The Different Aspects of Reality - Essay Example

? The Different Aspects of Reality Truth or reality may be as confusing as it is simple. The question of how reality should be dealt with and accepted is sometimes revealed in literature. Various authors have different views of reality. While some say that one should embrace reality as it is, others believe that one should change his views about it in order to stomach it. Whatever happens, reality is something that cannot remain hidden for long especially from the wise. John Donne’s “Song,” Frederick Nims’ “Love Poem,” Regina Barreca’s “Nighttime Fires,” and Lisa Parker’s “Snapping Beans” – with the help of their poetic devices and symbolisms – all show the various aspects of truth and reality. In John Donne’s “Song,” what is revealed by the poet is the impossibility of perfection. The lines “And swear/ No where/ Lives a woman true and fair” reveal such absence of perfection (Donne 461). The poem seeks to tell the reader that there is no such thing as perfection, especially in terms of finding the right woman or right partner in life, or in terms of finding the right kind of love relationship. Donne uses fantastical imagery in order to illustrate his point, and this imagery is often even unrelated to love or relationships. At the beginning of the poem, the poet says impossible things such as, “Go catch a falling star/ Get with child a mandrake root” and “Teach me to hear mermaids singing” (461). Obviously, this is all fantasy as a falling star cannot be caught, and mandrake roots and mermaids are purely mythological. This fantastic imagery helps to reveal the imaginary and impossible theme of the Donne’s poem. Nevertheless, such impossibility teaches the reader to be realistic and to realize that there is no perfect lover in the world. Although it is fantasy that masks John Donne’s realism in “Song,” Frederick Nims’ “Love Poem” is downright honest in saying that a perfect lover does not exist, and that if one loves another then one has to embrace all of his or her lover’s shortcomings. Nims uses the imagery of an unskilled and disorganized woman in revealing the reality of imperfections in relationships. In the first stanza, Nims describes his lover as his “…clumsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases” and someone “at whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring” (Nims 366). Such a woman, as depicted by the imagery, is always making mistakes. She is also known as an “unpredictable dear, the taxi driver’s error” as well as a “Misfit in any space/ And never on time” (366). She is therefore lacks finesse and punctuality. Nevertheless, although she is “Forgetting [her] coffee spreading on [their] flannel,” the poet and she are “so gaily in love’s unbreakable heaven” (366). This means that no matter how careless and imperfect she is, the point is that they love each other so much. Love therefore can bloom despite the imperfection, and this is realistic love. One should therefore love his or her lover despite all his or her shortcomings. The imagery in the final stanza reveals a rather exaggerated form of acceptance of one’s lover: “Smash glasses/ I will study wry music for your sake” (366). This means that no matter how clumsy the lover is, as long as there is love, there is a necessity to wholeheartedly embrace all his or her imperfections. The exaggerated imagery of the last two lines then ultimately reveals that one’s happiness even depends on such an imperfection: “For should your hands drop white and empty/ All the toys of the world would break” (366). This simply means one thing – without such lover’s hands, no matter how imperfect the labor that they produce is, nothing would be done at all, or without such an imperfect lover, there would be no happiness at all for the person who loves him or her. Although happiness is derived from imperfect reality, sometimes such reality is boring and one needs to make himself happy from his daydreams. He does this in order to appreciate his existence, to fuel up his drive and to enliven his soul before he goes back again to boring reality. In Regina Barreca’s “Nighttime Fires,” the child narrator implies that being poor is boring, and that if one stays in this reality, nothing will really be that interesting. The family is obviously not rich or perhaps just mediocre because they start looking at nighttime fires “after [her] father/ lost his job,” that he “liked/ driving to rich neighborhoods best,” and that he smiled “if there were a Cadillac or any car” (Barreca 361). Amidst the reality of their poverty, the father sees to it that he remains optimistic about anything around him, and that he does not feel envy towards the rich. He therefore sees reality in the eyes of a child or with different lenses. In fact, the poet’s father would view with optimism even the destruction of a building or structure by fire as he “would take [the poet’s] hand and point to falling cinders that/ covered the ground like snow” (361). Reality is therefore something that depends on one’s point of view regardless of what happens. In the poem, Barreca intelligently used the imagery of destruction while describing it with her father’s optimism. The value of perspective is also demonstrated in Parker’s “Snapping Beans,” where reality is evident and never concealed to those with eyes that see through appearances. In the poem, the imagery of the place where both grandchild and grandmother are talking is actually very solemn: “as the sun rose, pushing its pink spikes/ through the slant of cornstalks/ through the fly-eyed mesh of the screen” (Parker 344). These details describe the countryside, where purity resides. Purity or Puritanism is the theme of the following imagery: “the revelations by book and lecture/ as real as any shout of faith/ and potent as a swig of strychnine” (344). This is, however, in stark contrast with the reality that the girl is concealing from her grandmother: “my friends wore noserings and wrote poetry about sex, about alcoholism, about Buddha” (344). Nevertheless, despite the granddaughter’s brief response of “School’s fine,” the grandmother could see through the reality that she is trying to conceal from her – the reality of sex, alcoholism and the Buddha (344). This is where the next imagery transpires: “…a hickory leaf, still summer green/ skidded onto the porchfront” (344). Then as the grandmother says, “It’s funny how things blow loose like that,” the reader realizes that the grandmother knows the truth that her granddaughter does not want to reveal to her (344). Her comment how funny things blow loose is actually not about the hickory leaf but what her granddaughter says about school. School is definitely not fine – this is the reality and therefore it cannot be hidden especially from those with sharp wit and senses. As the imagery has defined reality differently in the four preceding poems, language, symbolism and poetic devices also vary among each of the pieces. The use of language and poetic devices is crucial in the structures of the four poems. In John Donne’s “Song,” rhyme is used to allow continuity of thought. The first and third lines end with “sights” and “nights” respectively, while the second and fourth end with “see” and “thee,” thus following the ABAB pattern of rhyme (Donne 461). In Nims’ “Love Poem,” the stanzas are alternating as insult or praise for the poet’s woman. The first, third and fifth stanzas declare the clumsiness, recklessness and carelessness of the female lover. On the other hand, the second, fourth and sixth reveal her hospitality, care and industry. In Barreca’s “Nighttime Fires,” the unfinished lines that continue to the next to also allow continuity of thought, such as in the lines “…My old man liked/ driving to rich neighborhoods best, swearing in a good mood,” and in “If there were a Cadillac or any car/ in a curved driveway, my father smiled a smile/ from a secret, brittle heart” (Barreca 361). Lastly, in Parker’s “Snapping Beans,” the allusions are numerous in order to establish the contrast between the realities of the grandmother and the granddaughter. For example, the song “What A Friend We Have in Jesus” and “Buddha” (Parker 344). Apart from the language and poetic devices, the use of symbolisms in the poems is crucial in revealing their respective themes. In John Donne’s “Song,” the “falling star,” the “mandrake root,” the “devil’s foot” and the “mermaids” represent the impossible, which is the theme of the poem. In Nims’ “Love Poem,” the “bulls in china” and “burs in linen” both symbolize the careless nature of the female lover, while the “wrench in clocks and the solar system” represents the indispensable role of the woman in time management. In Barreca’s “Nighttime Fires,” the “falling cinders” and the “swollen collapse of a staircase” (Barreca 361). Lastly, in Parker’s “Snapping Beans,” the summer-green “hickory leaf” speaks of the fresh yet immature and youthful state of the granddaughter, which the grandmother knows by heart. All four poems depict the different aspects of reality. John Donne’s “Song” is all about acceptance of reality despite its imperfections. Frederick Nims’ “Love Poem” is all about embracing both the positive and the negative realities of one’s lover. Regina Barreca’s “Nighttime Fires” reminds the reader about how one can change his perspective despite the constant reality and then make that perspective his own reality. Lastly, Lisa Parker’s “Snapping Beans” is all about the idea that the truth cannot be concealed from those who have wisdom. The imagery, language, symbolism and poetic devices in the poems all help convey their respective themes to the reader. Top of Form Bottom of Form Works Cited Barreca, Regina. “Nighttime Fires.” Literature to Go. Ed. Michael Meyer. New York: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print. Donne, John. “Song.” Literature to Go. Ed. Michael Meyer. New York: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print. Nims, Frederick. “Love Poem.” Literature to Go. Ed. Michael Meyer. New York: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print. Parker, Lisa. “Snapping Beans.” Literature to Go. Ed. Michael Meyer. New York: Prentice Hall, 2008. Print. Read More