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Ars Poetica – This poem discusses what a poem is by emphasizing its timelessness, silentness and wordlessness.
That is, the poem suggests that the poem speaks to us, the reader, through the images that it conveys rather than through
its “message.” In other words, the poem cannot tell us what grief or love is but can only hope to show us images
of those feelings, such as the globed fruit, the old medallion, the casement ledge or the flight of birds, so that we can
see those images and relate them to our own sense of grief, love, etc. While the first section of the poem is a series of
similes, the middle section of the poem is an extended simile or a metaphor. The moon climbing behind a silhouetted tree drops
the branches of the tree gradually and slowly, almost imperceptibly, into the darkness below the shining moon. This is the
way our memories leave our mind, slowly and imperceptibly, and this is the way a poem should impact onus, slowly and imperceptibly
over time. The last section of the poem is made confusing by the lines:
A poem should be equal to:
Not true.
The punctuation of the colon makes it difficult to read the lines. My interpretation of the lines, and you’re welcome
to disagree, is that the poem should be equal to a feeling or emotion by matching the feeling with appropriate imagery of
the feeling that illustrates it, but is not “true” of that feeling by trying to offer an explanation or definition
of the feeling. The poem cannot hope to explain grief, but it can paint a picture of it with an empty doorway and a brittle,
autumn maple leaf; the poem cannot explain love, but it can show us the bent grasses where the lovers had lain looking up
at the starry night. So the poem should “be” the feeling or emotion it is exploring through its imagery, rather
than “mean” that feeling or emotion through explanation.
Constantly risking absurdity – While Ars Poetica focuses on the poem, Constantly risking absurdity focuses on the poet.
The poem, through its imagery, creates a circus atmosphere, placing the poet on a tight wire high above the crowd. Here the
poet performs “entrechats” and “tricks” while still trying to walk a straight line with “truth”
on the way to achieving “beauty.” The poet becomes a clown like figure who is one step away from either eternal
beauty if he manages to “catch” beauty, or “absurdity” of he slips and falls.
Dulce et Decorum Est – This poem illustrates, like Shakespeare’s Winter, that poems are not always about pleasant
or beautiful things. This poem deals with World War I and the use of gas as a weapon in that war. The irony of the poem is
in the contrast between the expression Dulce et decorum est/Pro patria mori and the reality of the horrible deaths caused
by the gas. The effectiveness of the poem is the irony between the altruism of the Latin saying and the reality of the imagery
of the war.
The Most Dangerous Game – This story is presented as an example of a story that has more “commercial” value
than “literary” value. The story is a stereotypical one with stock characters and a stock plot line. The characters’
motivations are not adequately developed, the setting is unrealistic, and the ending is contrived. Pages 51-57 in your text
discuss this contrast between commercial and literary fiction.
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