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These early experiments were evidently not altogether satisfying to Patchen.

Beginning in Cloth Of The Tempest ( 1943 ) he experimented in merging poetry and visual art, using drawings to carry long narrative segments of a story, as in Sleepers Awake, and constructing elaborate `` poems-in-drawing-and-type '' in which it is impossible to distinguish between the `` art '' and the poetry.

Art `` makings '' or pseudo-anthropological myths did not meet all of Patchen's requirements for a poetic frame of reference.

Many of his poems purported to be exactly contemporary and political ; ;

so during the period approximately from 1941 to 1946, Patchen often used private detective stories as a myth reference, and the `` private eye '' as a myth hero.

Speaking in terms of sociological stereotype, the `` private eye '' might appeal to the poet in search of a myth for many reasons.

The private detective ( at least in the minds of listeners and readers all over the country ) is an individual hero fighting injustice.

He is usually something of an underdog, he must battle the organized police force as well as recognized criminals.

The private detective must rely, as the Youngest Son or Trickster Hero does in primitive myth, on his wits.

The private detective is militant against injustice, a humorous and ironic explorer of the underworld ; ;

most important to Patchen, he was a non-literary hero, and very contemporary.

In 1945, probably almost every American not only knew who Sam Spade was, but had some kind of emotional feeling about him.

In The Memoirs Of A Shy Pornographer ( 1945 ) Patchen exploited this national sentiment by making his hero, Albert Budd, a private detective.