best work later on when I am about 35 or 40. The imagination is the only thing worth a damn. Lately I have grown terribly isolated, and very egoist. One has to do it [in] Cleveland. I rush home from work to my room hung with the creations of Sommer and Lescaze--and fiddle through the evenings. If I could afford wine _every_ evening I might do more. But I am slow anyway. However, today I have made a good start on the first part of “Faustus & Helen.” I am, needless to say, delighted that you like the second part so well. The other two parts are to be quite different. But, as yet, I am dubious about the successful eventuation of the poem as a _whole_. Certainly it is the most ambitious thing I have ever attempted and in it I am attempting to evolve a conscious pseudo-symphonic construction toward an abstract beauty that has not been done before in English--at least directly. If I can get this done in the way I hope--I might get some consideration for _The Dial_ prize. Perhaps I’m a fool for such hopes--sooner or later I expect to get that yearly donation. --/--/ I am not going to read this over in the clear sober light of the dawn. Take it for what it is worth tonight when I seal the envelope--_if_ you can read it! 102: TO GORHAM MUNSON [_Cleveland_] _June 22nd_ Dear Gorham: --/--/ This is just rushed off between jobs. I must have insulted you to the limit with that letter of Sunday night,--but when I am filled up I am feeling too good to be taken seriously, so please don’t mind.[19] Your applause of the “Faustus and Helen II” has heartened me, although I am having a terrible time with the first part of it. The best way for me to speed up, I guess, is to forget all about time and be quite indifferent. --/--/ 103: TO ---- [_Cleveland_] _4th of July_ Dear ----: --/--/ I am sorry to disappoint you about my “Praise.” There were no accouchements there at all. Not even temptations in that direction. It is, or was, entirely “platonic.” Nelson was a Norwegian who rebelled against the religious restrictions of home and came to America when a mere kid. Went to art school in Washington and won some kind of distinguished medal there. As soon as he was through school, an aunt of his in America who had been paying his tuition abruptly withdrew all her help and forced him into the prostitution of all his ideals and a cheap lithographic work that he was never able to pull out of afterward. He wrote several good poems published in _Scribner’s_ & _Century_ a long time ago, got married, and I finally met him here in Cleveland where he had been living in seclusion for a number of years. One of the best-read people I ever met, wonderful kindliness and tolerance and a true Nietzschean. He was one of many broken against the stupidity of American life in such places as here. I think he has had a lasting influence on me. --/--/ 104: TO ALLEN TATE [_Cleveland_] _July 19th, ’22_