Philip Larkin

"Homage to a Government"

This eerie poem by Larkin seems very appropriate for America today as we usher troops back home after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The poem was written in 1969 and was a response to the end of the war in Vietnam.  It is a cynical look at relationship between the American people and the government's military actions abroad.  The American people with their disparate and media-influenced opinions about war sacrifice their sons and daughters to unjust wars.  In "Hommage to a Government,"  Larkin explains that "Next year we are to bring the soldiers home / For lack of money, and it is all right." (Lines 1-2).  The impact of war on the economy seems to be the focus of the poem, Larkin ends the piece with "All we can hope to leave them now is money." (Line 18).  This ending arrives after a slow and indifferent explanation of how it was that soldiers ended up abroad only to cause harm there and to return home for lack of money but "this is all right." The refrain of "this is all right" occurs three times in the poem and with great impact each time.  The poem overall is full of irony.  The reader easily detects the subtext or latent content which actually addresses the futility of the war.  The voice of the speaker is complacent and subdued.  The distance of the war abroad has caused us to forget that we are at war as was the case with other wars.  One can easily imagine that the speaker is a common man who derives his opinions from the nightly news, the papers, and the political institutions that he was taught to trust. Ignorance is bliss after all.  This is not the voice of draft dodgers, angry protesters or the mothers of soldiers who have died abroad.  This is the voice of the middle-aged, working class male who swallows whatever propaganda and misinformation that he is fed.  The character we derive from this poem belies the questioning voice of reason in the subtext who implores the audience to take a critical look at the official story.

Elizabeth Bishop

"One Art"

This rather nihilistic poem reminds me of something written by Plath or Sexton because of its ambivalent detachment.  It speaks of a surrender to depression after a long struggle.  Bishop speaks of losing her keys, her houses, her mother's watch and of loosing her lover, of loosing everything as if loosing were an art form that the author has mastered.  The poem consists of six stanzas of three lines each and a simple rhyme scheme of A-B-A, A-B-A.  Bishop explains that "so many things seem filled with intent / to be lost that their loss is no disaster." (lines 2-3).  The speaker advises her audience to practice loosing and to "accept the fluster" of things lost.  Life is a series of gains and losses but the losses are far more inevitable than the gains.  This poem reminds us of this and its message can be interpreted as sad and nihilistic or as resolute and realistic.  In the last stanza the author forces herself to declare to that loosing her lover has not been a disaster:  "It's evident / the art of losing's not hard to master / though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster."  (lines 17-18).  This rhetorical strategy gives some insight into the mind of the speaker who is not completely resolute and is not completely content with the inevitability of loss.  Loss has become like a fact of life for Bishop but it's still a hard pill to swallow.

Dylan Thomas

"In My Craft of Sullen Art"

This poem consists of two stanzas of eleven and nine lines respectively.  Thomas speaks of art for art's sake.  His art is writing (line 12) and he practices his art "in the still of night" (line 2).  The rhyming scheme is present but irregular and follows thusly:  A-B-C-D-E-B-D-E-C-C-A (first stanza) and A-B-C-D-E-E-C-C-A.  The rhyming words at the end of lines are apparent but without metrical regularity.  The content is verily straight-forward and without much simile or metaphor.  Thomas explains that he writes not "for ambition or bread," nor for posterity but for "the common wages / Of their most secret heart." (Line 9).  The possesive personal pronoun "their" refers to "the lovers" who "lie abed / With all their griefs in their arms," (Lines 4-5).  Dylan Thomas proclaims emphatically that his craft is undertaken in honor of lovers "Who pay no praise or wages / Nor heed my craft or art." (Lines 19-20).  With these lines, Thomas sees his work as a self-sacrificing labor of love.

Shel Silverstein

"The Perfect High"

This simple poetic anecdote by Silverstein has a moral.  Gimmesome Roy is the main character and the majority of the poem details the many ways in which Mr. Roy sought "the perfect high" from every intoxicant he could find. It seems that Gimmesome was predisposed to substance abuse from a very early age for we are told that "As a kid, he sat in the cellar, sniffing airplane glue." (Line 3).  Despite his endless experimentation, Gimmesome cannot seem to satisfy his longing.  What is it that he seeks?  Substance abuse counselors the world over might tell us that the addict seeks to escape his reality and become like someone else; to change his mind with the assistance of intoxicants in avoidance of himself.  He is his own worst enemy and cannot bear simply to be.  After much seeking, Gimmesome takes the proverbial climb up the mountain upon which sits a guru.  The guru's name is Baba Fats.  Shel Silverstein is ever the comedian and beings light to any situation.  The throes and pangs of the life of the addict are a serious matter but Silverstein makes it laughable and therefore palatable with his whimsical sense of humor.  The guru informs Gimmesome that the answer lies within.  He says "Son, if you would seek the perfect high--find it in yourself." (Line 36).  The message is clear and the poem is hardly cryptic.  It is written in a hipster style with slang words and colloquialisms, yet with class and depth.

Allen Ginsberg - "Howl"

Howl chronicles the lifestyle of the bohemian beat poet of the mid nineteenth century.  Many of the names and places referred to by Ginsberg are of much greater significance to the bohemian beat community of the 1950's then to the average reader.  This exclusivity of content is a bit anti-social and compartmentalizing.  Then again, for those who might like to role-play and time travel in the world of Ginsberg of his contemporaries, this poem might serve as a catalyst for just such experiences.  Because it chronicles the daily lives of these men, the poem also serves as a historical document.  It is unusual that so many of Ginsberg's college age buddies and fellow rebels went on to become household names.  Although it is difficult to avoid all mention or knowledge of characters like Ginsberg, Burroughs, and Kerouac, the notion that we have of them tends to be watered down.  In reality, the life of the beats was indeed grungy and rebellious, as well as licentious and much of this edginess is explicitly apparent in their written works.  While Ginsberg's mention of sexual matters is always frank and often times shocking, there is merit in his honesty.  It does feel that the shock value of Ginsberg's aesthetic is intentional and is perhaps reactionary; reactive to the conservative austerity of the mainstream that Ginsberg grew up with.

Allen Ginsberg

"A Supermarket in California"

Like many of Ginsberg's poems, this poem is written in a prose-like structure with full sentences.  The poet addresses Walt Whitman.  He expresses a longing for communion with Whitman.  He also mentions Federico Garcia Lorca (Line 4).  While in the supermarket, Ginsberg imagines that Whitman walks with him.  "A Supermarket in California" speaks of the desire to share life's experiences with a like-minded companion.  We deduce that Ginsberg must feel lonely or as if he has no one with whom to share his world.  He was gay as was Whitman and Lorca and never had a family life as an adult.  Ginsberg was also a creative thinker and perhaps had an acute sense of being different.  The language is colorful, whimsical, and unconventional as in the following lines "In my hungry fatigue, and shopping for images, I went into the neon fruit supermarket, dreaming of your enumerations!" (Line 2).  In line 3, Ginsberg accuses Whitman of "eyeing the grocery boys."  The insinuation is subtle but from a gay reader's perspective, the implications are obvious.  While many types of audiences might have access to this poem and might read it, to me it seems to contain a coded subtext that speaks most to certain readers;  those readers who might have more in common with Ginsberg than the average reader in terms of politics, sexuality, and art.

Gary Snyder

"Milton by Firelight"

The theme taken on by Snyder in this poem is that proverbial notion of paradise lost.  Snyder alludes  to Milton's "Paradise Lost" multiple times (lines 10, 29) but the scene painted by Snyder is distinctly American.  He speaks of Indians and squalls, a pastoral scene of the American wilderness. Snyder contemplates the temporal nature of nature itself and declares that
"In ten thousand years the Sierras
Will be dry and dead, home of the scorpions."
(22-23)
Snyder brings the European interpretation of the biblical Garden of Eden into the America of his day and lifestyle.  The opening stanza gives a lovely description of the miner's art which he beholds with grief (line 2).  He ends the stanza curiously with "What use, Milton, a silly story / Of our lost general parents, / eaters of fruit?" (Lines 10-13).  The reader soon understands that this poem is written in the form of an internal monologue.  While reading Milton and surveying the scene before him, Snyder connects the world of Milton with his own.  Although not explicit, one can easily sense a feeling of discontent in the poem.