"Prisoners" by Denise Levertov

Levertov's poem is about life. She takes the euphemism of the journey to death's doors and gives us metaphors built on this being an almost literal walk down a path. There is a lot to discuss within her poem, but the theme of foods is especially powerful. Levertov says that, on the journey we take these days, we are fed on rotten "knowledge-apples." She is clear that it is not the apple itself that's bad but that it's been tainted by "poisoned soil" and that we are now forced to eat this disgusting apple. The one we used to eat was sometimes hard to swallow but it had substance and was refreshing. The other food she mentions is the "plain bread" that we could eat with the apple. This bread is "common happiness"--something she says we are sorely missing these days.

Putting aside the possible interpretation that she is just another "old fart" who doesn't appreciate the younger generation, I feel like there's a lot of truth in her poem. I know I've personally seen some people, young and old, who seem to be "prisoners" of their lives rather than sampling the delicious fruit that is presented to them. This poem brings to my mind the adage: "Master your mind; don't let your mind master you." But the question I have is: now that we have this tainted fruit, this poisoned knowledge-apple, is it possible to live a life with the "common happiness" Levertov praises? Is there any healthy fruit left to eat?


Here's the poem on PF:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171236

~Disclaimer~ Sex Without Love

Disclaimer: I decided to get a little real since we're all adults and this is a pretty real poem.


Reading Olds' poem I was struck by the very end of the poem. The runner and the many factors in the running experience that must meet and interact but never become one served as an amazing closing image. But the thing I immediately cued in on was "the truth...the / single body alone in the universe / against its own best time." This forced me to review how I myself deal with sexual relations--am I just practicing sitting alone in the universe when I'm with my own lovers? It was easy to answer, in large part because I think of this often. I find that I, like some other young men I've met can honestly say that I don't pursue sex without a deep emotional attachment. That's not to say that I don't enjoy sex with someone I'm not in a relationship with, it just soothes a different ache. And in fact, it doesn't do the best job of that without the love. I think Olds would agree with me in that the ideal sex involves love.

My position is that sex without love is enjoyable, but the two together make it a magical experience. I've experienced both and I just think they have their separate places in our lives but neither is inherently bad. I'd rather have the love but the sex might do in the meantime. I don't think this makes me opportunistic or a player, especially if both actors know the reality of the situation. Now, here's where I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts. Not to make this a heated debate, but I wonder what other people think about sex and love. Also, do any of you think Olds would feel this way too?

Robert Frost -- "Reluctance"

Frost does an exceptional job of building up to--and one might even say disguising-- the core philosophical question of this poem. In the first two stanzas, he paints a picture with skill such that any of the Imagists could have no complaints about his form. It is only in the third stanza that I realized Frost's storyteller is not just recounting his physical travels, but building a metaphor for his emotional state. Suddenly, we are greeted by a connection to a human with: "The heart is still aching to seek, / But the feet question 'whither?'" Until this point, there was only plant-life, landscape, and the idea of a journeyman--in contrast with his form.

Beyond the form and expression of his poem (which I could comment much further on), Frost technically asking the reader a question, but I feel his meaning is closer to that of a quiet lamentation. He is commenting on something I think all of us have experienced at some point or another: the difficulty to move on. We can know intellectually that it's time, there may be signs all around us--like dead leaves at our feet such as in the poem--and yet the heart may not be ready to let go. It is this aspect of human nature that Frost is seeking to express.

The message here is universal to human beings. From one person to the next, I'm sure we can find someone with a deep attachment to something that goes beyond their ability to reason. I think this also has its connection to the realm of ethical philosophy, where the ability to reason clearly and at least have an understanding of one's attachments is fundamental. This unwillingness of the heart to move on is natural. And I honestly believe in many cases it can be enriching to the person feeling this way (provided they can process these feelings in a healthy way). At the same time, I think we must learn to temper our attachments with reason.


Thanks for reading!

"Reluctance" by Robert Frost @ Poetry Foundation:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/238118

William Carlos Williams -- "Danse Russe"

What is most striking to me--from my first to my current reading--about Williams' poem "Danse Russe" is his choice to shock the reader several times. He uses his imagery and the connotations of the language he chooses to lure our perception in one direction, quickly snatching us back to the real course of his poem. 

He or she (given the nature of the poem and what I've read of the poet, I think it's safe to assume the character is male) "dances naked" by himself, which brings to mind a sort of freedom and carefree energy, and then he hammers a near-morbid reality into our mind with the word "grotesquely." He then waves his shirt around his head and begins to sing. But instead of the up-beat Bon Jovi-esque ballad one might expect, his song starts out somber and somewhat sad. Williams quickly rectifies this by ending the song with the dancer's exclaimed affirmation of joy at his circumstances. There are more traps laid within this poem in more subtle ways as well. 

This abrupt switch that occurs brings to mind the idea of perceptions--those we have of ourselves, those that others hold for us, and the chasm that can lie between the two. Even the end of the poem points me in this direction. This man asks a rhetorical question. "If I admire [my features]...against the yellow drawn shades,-- / Who shall say I am not / the happy genius of my household?" He knows he may not appear to be the most attractive to onlookers, but in this moment--where he is his only judge--he reinforces the approval of the one person whose opinion of himself he should truly care about--himself.

I found his poem extremely refreshing. Personally, I feel that the sort of self-discovery and internal sense of approval and worth expressed here are ever more difficult to cultivate in our time. The way I see it, there will come a day when we will be alone in our room with the blinds closed no matter what. We can take what seems like a risk by trying the exercise now and maybe being a bit frightened by the reality of our lives, or we can wait until the moment happens to us and live with the person we've become at that point. 

Thanks for reading!

"Danse Russe" by William Carlos Williams @ PoetryFoundation:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175782