Robert Bagg: Poems, Greek Plays, Essays, Novels, Memoir

You'll find here representative works by Robert Bagg––published and unpublished––in several genres: poetry, translations of Greek drama, literary criticism, fiction, memoir. Bagg is best known for his accurate and playable translations of the plays of Euripides and Sophokles—see a partial list of his productions on the lower right—and for poems that confront the unavoidable: love, friendship, death, regret, violence, pleasure, enlightenment, godhood; as well as more specific contemporary threats: nuclear war, terrorism, and democratically elected tyrants. Many of these works may be downloaded in their entirety.

The Essays page includes an essay that explores the neglected religious aspects of Richard Wilbur’s poetry, and others that address recurrent literary controversies as well as works by Shakespeare, Keats, Catullus, Sappho and Homer.

On the Fiction page you'll find downloadable files of Bagg’s two unpublished novels. The first, Villa of the Mysteries, follows the troubles a newlywed couple face in Cap d’Antibes, France, during the tumultuous events of 1958; the second, Ostrakon, is the story of Jack Stoneycroft, a Professor of History, whose career is both destroyed and clarified when he’s charged with sexual harassment.

On the Memoir page Bagg will post reflections on various eras and aspects of his life as they're completed, or freed for posting after publication.

The Translations page provides access to substantial excerpts from the two plays by Euripides, The Bakkhai and Hippolytos. Plot summaries and press and theatrical reviews of all the plays are also posted. Excerpts of his translations of five plays by Sophocles have been withdrawn, awaiting their publication by HarperCollins, and may be eventually restored.

This site will remain a work-in-progress, so if you're interested in seeing new poems, recent literary essays, and further installments of the memoir, check in from time to time.

The Complete Euripides: Volume III, Hippolytos, and other plays (Oxford UP) is now available. This volume, priced about $11 on the internet, contains a revised version of Hippolytos that was first staged at Barnard College in NYC and directed by Sharon Fogarty.

HORSEGOD: Collected Poems is available on the Amazon and IndieReader websites for $10. On Bob's Blague page are a review of HORSEGOD by Kirkus Discoveries and an extensive one by Patrick Gillespie, originally posted on his website, PoemShape.

Bagg's translation of The Bakkhai was staged last September by the Utah Theatre Department as a Rock Opera with a bravura score by Joe Payne (who also designed the set) and directed by Larry West for five performances. For a few days the Mormon reaction to the production's radical take on the play stirred up a prime-time controversy in the press, on TV and the internet over morality and censorship. What was happening seemed interesting, so Bagg flew out to watch from a ringside seat. In a bizarre development, BYU cancelled the September 21st production of The Bakkhai, even as the touring company was setting up to perform. The BYU Theatre Department Chair cited (without specifying) certain aspects of the production that he feared would trouble BYU's student body. (See Bob's Blague for a report on his trip.) Three songs (downloadable at http://www.standard.net/topics/features/2009/09/17/greek-glam-tragedy) from the score really do rock; the young actor playing Dionysos has a Jim Morrison-like affect and voice; the Maenads look smashing in the photos and sing exuberantly. There's already a cast album CD available for sale by the Utah Theatre Department. To watch and hear about nine minutes of the show visit the following clip on You Tube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0Sk_d2rO3c

Also recently posted on Bob's Blague is Bob's discussion of the increasingly pertinent advantanges of self-publishing: "Why Perish? Self-Publish!"

A new version of "The Tandem Ride" is on the Poetry page, as well as updated versions of several narrative poems, including "Ostrakoi," now that it's been published in Yale Review (Spring, 2009). New to the Essays page is "Love, Ceremony and Daydream in Sappho's Lyrics," a detailed exploration of how Sappho used divinity and daydream in her poems to create a unique ambiance of shared intimacy for the young women in her circle. Also recent on the Essays page is an appreciation of James Scully, a fearless poet of extraordinary pertinence who writes real poems about real crimes whose true malevolence most Americans have yet to apprehend. Posted on the Memoir page are some remembered encounters with Frost, Wilbur, Plath, Ginsburg, Corso and others. Complete Texts of two novels, OSTRAKON & VILLA OF THE MYSTERIES may be downloaded from the Fiction page. More of Bagg's poems may now be scrolled thru on the Poetry page. A review of the Barnard College October, 2008 production of Bagg's version of Euripides' HIPPOLYTOS is posted on the site's Blague page. Next up on the Memoir page later this year will be Bagg's account of how he came to write poetry and translate Greek plays.