Analysis of Philip Levine's Poem What Work Is - Essay Example

Teacher What work is? Philip Levine’s poem en "What work is?" is an obvious litany of a workman’s grievance and a narration ofwhat he or she goes throught at work. This was very obvious in the opening line where Levine pointed out the poignant aspect of their lives of being a worker. He narrates that “We stand in the rain in a long line/ waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work. You know what work is—if you’re/old enough to read this you know what/work is” (line 1-5). This line is obviously a complaint using rain as a metaphor. Rain here could mean a lot of things either literally or figuratively. The poem however took a deeper meaning when the “rain” in a “long line” is taken figuratively. For it meant feeling blue in waiting in a long line not to mention the inconvenience brought by rain while “waiting at Ford Higland Park”. This complaint, grievance or poignant disposition of the writer serves as the thesis of the poem where the rest of the poem take its cue and argument of a narrative of a complaint. The workplace is not only inconvenient and difficult but can be cruel as well. With work and employees making a living, most of course would want more than they want. This want to have more can turn “your own brother” as “someone else’s brother” Evident with this line when “You rub your glasses /with your fingers,/and of course it’s someone else’s brother”. This suggests that man will turn against another just to get ahead ten paces ahead of us. This has been true during the time of Levine and is still true today not only at work but also in other aspect of life. Some will step on another or will do anything even to the detriment of a brother just to have a leg up. Work however is not only about drudgery and a never ending quest to endure. There must be a reason why people endure even the most back braking of work. Levine explained this in the poem why a man has to work. Poignant as the poem may sound with all the difficulty and impersonal rat race at the place of work, people work because of concern and love for the people they love. This love for someone else in their lives make them endure the drudgery of work no matter how hard it is. Levine may address that person in the poem as “brother” in the line “the love flooding you for your brother”, but it can be applied to anyone where a worker finds a reason to endure those long hours of repetitive work. The person may be a father or a mother working to provide for their family, a brother or a sister providing for their younger siblings or anyone who work to provide for another. This reminds me of the nurses and migrant workers we often see here in the US where they are working far and away from their love ones so that they can provide them a better life. That another person where work is dedicated for also fights another battle. To improve himself or herself, or to be able to pursue his or her endeavor. This line below summarizes the sacrifice made by the worker to enable a love to pursue an endeavor “because he’s home trying to/sleep off a miserable night shift/at Cadillac so he can get up/before noon to study his German./Works eight hours a night so he can sing/ Wagner, the opera you hate most,/ the worst music ever invented”. As for the structure, it is hard to find pattern in the poem. The poem is more of a spontaneous social commentary poem talking about the difficulty of life as a worker than portraying measured meters that are supposed to appeal to our senses. There are no Shakespearean iambic pentameters in the work nor the typical aa-bb-aa rhyme that can be typically found in the pattern of poems. We can observe that the last word in the first line as “line” followed by the second line of “work” and the third had the word “you’re” which in no way rhyme with either the word “line” or “work”. The same observation can be found in the rest of the line. It can even be said that this poem qualifies to be an “abbreviated essay” because it emphasizes more continuity of the thought rather than carefully putting crafted meters of words in the lines. This poem however demonstrated that a poem can still be as moving and compelling just like the traditional poem even without subscribing to the rules of rhymes and patterns. One can also readily observe the unusual use of person in the poem being in the second person. This however supports the idea of a collective complaint that the writer is presenting before his reader making it more effective in persuading the reader to take his side by narrating it with companions and in the collective rather than taking about it in the third person that makes the grievance impersonal. The same thing with the first person because it would sound partial and selfish as only narrating own selfish concern. The use of second person “we” however is more effective and credible in citing the common man’s difficulty and grievance with work because the writer invites the reader to become a part of his “we” and therefore on his side. The poem however is quite ambivalent. While it spoke of the love given to a “brother” or a loved one, the worker still lack the gesture of affection as questioned by Levine. In the final lines of the poem, Levine asked “How long has it been since you told him/you loved him, held his wide shoulders,/ opened your eyes wide and said those words,/and maybe kissed his cheek?” It seems that the worker had been too preoccupied with the labor that he or she forgot or overlooked the real essence why he or she is doing those arduous work. That is, to make the person whom the work is dedicated to feel loved because work seemed to have desensitized the worker that he or she is no longer capable of “crying in the presence of another man”. To show and express the love whom work is dedicated is very easy and very obvious but was not done. And Levine provided the reason why in the final line which is “because you don’t know what work is”. This is an allegorical explanation because Levine did not mean the literal work that has to be done but the reason why one works. Just as the poem started with a poignant line, the poem also ended in a bitter tone. Despite the litany of hard work and what the worker had to endure, to sacrifice so that a love one can have a better life, the worker still did not know how to express love for the reason of work which is supposed to be simple and obvious. Probably Levine intentionally wrote the poem to assume an oblivious tone, like a cry in the wilderness to leave space for the reader to interpret it or even to challenge the reader that he or she may know how to but “don’t know what work is”. Was it because the reader was desensitized by the gruel of manual labor that he or lost the ability to express love for the people whom he or she worked for or that Levine is passing judgment that the readers do not know “what work is”. Read More