Howard Nemerov’s “A Primer of the Daily Round” uses the alphabet to make a generalized statement about what might be happening in the world of humanity in any given time frame. The speaker personifies each letter of the alphabet, giving each human qualities and the capability to act. All of the activities are ones that people actually do, in fact, perform in the “daily round.”
First Quatrain: “A peels an apple, while B kneels to God”
In the first Elizabethan style sonnet quatrain, the alphabet characters A through I appear: A is peeling an apple, while B is praying. C places a phone call to D, and D is placing his hand on the knees of E. Unrelatedly, “F coughs.”
G digs the grave for H’s burial. At this point, the speaker of the narrative inserts himself to proclaim, “I do not understand.” And it seems that the grammar should indicate, “I does not understand,” since one would expect “I” to be a character in the same sense as all the others letters. Thus, the reader is left with a conundrum.
Second Quatrain: “But J is bringing one clay pigeon down”
The next set of letter-characters continues with their various activities: J is shooting at clay pigeons, while K is rapping L over the head with a nightstick. M prefers mustard on his sandwich. N travels to town by car. O and P retire to bed, and Q dies.
There is nothing unique or especially disturbing in this set of activities, except for perhaps the juxtaposition of the two acts of violence interspersed with the two very ordinary acts of taking mustard and driving to town, and then having a couple go to bed while another individual dies.
Third Quatrain: “R lies to S, but happens to be heard”
Unlike many of the disparate characters in the first and second quatrains, in the third quatrain, all the players are interconnected: R prevaricates and deceives S, and T overhears the lie; then T admonishes U against sacking V, who told W about X’s deception of Y and Z.
The interconnection of activities attempts to show that as in real life many characters act and respond to other characters, while many other acts may be performed in relative isolation.
Couplet: “Who happens just now to remember A”
The narrative comes full circle, being a primer of the daily round, in that Z is acquainted with and remembers A, who is peeling the apple, though he is peeling the fruit “somewhere far away.
Commentary
On the one hand, Nemerov’s piece is quite trivial although rather clever, while on the other hand, by placing the movement in the highly formalized Elizabethan sonnet, the poet bestows on the piece an air of sophistication that the recitation of the alphabet would not ordinarily deserve. But by making a fundamentally universal comment on the widespread and varied activities of humanity, the piece is saved from being a mere trifling.
Linda Sue Grimes - As a writer, researcher, and SRF devotee, Linda Sue Grimes has studied poetry and practiced Kriya Yoga for over thirty years..
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