So, I decided to take a break from all of the military and war conflict and choose a work that focused on internal conflict.
The next work I am to analyze is one by one of my favorite poets of all time, John Keats. “When I Have Fears” is a poem about conflict, a conflict that Keats had internally. He wrote this poem in 1820, shortly before his death from tuberculosis in 1821. In the poem Keats is fighting with himself, disappointed, and unhappy with his fate. He knows he is dying; so he must let the readers know that he has dreams that he wishes he could complete. He longs to achieve great fame, to love, and overall, he longs to write all that he can while he is still alive.
This Shakespearean sonnet is one that I adore deeply. In the poem, we have a weary Keats as the speaker, with a sad, pensive tone. In the beginning of the poem he presents his problem: to die before he can show his true poetic skill. “When I have fears that I may cease to be before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain…”(lines 1-2). He has been faced with the most horrid of fates, for such a talented youth to die at such a young age of 26. He metaphorically compares books to rich, ripe grain, where each word of the book holds some vital information that Keats needs to further his literary goals(lines3-4). These are the things that will bring him fame from his audience, so he can be remembered after death.
It is ironic that Keats speaks so longingly of fame and love, and yet he must let them go. “And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, that I shall never look upon thee more…”(lines10-11). He will never see the love of his life again. At the twelfth line of the poem, the turn takes place. Keats has accepted the fact that he will die, and not only that, but it could be at any moment because of the severity of his illness. “ …--then on the shore of the wide world I stand alone, and think till love and fame t nothingness do sink”(lines13-14). With the knowledge of death in mind, Keats decides that with the small fraction of time he has, he will achieve all that he can. What he cannot finish in this life he will have to forget. Because he could not finish in his lifetime, then it was not meant to be done.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Saturday, November 10, 2007
"Military Mind"
Since I love poetry, I decided to analyze yet another one. This time the lucky winner was a poem called “Military Mind” by Charlie Smith, a highly accomplished American poet(Poetry foundation). I actually stumbled upon this poem by accident, and it reminds me of Jarhead, a book by Anthony Swofford as an account of his own life and the horrors of his war experience. Like Swofford has in Jarhead, the speaker in this poem has had a severe case of “military mind.” So I am happy to have found this poem, and I think from reading what I have in Jarhead I am able to better understand the meaning of this poem. This poem has a journal style, that at first may seem like just that: a proud soldier who reminisces on days past in some branch of the military. However if you look deeper, you will find that that is actually far from the case.
For the duration of the first third of the poem, the speaker seems to praise the glorious aspects of the military. These things were living the experience of military school and learn to march, or attain some level of balance, belong to a group. He wanted to be an expert at fighting, learn the skills of combat, but the words the speaker chose tell me that he did not actually want to fight. He believed that doing all of these things would earn him some degree of respect from society. He wanted trust from his fellow soldiers, and in turn he wanted to be trusted. He wanted a family of brothers on and off of the battlefield(lines 1-6). All of these are what he thought he would experience upon entering. I relate this to Swofford in Jarhead because he had the same feelings toward the military when he joined. He believed he would make friends, that the people he would be spending weeks, months, even years with would always be there when he was in need. He found that life in the barracks was not all he thought it would be. He could trust no one. He could not count on depending on people. He had to trust only himself
A strange thing begins to take place from the seventh line and onto the end of the work. The tone has changed from immaculate to bloodstained. The speaker is now matured, and he has some sense of what this military life is about. He describes his quick, unwanted shift into maturity, the “hairy arms” in line 7 and the “corded muscles” in line 8. His body has changed; and thanks to this description the reader can now see that the speaker was not muscular prior to these days. Not only was he not muscular, but the transformation also seems unnatural. The speaker could possibly still be young, yet he has been forced to enter into manhood in such a small amount of time.
As the poem stretches on, the speaker becomes more aware of the realities of the military, which includes fighting and killing. These are aspects a naïve person would not realize, but as the speaker progresses through it, he becomes more aware of the truth. These words begin to transcend into memories. Things like the smell of gunpowder, and the bloody boots smudged with dirt; the faces of his dead friends as they died one by one, the actual realization of what war really is, and the horrible effects it really has on you and those who love you(lines 11-16). These images and smells are not just things you can experience without actually experiencing them.
At the end of the poem, I can see what true message the speaker was trying to relay. The speaker started at the beginning, with his expectations as a youth. When he entered the military, he arrived with a mindset that was quickly erased. He matured too quickly, and was faced with the horrors of battle, killing, and watching those he cared for die. Almost meeting death himself. Long after the war had passed he realizes that in the beginning, he was trapped in this frame of mind. All of the sugarcoated dreams he had about the military were just dreams. The real experience is life altering. And once you cross that line, there is no returning to the safety of the past.
For the duration of the first third of the poem, the speaker seems to praise the glorious aspects of the military. These things were living the experience of military school and learn to march, or attain some level of balance, belong to a group. He wanted to be an expert at fighting, learn the skills of combat, but the words the speaker chose tell me that he did not actually want to fight. He believed that doing all of these things would earn him some degree of respect from society. He wanted trust from his fellow soldiers, and in turn he wanted to be trusted. He wanted a family of brothers on and off of the battlefield(lines 1-6). All of these are what he thought he would experience upon entering. I relate this to Swofford in Jarhead because he had the same feelings toward the military when he joined. He believed he would make friends, that the people he would be spending weeks, months, even years with would always be there when he was in need. He found that life in the barracks was not all he thought it would be. He could trust no one. He could not count on depending on people. He had to trust only himself
A strange thing begins to take place from the seventh line and onto the end of the work. The tone has changed from immaculate to bloodstained. The speaker is now matured, and he has some sense of what this military life is about. He describes his quick, unwanted shift into maturity, the “hairy arms” in line 7 and the “corded muscles” in line 8. His body has changed; and thanks to this description the reader can now see that the speaker was not muscular prior to these days. Not only was he not muscular, but the transformation also seems unnatural. The speaker could possibly still be young, yet he has been forced to enter into manhood in such a small amount of time.
As the poem stretches on, the speaker becomes more aware of the realities of the military, which includes fighting and killing. These are aspects a naïve person would not realize, but as the speaker progresses through it, he becomes more aware of the truth. These words begin to transcend into memories. Things like the smell of gunpowder, and the bloody boots smudged with dirt; the faces of his dead friends as they died one by one, the actual realization of what war really is, and the horrible effects it really has on you and those who love you(lines 11-16). These images and smells are not just things you can experience without actually experiencing them.
At the end of the poem, I can see what true message the speaker was trying to relay. The speaker started at the beginning, with his expectations as a youth. When he entered the military, he arrived with a mindset that was quickly erased. He matured too quickly, and was faced with the horrors of battle, killing, and watching those he cared for die. Almost meeting death himself. Long after the war had passed he realizes that in the beginning, he was trapped in this frame of mind. All of the sugarcoated dreams he had about the military were just dreams. The real experience is life altering. And once you cross that line, there is no returning to the safety of the past.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
"All the Dead Soldiers"
My next poem up for analysis is “All the Dead Soldiers” written about World War II by Thomas McGrath. This poem was published in 1967 in Poetry. I thought this poem was interesting because it focused on the habit of the dead. In previous poems I analyzed, the men were in the process of fighting. In this poem the event has long passed. The effects, however, are still raging on.
The speaker of the poem is an outside figure who has the ability to watch the ghosts from the war, and by his sentimental tone, he feels sorry for the dead soldiers. The “ghost bank” in the second line of the second stanza is even deeper referred to as “home” for the soldiers. This area, the island of Amchitka in Alaska(Alaska’s Digital Archives) was where they died, and it is their resting place. That line gave e a sense of detachment on the soldiers part, by the effect of war they have been ripped from the homes they once possessed, they can no longer reside with their families or friends. They can only live and wander with their dead comrades.
The speaker describes the dead as tired; they have endured a long journey. The endpoint is far away, and they are hesitant to go on. The rain and wind are like living obstacles that cause the bones to stiffen and become effaced. Yet they continue until they reach their destination.
The dead seem to be angry by the fact that they must stay in their new home. In the first stanza, there is anger in the wind; the wind blows hard because it is infused with the bones of the dead. As a unit, they burst from the sky. It is a sort of contained rage that can only be expressed in death. It cannot be seen by any living soul but the speaker. And in the last stanza of the poem, when they have reached their destination, they are “crying weak lust and rage.” Hey have reached their old homes, but time has passed. Life has gone on. The lives that they knew and experienced when they were alive have shifted in the time space. They were young when they died, and as years have passed, they room that they once lived in are aged. And worst of all, their women, whether they be wives or not, have aged as well. The voices of the dead cannot be heard, and they must go on with the fact that nothing will ever be as it was before the war. Life has gone on without them.
The speaker of the poem is an outside figure who has the ability to watch the ghosts from the war, and by his sentimental tone, he feels sorry for the dead soldiers. The “ghost bank” in the second line of the second stanza is even deeper referred to as “home” for the soldiers. This area, the island of Amchitka in Alaska(Alaska’s Digital Archives) was where they died, and it is their resting place. That line gave e a sense of detachment on the soldiers part, by the effect of war they have been ripped from the homes they once possessed, they can no longer reside with their families or friends. They can only live and wander with their dead comrades.
The speaker describes the dead as tired; they have endured a long journey. The endpoint is far away, and they are hesitant to go on. The rain and wind are like living obstacles that cause the bones to stiffen and become effaced. Yet they continue until they reach their destination.
The dead seem to be angry by the fact that they must stay in their new home. In the first stanza, there is anger in the wind; the wind blows hard because it is infused with the bones of the dead. As a unit, they burst from the sky. It is a sort of contained rage that can only be expressed in death. It cannot be seen by any living soul but the speaker. And in the last stanza of the poem, when they have reached their destination, they are “crying weak lust and rage.” Hey have reached their old homes, but time has passed. Life has gone on. The lives that they knew and experienced when they were alive have shifted in the time space. They were young when they died, and as years have passed, they room that they once lived in are aged. And worst of all, their women, whether they be wives or not, have aged as well. The voices of the dead cannot be heard, and they must go on with the fact that nothing will ever be as it was before the war. Life has gone on without them.
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