Eating Poetry by Mark Strand - Essay Example

?Analysis Paper INTRODUCTION Modern and post-modern poetry is crafted on the bizarre purviews of life. Intricate, yet symbolic in expression, and so much complex that often general human comprehension fails to perceive the actual thought process operating behind the lines of the poem, engulfed by striking metaphors and paradoxes, which deviates those poems from simple laws and conventions of poetry. Mark Strand is one such poet whose poem, ‘Eating Poetry’ falls beyond general comprehension of human psychology at the outset. However, an in-depth analysis of the poem or a tryst of reading between the lines of the poem, ‘Eating Poetry’ opens up latest dimensions and innovative vistas of thoughts, sensibilities and sentiments associated with the faculty of writing poetry, each time it is being read (Slaughter, “Eating Poetry”. THESIS STATEMENT The lines of the poem, ‘Eating Poetry’ by Mark Strand, do not fall into conventional schemes of logical thought process; it is bizarre, yet there are layers of interpretations and intercepts that can be formed from striking metaphors, paradoxical lines and conflicting concepts inherent within the poem. With this concern, this essay intends to analyze the poem, ‘Eating Poetry’ at length and confront the idea of the poet, operating behind the poem at a comprehensive level. EATING POETRY: ANALYSIS The poem, ‘Eating Poetry’ indicates immense love of the poet, for poetry. It is expressed in a bizarre way, but there is a strong sense of desperation inherent within the tone of the poet. Poet wants to express that poetry is not always about the ability to express the meaning inherent within it; far beyond the expression and understanding of meaning of a poem, lays its real essence, the language, choice of words, its symphony and its meter. All these elements get lost and subverted in understanding the real meaning of poetry at times. A poet is able to find extraordinary ideas through looking or gazing at ordinary things. A dog or a piece of log, a bizarre and not so attractive librarian who is very much confused, can also become the subject of his poetry, being the pivot or the central thought of the poem like one in ‘Eating Poetry’ (Slaughter, “Eating Poetry”). At the outset, the poetry begins with a stark indication that it is consuming the poet entirely or it can indicate that the poet is gobbling poetry like a hungry man and ‘Ink runs from the corners of my mouth’. Next in the poem, comes the bizarre and clumsy portrait of the librarian who has nothing logical to follow through the first paragraph of the poem. It is evident that the librarian is sad and under the hue of dim light with all the oddities around the queue for poetry gets lost and cannot, anymore find a concrete expression (Slaughter, “Eating Poetry”). The presence of dogs and their coming up from the basement might irritate or make the librarian feel awkward, but then the dogs are also viewed to be the integral part of the poem. Very few poets, like the poet of ‘Eating Poetry’, would be able to include even a dog into the scheme of thought process inherent in the poetry. The description of the dogs and the metaphors used to express them are also remarkable. The blond feet of the dogs seem burning that makes the librarian feel more distressed, stamping her feet and sobbing in depression (Slaughter, “Eating Poetry”). Next, the poem reaches the height of awkwardness, when the poet starts behaving like a dog, gets down on his knees and starts licking the hands of the librarian who scream in awe and fear. And the poem ends with self evaluation of the poet as a new man who engages himself behind the librarian snarling and licking her hands, which gives him an inner joy and makes him lost himself in the darkness of the books. The transition of the poet into a dog seems quite symbolic. The loyalty and faithfulness, which can be expected from a dog often misses in a man. Therefore, there might be a clear indication from the poet’s end or a note to the librarian that getting afraid from the dogs is her useless anxiety and she can keep herself comforted in the presence of the poet or the narrator in the poem who licks and snarls behind the librarian (Slaughter, “Eating Poetry”). There lay another dimension to the understanding of the poem, ‘Eating Poetry’ as well. The poet is happy that he is able to write poems and sustain upon them. He is also aware at a level that his readers are not being able to comprehend his poems and their motifs. Not even his readers are able to like the rhyme and the language of his poetry. He uses this phenomena very subtly in his poem when he mentions, ‘The librarian does not believe what she sees. Her eyes are sad and she walks with her hands in her dress’. Yet, the poet continues to write poems and he is happy in his action of writing poetry. His loyalty to writing poems is also indicated through his stance like a dog that can be supposed as a poet running behind or licking the foot of the librarian, symbolic of publishers and readers (Slaughter, “Eating Poetry”). CONCLUSION Whatever might be the actual meaning of the bizarre poem, ‘Eating Poetry’, one can never deny the fact that the poem, in its own virtue, is beautiful and appealing. The paradoxes inherent within the poem give a shocking image to the mind of the readers from where multitudes of thoughts culminate against the dull and mundane canvas of understanding. Whatever remains unconventional does not fit into the conventional scheme of poetry and understanding associated with it. However, amid the layers of interpretation, the central thought of the poem remains intact in the modernistic hue with remarkable metaphors used in order to build a panorama, which shall have an open ending, subjected to multitudes of thought regarding the poem. But, at the heart of the poem, lies the fact that the poet is happy on sustaining and consuming his poetic skill, wherein it hardly matters, how much oddities the poem brings along for the poet. Work Cited Slaughter, William. Eating Poetry. n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. Read More