Week 8

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

Since I chose to do Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" for my post this week, I decided to include another poem in the Imagist mold, William Carlos Willaims' "The Red Wheelbarrow." I thought about offering my short interpretation as well, but I think it would be more appropriate if I let the poem stand as what it is intended to be... an image.

Week 7 - Philip Larkin's "Church Going"

I liked many of the discussion forum comments that mentioned Larkin's focus on the physical aspects of the church. It seems to be a subtle, yet effective critique of how the spirituality of the Church has degenerated, and thus why it is now ineffective and even void of worth.

Week Six - Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts"

Find the suffering...



Find the suffering...



I think Auden's poem is a commentary on the nature and perception of human suffering. We seem meant to ask how the ploughman and ship in Brueghel's painting can possibly ignore and refuse to help the dying Icarus. In 1939, perhaps Auden is asking everyone how they can possibly be ignoring the persecution of the Jews.

Week 5 - Auden's "September 1, 1939"

This is an interesting picture. I think it fits with Auden's "September 1, 1939." Throughout the poem, among other things, he seems to condemn the propensity of the U.S. to spread its ideas - like capitalism - through a policy of imperialism. This is something that has obviously changed for the better during the past century, but many would argue that the U.S. is still pushing its ideas like democracy abroad... most notably by (depending on your perspective) liberating or interfering in Iraq.

This picture also communicates the power and influence and poetry. When Auden seemed to be very critical of these selfish American ideas and war in general, I tended to agree with him. However, this picture makes me uneasy. It cheapens and mocks what every American soldier did in World War II. Reading the poem, I was with Auden. After seeing this picture, I tend to not agree with him anymore. After contemplating such opposite ends of the spectrum, it ironically shows how fine the line can be.

Week Four - Stevie Smith's "Pretty"

There are many layers and levels of complexities of meaning with Stevie Smith's poem "Pretty," but I think one of the main issues is the exaggeration of aesthetic beauty as it pertains to the human being. We have almost made it more it a caricature. Plus, we do not ascribe the value of beauty to something, we ascribe an extraordinary amount of value to something that is beautiful... beauty isn't an end, but a means. A subtle difference. Consider how Marge Piercy also uses satire and irony in her criticism of the term "pretty" in her poem "Barbie Doll."

This girlchild was born as usual
and presented dolls that did pee-pee
and miniature GE stoves and irons
and wee lipsticks the color of cherry candy.
Then in the magic of puberty, a classmate said:
You have a great big nose and fat legs.

She was healthy, tested intelligent,
possessed strong arms and back,
abundant sexual drive and manual dexterity.
She went to and fro apologizing.
Everyone saw a fat nose on thick legs.

She was advised to play coy,
exhorted to come on hearty,
exercise, diet, smile and wheedle.
Her good nature wore out
like a fan belt.
So she cut off her nose and her legs
and offered them up.

In the casket displayed on satin she lay
with the undertaker's cosmetics painted on,
a turned-up putty nose,
dressed in a pink and white nightie.
Doesn't she look pretty? everyone said.
Consummation at last.
To every woman a happy ending.

1973

Week Three - T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men"

In the film Apocalypse Now, Marlon Brando stirringly reads a section of Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men." The video above is the poem read by Brando in its entirety. The filmmakers did an excellent job of incorporating this poem, because there are many parallels between it and this film. Apocalypse Now explores a theme that Eliot frequented in his poetry: how war, among other aspects of modern society, has deteriorated the human mind and condition.

Like "The Hollow Men," the film also references Joseph Conrad's novella Heart of Darkness. In fact, Brando's character is even named "Kurtz." While inner darkness and evil could be as much to blame as the debilitating modern culture, an interesting question emerges: Is there such a thing as insanity in a world that has already gone insane?

Week Two - Owen and Sassoon

My favorite poems from this week were Wilfred Owen's "Dulce Et Decorum Est" and Siegfried Sassoon's "Repression of War Experience."

Sassoon's line, "It's bad to think of war, / When thoughts you've gagged all day come back to scare you," is especially powerful, and it made me want to explore some of his "inspirations."

Soldiers blinded from tear gas.

Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks.

This image, taken after the Battle of Passchendaele in Belgium, reminded me also of last week's poem that was partially a response to World War I: T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land. It's no wonder that this war produced such a negative response afterwords. The pictures are so depressingly haunting - I can't imagine what it would have been like to actually experience. These war poets are essential parts and compressors of this history.