Boundaries of the Single Perspective by Merwin and Collins - Research Paper Example

Boundaries of the Single Perspective by Merwin and Collins One of the wonderful aspects of poetry is its ability to appeal to the inner emotions of the reader with just a few lines and a well-developed metaphor. By employing a number of literary devices, poets develop the ability to present their readers with mental images that convey a depth of feelings and beliefs far beyond the ability of the few words selected. Modern poetry, though, is highly confusing to many people because of its obscure nature and focus on the sublime element. The reader is always suspicious that the writer intends something just beyond normal understanding. “The very making of a poem involves a transformation from perceived reality or experience into a verbal utterance shaped by the poet’s imagination and craft” (Pettit, 2001). As one might expect, the effect of the poem will often depend on the ability of the poet to present their ideas, emotions and impressions in the form of strong imagery that accurately defines the experience. This imagery is the device that places the mental image in the mind of the reader (or listener) without their explicit consent and begins to conjure up a sense of sympathy with the poet regarding their emotional response to the subject. For poets such as W.S. Merwin and Billy Collins, this is taken a step further as they attempt to force their readers to look at things from a different perspective both in reading the poem and in understanding the shifting perspectives apparent in the poems themselves. Merwin’s poem “For the Anniversary of My Death” is a poem written from the point of view of the author as he considers his possible thoughts and actions on the anniversary of his death. He places himself in this other perspective by stating “Every year without knowing it I have passed the day” (1) as if he is already dead and telling his audience that he has not commemorated the day that he died with any special notice or activity. This is in keeping with the poet’s own ideas regarding time and death. “Death is a part of every moment of our lives. It’s always there with us. It doesn’t mean that we have to be gloomy about it, but it’s always there … It seems to me the bus comes along and you get on” (W.S. Merwin, 2008). The speaker of the poem talks from the other side of the grave as an experienced traveler without giving anything away as to what might be found there. The ability to both suggest that the speaker is well aware of what he’s describing at the same time that he admits he has no idea what he’s talking about is accomplished by presenting the world in unfamiliar imagery and with subtle acknowledgements that he actually has no real idea of what he’s discussing. He describes his death as “the day / when the last fires will wave to me” (1-2), but there is no explanation as to what these ‘fires’ might be. The symbolism thus breaks down as the reader is left to guess whether the speaker is discussing the passions of life that once filled him, the flames of life found in the individuals left to grieve him or perhaps even the flames of hell as he arrives at his destination. While the direction of the wave is often taken to mean something is waving good-bye, it could also suggest they are waving hello. The speaker talks about being led by “the beam of a lightless star” (5) that only makes sense if one is aware of the strong gravitational pull of a black hole, but the science of this phenomena does not seem to fit in context with the scene being described. However, further consideration reveals that the grave is, almost literally, a black hole into which the body descends and death is a ‘black hole’ through which no clue has ever emerged as to what might lie behind its blankness. At the same time, the gravitational pull of death upon the human spirit is irresistible – everyone will die at one time or another and there is no avoiding it. In both of these images, death becomes something completely familiar and totally unknown at one and the same time. Although his phrasing is disturbing and unusual, Merwin’s speaker manages to make death sound relatively comforting and predictable compared to the chaos of life. In death, one day passes like any other day with no particular notice, celebration or change in state of being. This is contrasted sharply with the conflicting and confusing state of life. This contrast is made as the speaker, who has mentioned the peace of silence, the tirelessness of his journey and the effortlessness of his path, talks about the joy of shedding “a strange garment” of humanity, losing his wonder at the material splendors of the earth, and compares the “love of one woman / and the shamefulness of men” (9-10). In the end, though, peace is restored again as he notices the rain ending, the song of a wren outside and acknowledges the mysteries of the cosmos by “bowing not knowing to what” (13). This cohesion of the peace of death with the joys of life at the end throws the reader a hint at the intended double meaning of the words used to describe what experience might be like after death. Although the joys of life have been cast aside after death, they are permitted to carry over and affect the dead soul as it turns and becomes dedicated to something unknown that captures its attention in the after-life. At the same time, the living man writing the poem realizes that this same power might have some influence over his current daily experience and that the day of his death might be any day. This exposes the concept that the writer has likely sat at his desk writing, unknowing, on the anniversary of his death for many years prior to the day’s actual arrival as time becomes a cyclical or shifting confluence of currents rather than a smoothly flowing unidirectional stream. While Merwin utilizes a shifting perspective to illustrate the concepts of timeless eternity that he was considering in contemplating the change of state from living to dead, Collins employs this same technique to explore the close connection of a pair of old friends in the figure of the master and his dog. The poem relates what the speaker is planning on doing tomorrow in order to celebrate his birthday. His connection to his dog is introduced as he announces his age in dog years rather than on human terms. That he is referring to himself is made clear in the number. While dogs typically only live 10-20 years, the number the speaker gives, 420 years, would make the character 60 years old. This makes it clear that the speaker is the human rather than the dog. However, he announces “I will take myself for a long walk / along the green shore of the lake” (3-4). This kind of reflexive speaking is continued throughout the remainder of the poem as the man and dog return home, where “I will jump up on my chest / … / while I tell myself again and again to get down” (6, 8), get a drink of water and a snack and settle down to write in companionable silence. The trick to the shifting perspective in this poem is not the unfamiliar imagery of Melwin but is instead conveyed through the poet’s ample use of reflexive language. In using the term reflexive language, it is important to note that the reference is to language that uses both the pronoun ‘I’ and the pronoun ‘myself’ to refer to actions being performed by one body upon another. According to the Random House Dictionary, the term ‘myself’, while not often used, can be used correctly as a reflexive pronoun as in “I gave myself a good rub down” (“myself”, 2009). While this may be true, the actions taking place seem to be carried out by two very different bodies. In the second stanza, the ‘I’ character “will jump up … and lick my nose and ears and eyelids” (6-7) while the ‘myself’ character repeats “again and again to get down” (8) indicating two separately shaped bodies, one to jump up and lick and the other to stand and insist on getting down. This same type of juxtaposition occurs in the third stanza but with the characters reversed. Here, the ‘I’ character seems to be the human capable of filling a “metal bowl at the sink” (9) while the ‘my’ character lifts “a biscuit from the jar / and hold it gingerly in my teeth” (11-12) suggesting the image of the older dog. The characters are mixed up again in the fourth stanza as “I will make three circles / and lie down” (13), but this time it is also ‘I’ who sits and types “all morning and into the afternoon” (16). Throughout the poem, it becomes the imagery alone that enables the reader to separate which character is the man and which character is the dog, but this imagery is not always adequately provided for the reader to make the choice. It is in this element of the poem that the author is able to shed the single perspective and introduce a sublime element to the poem. The concept of the sublime refers to the knowledge that there is something unseen, unknown and indistinct inherent in all things. The idea of the sublime is essentially to “allude to something which does not allow itself to be made present” (Lyotard, 1979, p. 80). As Collins’ poem approaches its end, it becomes clear that there are no actual distinctions being made between man and dog except for the specifics of their activity and thus the poem is centered upon the unique relationship that exists between the man and animal. It is obviously the dog that circles three times and lies down at the man’s feet while it is obviously the man who sits at the desk and types while the dog is at his feet. Although the reader becomes increasingly confident that these distinctions between characters can be made, it is never completely clear which one is performing which action until one considers the required body parts (hands for filling bowls and fingers for typing) and the specific actions being performed (jumping up and circling three times). In spite of this, by the end of the poem the author has removed these handy references and leaves it up to the reader to decide which of the two characters in the poem is performing which action. In the final stanza, one character is “checking once in a while / to make sure I’m still there” (17-18), but there is no clear distinction regarding which one is checking. It could be either or both. As the man reaches down to “stroke my furry, venerable head” (20), the reader is left with the understanding that both man and dog have reached their mature years and have grown so comfortable together that they no longer consider themselves as separate entities but rather two halves of a complete being. Thus, like Merwin, Collins manages to transcend the boundaries of the single perspective to discover a deeper meaning and connection between himself and the world around him. Although both poets expose the reader to the concept of a shifting perspective that exists within the world of the changeable and indistinct realm of the sublime, they do so in very different ways. Merwin places his speaker within the realm of the already dead and forces readers to consider the timeless timeliness of his speaker’s position as death and life are seen to be interconnected. Collins places his speaker within the bodies of two characters, each seeming to share a single soul that remains capable of making the distinction between which body should curl up on the floor and which one should sit at the typewriter as man and dog are seen to be interconnected. In both poems, it is the shifting perspective that causes the reader to become confused and pay closer attention to the action while it is the imagery and action that provide the reader with the necessary clues to understand the underlying sublime element suggested by both. Works Cited Collins, Billy. “Care and Feeding.” Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Manchester University Press, 1979. Merwin, W.S. “For the Anniversary of My Death.” “Myself.” Random House Dictionary. New York: Random House, 2009. Pettit, Rhonda. “Biography of Adrienne Rich.” Encyclopedia of American Poetry. 2001. June 14, 2009 < http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/adrienne_rich> “W.S. Merwin.” Academy of Achievement Achievers. Academy of Achievement, (July 3, 2008). June 14, 2009 Read More