Structure In The Mixtape of Taliesin

Gwion Bach boiling the inverted eye of illumination — someone teach this kid to cook!

The Mixtape of Taliesin is a new book of poetry by IG Agent 18. It has a great deal in common with the whole modernist project of finding some sort of replacement for the poetic epic, and reaches sort of the same solution as many of great modernist poetry pseudo epics, in this genre of the pseudo-epic I would put The Waste Land, The Cantos, The Sleeping Lord, Patterson, as opposed to the classic epics were the structure of the poems is provided by an ongoing and direct narrative the structure of the pseudo epic is provided by a theme or collection of repeating themes.

I asked Agent 18 as to his reasons for this approach, and received the following reply:

“The benefit of having a structuring theme or narrative for a selection of poems is that the stronger poems can help the weaker ones to become strong, or at least less weak. With a collection of lyric poems each poem stands on its own. But with various connecting strategies you can create callbacks, recurrent motifs, rhythmic and melodic interplay between linked poems that can increase the musicality or depth of meaning felt from any single sequence.”

Which seems an agreeable reason for the choice, although I think in the case of many of the modernists mentioned earlier they were more concerned with replacing what they saw as an old and outworn public mythology with a new one (or just complaining that the old one was gone) but I suppose it would be slightly ridiculous to think that various medieval Welsh poems pushed together would provide a new mythology to base our society around (as wonderful as some of those poems may be — some of them definitely agree with me but not all of them are too my taste)

As far as the character of Taliesin, there are basically three Taliesins in medieval Welsh poetry, and they are all made use of here.

The first was the actual historical Taliesin, a poet who spends most of his poems talking up his patron, generally a king named Urien Rheged, with short businesslike poems about how Urien is the baddest of badasses and best at all things and pays his poets good and will kick your ass if you get out of line - you know the sort - the 5th century marketing department of a minor local king. The second was the mythological Taliesin, a sort of demigod of poetry with a super cool origin story and supernatural powers that of course are poetry related in some way (for example when he is insulted by some court poets of a king who has kidnapped his stepfather he does a satire on them and blows raspberries which causes them all to be forced to blow raspberries), any way can read about all that here. The third is sort of a hermetic figure (in the occult meaning of the term) who is knowledgeable about the poetic traditions of the Celts, these traditions evidently veering heavily towards the mystical side of a stoned out of his gourd Van Morrison; this third Taliesin is also deeply linked with Merlin in some poems and there are it seems theories that Taliesin is the young Merlin, which I mention as Agent 18 has made use of that in some poems as well. Another useful source for all this can be found in https://www.wisdomlib.org/celtic/book/taliesin

So I can say it definitely follows its structuring theme of Taliesin, but that is only one of the ways of structuring used, and I’m not even sure if it is the main one.

There is also another structure imposed of a deck of cards with the four major suits — Spades, Clubs, Hearts, Diamonds, and interspersed in this deck are cards from the major arcana of the Tarot.

So the first poem in the book is the introductory The Deck of Taliesin which is numbered as being the Ace of Spades. It is one page in length. It is an original poem, and has the name Taliesin in the title and some various things that might be cause to link it with Taliesin — or not as being introductory it is not yet deep in the mythos being built up.

The second poem is The Fool, named after the The Fool in the Tarot

This poem does not mention Taliesin, but it hits on many of the themes that will be repeated throughout the book, in this case the theme is “I like sex!” which is definitely a recurring subject, and I guess its good enough for hip hop so its good enough for us, but I have to say this one was the least of the I like sex poems in the volume.

The next poem, numbered as starting on the two of spades and being two pages in length, so ending with the 4 of spades, is the Birth of Taliesin and this is an inspired retelling of one of the mythological Taliesin poems.

Following is the original poem, taken from the aforementioned Taliesin (The Bards and Druids of Britain) resource:

In Welsh

HANES TALIESIN.

Knytaf im lluniwyd ar lyn dyn glwys

Yn llys Caridwen em penydiwys

Cyd bawn bach o’m gwlled gwyl fy

nghynnwys

Oeddwn fawr uwch llawr llann am

tywys

Prid fum parwyden per awen Parwys

Ag ynghyfraith heb iaith am rhydd

rylliwys

Hen widdon ddulon pan lidiwys

Anghuriawl ei hawl pan hwyliwys

Ffoes yn gadam

Ffoes yn llyffan

Ffoes yn rhith bran

Braidd orphwys

Ffoes yn derwyn

Ffoes yn gadwyn

Ffoes yn Iyrchwyn

Mewn llwyn llychwys

Ffoes yn fleiddyn

Ffoes bleiddawr

Yn niffaeth

Ffoes yn fronfraith

Cyfiaith Coelwys

Ffoes yn gadno

Cyd naid ystumau

Ffoes yn Felau

Fal na thycciwys

Ffoes yn wiwair ni chynnydd celwys

Ffoes yn Gem Hydd rhudd im

rhwyfwys

Ffoes yn haearn mewn tan towys

Ffoes yn ben gwayw gwae ai puchwys

Ffoes yn Darw taer ymladdwys

Ffoes yn faedd Gwrych mewn rhych

rhithiwys

Ffoes yn ronyn gwyn Gwenith lwys

Ar ael lien carthen im carfaglwys

Cymmaint oedd ei gweled a chyfeb

rhewys

A fai yn llenwi fal llong ar ddyfrwys

Mewn boly tywyll im tywalldwys

Mewn mor dylan im dychwelwys

Bu goelfain im pan im cain fygwys

Duw Arglwydd yn rhydd am rhyd-

dhawys.

Tal. ae cant .

Above may have layout problems, as copied directly from the aforementioned link.

English Translation

THE HISTORY OF TALIESIN.

Before I was formed into tbe form of a handsome man,

1 did penance in the hall of Caridwen.

Though small in appearance, a festival was my reception.

I was (placed) high above the floor of the hall of my chief;

My ransom was set apart by reason of my sweet song;

And by law without speech I was set at liberty.

The old hpg, black her appearance when irritated ;

Dreadful were her screams when pursuing me.

I fled with vigour, I fled aa a frog;

I fled in the semblance of a raven, scarcely finding rest;

I fled vehemently, I fled aa a chain ;

I fled as a roe into an entangled thicket;

I fled as a wolf cub, I fled as a wolf in a wilderness;

I fled as a thrush, the interpreter of omens;

I fled as a fox, leaping and turning;

I fled as a marten, which did not avail;

I fled as a squirrel, that vainly hides;

I fled as an antlered stag of free course;

I fled as iron in a glowing fire;

I fled as a spear-head, woe to him who desires it;

I fled as a bull fierce in fighting;

I fled as a bristly boar seen in a ravine;

I fled as a white grain of pure wheat,

On the skirt of a hempen sheet entangled,

That seemed of the size of a mare’s foal,

That was flowing in like a ship on the waters.

Into a dark leather bag was I thrown,

And on a boundless sea was I set adrift.

It was good tidings to me when I was entangled in the branch.

And God the Lord set me at liberty.

And quoting here a portion of the transformative verses in the Mixtape

All these forms I assumed

I was a blue salmon

battling the waterfall

a yapping hound,a bloody stag

a roebuck on the hill

grain growing on the hillside

reaped & dropt in a pile

of like & pecked up by a hen

I rolled in the Hag’s belly

for 9 months till bursting forth

covered by her blood & bile

spouting Marwysgafn at my birth

quite an ordinary boy

brained with poetic genius.

This structure, of an ‘original’ Taliesin poem, A Tarot poem, and a ‘retold’ Taliesin poem, is repeated throughout the book (in some cases these retold poems are not Taliesin poems per se, but poems that have some relation, in others they are actually sections of several poems mashed together, for example there is a poem i the suit of Clubs called The Spoils of Taliesin that seems to have some parts of The Gododdin in it as well as a parts of the historical Taliesin poems regarding warfare) .

The Tarot poems are not numbered with the suit of cards of the particular section. Each section (spades, clubs, hearts, diamonds) has 13 ‘numbered’ pages of poetry, but the Tarot poems are frequently several pages in length so these sections can be quite long. In my opinion the Tarot poems in these sections are often the best, it seems that following the logic of the ‘stronger poems helping the weaker’ the Tarot cards are used to unfold and deepen the issues that will comprise the matter of that suit, and the Taliesin poems used to sort of adumbrate the issues.

Because of the length of the book as a whole there are a lot of themes repeated through it, and this structuring allows for a feeling of intense interconnections between poems without necessarily feeling repetitive.

As far as this suit of cards and Tarot structuring I get the feeling that there are probably all sorts of mystical / hermetic symbolism within the poems and their structures that I am not picking up on, but that’s OK with me because as a general rule I either am uninterested or actively hate that kind of thing. But for people who are into the puzzle solving aspect of literature, again, I have a feeling this stuff is made with that in mind. I tried asking Agent 18 about this but he did not deign to reply.

As an aside the cards, both playing and Tarot, would seem to lend themselves to a stronger design element for the book, the book does have some graphics in it but they are not that many. I asked Agent 18 about this and he indicated he had some pictures done up for a graphically rich version of the book, but had not put enough effort in to it to finish as yet.

But hey, don’t worry about all that, because this is not the only level of structuring of the book and it might not even be the most important one!

The book is called The Mixtape of Taliesin, and it is structured as a mixtape, or rather a pair of cassette tapes, each with a side, the first tape has side A the suit of Spades, side B the suit of Clubs, and thus the second tape has side A the suit of Hearts, side B the suit of Diamonds. And like any good mixtape it has some ghostracks, in this case the part of the Book labeled as the Ghostrax in the TOC turns out to be a section named The Utah Quartets, and really these are the best parts of the book.

The Utah quartets of course repeat many of the same themes as the other sections of the book, but they do not have any mention of Taliesin, whose name you might imagine (or at least indirect references to him) pops up all over the rest of the book.

I will talk more about the Utah Quartets in another review, and their relation to The Four Quartets of Eliot, and perhaps the whole idea of books being written in order for their authors to duke it out with their primary influences, but aside from all that I will note that with the Utah Quartets in the middle of the book and on each side of these quartets two suits, a symmetry is achieved whereby we can think of the 4 suits also as a Quartet.

All of this is in aid of the very musical quality one feels from the book, maybe it is like a very long mixtape of a concert. The first few poems in the suit of Spades are, like I’ve indicated introductory, they may have some flashy parts but are really just getting you into the groove. In my view the first really good poem is The Magician, in the Suit of Spades, it opens up with a sprawling sexual fantasia, and is pretty soaked with sex throughout, but also with a lot of references to magic and magical type metaphors which makes it seem like the poetic version of an eclectic Prince B-side, like funky but maybe also too many drum and guitar solos for widespread popularity — to illustrate the first verse:

Image of the Mind

Mind entwined in Mind

arms wreathe arms

turned thru legs

over back & twirling hair

in a sweat-sheen mirror

of refractive flesh

an opiate potency

crowns & scepters Magus

unmanning him

to the heavy beast

I’m not quoting the whole poem here, as I am already running over my word limit, but following that poem we get some more normal Taliesin stuff and some jazzy noodling and verbal pyrotechnics which to be fair does seem to be Agent 18’s strength. And, again, here we get the benefit of the pseudo epic, I might not be willing to put up with much jazzy noodling were it not for the funk workout before (ok, obviously we critics must be allowed the use of metaphor)

So what do I mean by jazzy noodling in these poems, well let’s take the last page of the suit of Spades

O trance of music mad in ghostly impermanence

Harlequinned instruments gaudily self-performing

unwounded by criticism of all that is not as they are

O spotted & striped legs of the Oboe

or apricot doublet of our friend the Cello

the Cloaked Cymbal is saffron

& the Flute is imprinted with violets.

Obviously you don’t have what went before, but still it does feel somewhat like we are getting away from things, way up in competitive woodwinds or brass solo land (albeit with a diversity of colors and instruments). Something that can be appreciated in the context of the pseudo epic, but by itself might be an indication it was time to tell the poet to calm down and take deep breaths before blowing the horn again.

So in all we have the following structuring elements of the book coexisting — the structure imposed by the relation to the Taliesin story and other related old Welsh poetry, the structure imposed by the recurring poem types (New Taliesin, Tarot, Retold Taliesin), the structure imposed of a two segments (or suits) bookending the Utah Quartets in the middle of the book — so that each suit of poems becomes like its own part of a full quartet of the suits, and finally the structure of a longer musical work, reminescent to me of the 5 movements of the Symphonie fantastique (in fact it might be worthwhile to expand on this topic further in a later article) , the interplay between these structures and the poems themselves lends a pleasing density to the work as a whole — which the length of 153 pages also helps with I suppose, but also makes it difficult to focus on everything at once in one piece of criticism. We will undoubtedly return to talk more about some of the more important themes in a later article.

This article was written by IG Agent 13