{"id":23810,"date":"2011-12-15T13:00:17","date_gmt":"2011-12-15T18:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=23810"},"modified":"2018-12-03T16:35:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-03T21:35:40","slug":"to-the-harbormaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about Frank O\u2019Hara and his sometimes terrible taste in men.\u00a0I can\u2019t help but see the painter Larry Rivers as a thoroughly undeserving recipient for one of my favorite poems, O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster.\u201d The pair\u2019s messy entanglement started (inevitably) at a party, with a drunken kiss and grope behind a curtain. The two were hidden, but O’Hara was wearing his trademark white tennis shoes, and the two pairs of shoes, his and Rivers\u2019s, were in full view of the heaving room. O\u2019Hara\u2019s letters to Rivers maintain that he could take him or leave him, but, like those trainers peeping out from underneath the curtain, the poems rather give the game away.<\/p>\n

Rivers\u2019s involvement with O\u2019Hara was against his better judgement, and in his autobiography he claims never to have had full sex with a man, a fact that partly explains the poem\u2019s fixation with impossibility and insurmountable distance. O\u2019Hara was a far more emotionally demanding lover than any of Rivers\u2019s girlfriends. (As Rivers wrote of his relationships with women at the time: Q: \u201cSure, you like sex with me, Larry. But what are your intentions?\u201d A: \u201cTo continue fucking you at the lowest possible price.\u201d)\u00a0 I find O\u2019Hara\u2019s hopefulness one of the most comical and touching aspects of his love poems. O\u2019Hara was a glass-half-full revisionist of reality.\u00a0He could make a virtue of anything, even a row (\u201cThat\u2019s not a cross look, it\u2019s a sign of life\u201d) or of\u00a0being left alone\u00a0(\u201cYou never come when you say you\u2019ll come but on the other hand you do come\u201d).<\/p>\n

In \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d O\u2019Hara\u2019s optimism becomes carefully crafted romantic delusion.\u00a0He recasts the relationship with Rivers, presenting himself as the unreliable lover: \u201cI am always tying up \/ and then deciding to depart,\u201d he writes. The doubts and hesitations are presented as his own:\u00a0\u201cThough my ship was on the way it got caught,\u201d he says, before breaking the line and offering,\u00a0rather unimaginatively,\u00a0\u201cin some moorings.\u201d (It’s a kind of a watery equivalent of the dog ate my homework.) I love that the feelings spill into just over a sonnet.\u00a0In what would be the sestet, O\u2019Hara somehow seems to accept that his imagination has run away with him. The final lines are both a declaration and an\u00a0acknowledgement of the truth:\u00a0\u201cI trust the sanity of my vessel\u201d and \u201cif it sinks,\u201d it may well be in answer to reason: \u201cthe waves which have kept me from reaching you.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the page (if not in bed), Rivers was a gift to the poet.\u00a0In a letter to his unsuitable love object, O\u2019Hara makes the connection plain:<\/p>\n

I was listening to a Chopin Nocturne when I woke up and suddenly felt so unalterably great just by the contact with it that I swear that I must have thought I was Homer at the edge of the sea, and suddenly thought of how words in one\u2019s head boom and crash like the sea and do, corny as it sounds, keep ebbing before one \u201cgets\u201d them.\u00a0The most one can seize is merely a splinter of some magnificent edifice one had just apprehended like that famous submerged cathedral. Someone who didn\u2019t like me could say, \u201cSure all you have to do is show him Larry Rivers or the sea and out comes a poem.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Where would poets and readers be without some badly behaved lovers?<\/p>\n

I wanted to be sure to reach you;
\nthough my ship was on the way it got caught
\nin some moorings. I am always tying up
\nand then deciding to depart. In storms and
\nat sunset, with the metallic coils of the tide
\naround my fathomless arms, I am unable
\nto understand the forms of my vanity
\nor I am hard alee with my Polish rudder
\nin my hand and the sun sinking. To
\nyou I offer my hull and the tattered cordage
\nof my will. The terrible channels where
\nthe wind drives me against the brown lips
\nof the reeds are not all behind me. Yet
\nI trust the sanity of my vessel; and
\nif it sinks, it may well be in answer
\nto the reasoning of the eternal voices,
\nthe waves which have kept me from reaching you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about Frank O\u2019Hara and his sometimes terrible taste in men.\u00a0I can\u2019t help but see the painter Larry Rivers as a thoroughly undeserving recipient for one of my favorite poems, O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster.\u201d The pair\u2019s messy entanglement started (inevitably) at a party, with a drunken kiss and grope behind a curtain. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":267,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4715],"tags":[5091,971,5090,3400,5089],"class_list":["post-23810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-poem-stuck-in-my-head","tag-chopin","tag-frank-ohara","tag-larry-rivers","tag-sonnet","tag-to-the-harbormaster"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d by Olivia Cole<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"December 15, 2011 \u2013 Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about Frank O\u2019Hara and his sometimes terrible taste in men.\u00a0I can\u2019t help but see the painter Larry Rivers as a thoroughly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d by Olivia Cole\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 15, 2011 \u2013 Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about Frank O\u2019Hara and his sometimes terrible taste in men.\u00a0I can\u2019t help but see the painter Larry Rivers as a thoroughly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-15T18:00:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-03T21:35:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Olivia Cole\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Olivia Cole\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Olivia Cole\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5af4d5ac4efc5c504b88631157a45a1d\"},\"headline\":\"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-15T18:00:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-03T21:35:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/\"},\"wordCount\":741,\"commentCount\":6,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Chopin\",\"Frank O'Hara\",\"Larry Rivers\",\"sonnet\",\"To the Harbormaster\"],\"articleSection\":[\"The Poem Stuck in My Head\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/\",\"name\":\"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d by Olivia Cole\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-12-15T18:00:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-03T21:35:40+00:00\",\"description\":\"December 15, 2011 \u2013 Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about Frank O\u2019Hara and his sometimes terrible taste in men.\u00a0I can\u2019t help but see the painter Larry Rivers as a thoroughly\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5af4d5ac4efc5c504b88631157a45a1d\",\"name\":\"Olivia Cole\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fa6f0e292673fa71e9bc601d97b850d9799c1c83f0120dee026a6f7d79cd386?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fa6f0e292673fa71e9bc601d97b850d9799c1c83f0120dee026a6f7d79cd386?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Olivia Cole\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/olivia-cole\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d by Olivia Cole","description":"December 15, 2011 \u2013 Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about Frank O\u2019Hara and his sometimes terrible taste in men.\u00a0I can\u2019t help but see the painter Larry Rivers as a thoroughly","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d by Olivia Cole","og_description":"December 15, 2011 \u2013 Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about Frank O\u2019Hara and his sometimes terrible taste in men.\u00a0I can\u2019t help but see the painter Larry Rivers as a thoroughly","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2011-12-15T18:00:17+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-12-03T21:35:40+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-1.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Olivia Cole","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Olivia Cole","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/"},"author":{"name":"Olivia Cole","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5af4d5ac4efc5c504b88631157a45a1d"},"headline":"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d","datePublished":"2011-12-15T18:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-03T21:35:40+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/"},"wordCount":741,"commentCount":6,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Chopin","Frank O'Hara","Larry Rivers","sonnet","To the Harbormaster"],"articleSection":["The Poem Stuck in My Head"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/","name":"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d by Olivia Cole","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2011-12-15T18:00:17+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-03T21:35:40+00:00","description":"December 15, 2011 \u2013 Lately I\u2019ve been thinking about Frank O\u2019Hara and his sometimes terrible taste in men.\u00a0I can\u2019t help but see the painter Larry Rivers as a thoroughly","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2011\/12\/15\/to-the-harbormaster\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Frank O\u2019Hara\u2019s \u201cTo the Harbormaster\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5af4d5ac4efc5c504b88631157a45a1d","name":"Olivia Cole","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fa6f0e292673fa71e9bc601d97b850d9799c1c83f0120dee026a6f7d79cd386?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/2fa6f0e292673fa71e9bc601d97b850d9799c1c83f0120dee026a6f7d79cd386?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Olivia Cole"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/olivia-cole\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/267"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23810"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131441,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23810\/revisions\/131441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}