2 Week 2 – Unpacking a Poem (How to read–and maybe fall in love with–a poem)
Michelle Bonczek Evory and Leigh Hancock
Let’s start by talking about whether poems are “open to any interpretation.” In other words, can you as the reader decide that a poem means anything? What do you think?
Before you answer, here’s an analogy. Let’s say your friend is trying to tell you something important about her job at a zoo. At first you’re listening closely, but then she mentions that they want her to work in the reptile house. Suddenly all you can think about is how much you hate and fear snakes. You’re no longer paying attention to your friend, because your mind is full of slithery, slimy, venomous vipers. When your friend pauses, you say, “God, that sounds terrible. You’re going to quit, aren’t you?” But all along she’s been dropping hints that she’s actually pretty excited. The conversation breaks down.
The same is true when you’re reading a poem. If you start reading a poem called “Motherhood,” you may expect it to be all cuddles and cuteness. But what if it’s not? What if the poet is actually speaking from the point of view of someone who suffers from post partum depression? Suppose the speaker is regretting her decision to have a child? Can you put aside your assumptions (and judgments) about motherhood in order to understand the heart of the poem? Can you be open to the possibility that motherhood may not be joyful for everyone? Can you accept this rare opportunity to step beyond the confines of your own small life?
In the same way, can you interrogate your initial reading of a poem to make sure you’re not missing anything? Can you commit to grappling with what’s actually on the page, even if it goes against what you expect or believe?
This course emphasizes paying close attention to the poem so that we can support our interpretation with details and direct quotes. We honor the poem with our open and expansive attention. We put our own biases aside as we “unpack the poem.”
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How to “Unpack” a Poem
Start with the Title
The title sets up an expectation for the poem in us. A title can set a mood or tone, or ground us in a setting, persona, or time. It is the doorway into the poem. It prepares us for what follows. What is the first word that comes to mind when you read the following title:
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- “The Insistence of Beauty”
Maybe the word that comes to mind is Art or Philosophy or Contemplative. Maybe it’s fashion or movie star. As you read on, the poem may fulfill your expectation…or it may swerve into unexpected territory. Either way, the poet deliberately uses the title to advance his or her meaning.
Read the Poem Out Loud
As you read the following poem out loud, be aware of how it affects you emotionally. Listen for the tone, mood, and style. Identify your first impressions.
The Insistence of Beauty
The day before those silver planes
came out of the perfect blue, I was struck
by the beauty of pollution rising
from smokestacks near Newark,
gray and white ribbons of it
on their way to evanescence.
And at impact, no doubt, certain beholders
and believers from another part of the world
must have seen what appeared gorgeous—
the flames of something theirs being born.
I watched for hours—mesmerized—
that willful collision replayed,
the better man in me not yielding,
then yielding to revenge’s sweet surge.
The next day there was a photograph
of dust and smoke ghosting a street,
and another of a man you couldn’t be sure
was fear-frozen or dead or made of stone,
and for a while I was pleased
to admire the intensity—or was it the coldness?—
of each photographer’s good eye.
For years I’d taken pride in resisting
the obvious—sunsets, snowy peaks,
a starlet’s face—yet had come to realize
even those, seen just right, can have
their edgy place. And the sentimental,
beauty’s sloppy cousin, that enemy,
can’t it have a place too?
Doesn’t a tear deserve a close-up?
When word came of a fireman
who hid in the rubble
so his dispirited search dog
could have someone to find, I repeated it
to everyone I knew. I did this for myself,
not for community or beauty’s sake,
yet soon it had a rhythm and a frame.
“The Insistence of Beauty”, from THE INSISTENCE OF BEAUTY: POEMS by Stephen Dunn. Copyright © 2004 by Stepehen Dunn. Used by permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Write out (very informally) your initial responses to the following questions:
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- What is my first emotional reaction to the poem?
- Is this poem telling a story or just sharing thoughts? Is is playing with language or exploring deep feelings? Is it praising something or offering instruction? What kind of poem is this?
- Is the tone serious? Funny? Meditative? Inquisitive? Confessional? How would you describe the tone after just one reading?
Look at the Images
The day before those silver planes
came out of the perfect blue, I was struck
by the beauty of pollution rising
from smokestacks near Newark
As we move on to other images in the the poem–“gray and white ribbons,” “a man you couldn’t be sure
was fear-frozen or dead or made of stone”–we begin to look at the issue of beauty from an entirely different place. We sense that something catastrophic has occurred….and yet the speaker seems to say that even in destruction, Beauty can be present.
Identify the Tone
In addition to these two words, the first phrase sets a tone, too, of expectation. We know something significant is being made of the planes because they are marking a day: “The day before those silver planes.” The event is important enough to refer to it in such a way. This is how we speak of big events. The day we were married. The day we went swimming. The day those silver planes came out of the blue.
The tone in the first stanza immediately produces a connection between the speaker and reader. We feel the speaker is disclosing something to us, or divulging something important. As we continue through the poem the speaker’s tone becomes inquisitive as he asks questions:
—or was it the coldness?—
that enemy,
can’t it have a place too?
Doesn’t a tear deserve a close-up?
Is he asking questions of the reader? To himself? A bit of both? We journey with him on his seeking.Read through Dunn’s poem and identify the rest of the images. Discuss how each image makes you feel. To what words or images is your attention drawn? What associations do you make from them?
Find Connections and Ask Questions
The next helpful question is: What does this word or image remind me of? What associations am I making as I read this poem? Sometimes the connections are within the poem—between lines, images, repeated words or themes–—but in some poems like this one, we may be reminded of something outside the poem. In the first stanza, the two planes near Newark and two ribbons evaporating may remind you of the iconic image of the September 11th attacks on The World Trade Center in New York City. Making this connection provides us with a context for the poem, perhaps causing us to ask, “How can the attacks on the World Trade Center and its subsequent collapse be seen as gorgeous?”
What happens if you don’t see that connection? Will you misread Dunn’s poem? Allusions like this usually aren’t necessary if the poem makes good use of all the other elements of poetry. In other words, even if you miss the reference to 9/11, you should be able to understand Dunn’s deeper meaning about the nature of Beauty from the various images he provides. Let’s for a moment pretend that the poem isn’t alluding to specific events. If we begin to make connections within the poem itself, we may see that the ribbons in the first stanza appear beautiful to the speaker even though they are pollution, and the flames in the second stanza appear “gorgeous” even though they are destructive. This suggests that it’s possible to see beauty in something harmful, in something that others see as ugly. This further suggests that beauty is subjective, though the ability to see it is universal.
What other connections and patterns can we see? In the third stanza the speaker watches the collision “replayed”—be it on a television screen or in his mind—and admits to a desire for revenge. Later, in the last stanza, the speaker repeats the story of the fireman: “I repeated it / to everyone I knew.” What does this suggest? He says “I did this for myself, / not for community or beauty’s sake, / yet soon it had a rhythm and a frame.” How are we to understand the impact of his repeating his story? If it is told “for myself,” then what exactly is the speaker getting from this and how is it connected to the replaying of the collision? What might be meant by rhythm and frame?
In the fourth and fifth stanza the speaker makes a connection between himself admiring “the intensity” of the people in the photographs and between the photographers taking the photographs:
The next day there was a photograph
of dust and smoke ghosting a street,
and another of a man you couldn’t be sure
was fear-frozen or dead or made of stone,
and for a while I was pleased
to admire the intensity—or was it the coldness?—
of each photographer’s good eye.
The speaker asks, “Was it the coldness?”, suggesting a distance or lack of emotion in photographers who cannot act on their emotions in order to capture the moment. The speaker says that he admires this, “the intensity—or was it the coldness?— / of each photographer’s good eye.” Perhaps he sees something admirable in the way a person can detach himself from an event in order to focus only on the image, the visual, the camera’s eye with a “good eye” that can see art and capture it.
In the fifth and sixth stanzas, the speaker muses on how he’s reacted to beautiful things in the past just as coldly as these photographers: “For years I’d taken pride in resisting / the obvious—sunsets, snowy peaks, / a starlet’s face.” The pattern of “coldness” is established by several word choices here: “fear-frozen,” “coldness,” “snowy.” Our speaker then tells us how he discovered that images of “sunsets, snowy peaks, / a starlet’s face,” too, have their “edgy” place. This is a little mysterious. Does “edgy” refer to the destructive, ugly yet mesmerizing collision and photographs he’s been viewing? Is this suggesting that serene beauty and edginess are somehow closely related?
The speaker then introduces the idea of “the sentimental,” which he refers to as “beauty’s sloppy cousin” and asks if it can also be appreciated. The speaker ends the stanza with another question: “Doesn’t a tear deserve a close-up?” As readers, we have to ask ourselves how we fear about sentimentality: does it have a place in Beauty?
In the last part of the poem, the speaker confesses that he retells the story about the fireman hiding in the rubble “so his dispirited search dog / could have someone to find.” The story is moving; our focus shifts from all of the people whom the fireman and his dog cannot help, to the “dispirited” feelings of the dog that the fireman can ease. In this moment, the dog’s feelings become as important and as worthy as our own. If we can feel such strong empathy toward the dog, as the fireman clearly does, can we not also feel it toward our enemies, toward those for whom we normally feel “revenge’s sweet surge?”
The speaker says that he retells this story, not “for community or beauty’s sake,” but for himself. Why would he do that? Why does it matter that he does? Why does he end the poem with these words?
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We will practice “unpacking a poem” in class this week!
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