Poetry Explication
In 400 - 600 words, write an explication of your assigned poem. What is Walcott saying and how is he saying it? You needn't include all of the elements on your chart, but you do need to discuss:
*occasion for the poem/content genre
*mood, tone, diction --> how do words Walcott uses create feeling and/or meaning
*images, metaphors
*specific lines
*structure --> how does the poem differ from beginning to middle to end?
Link all of these to larger themes of the poem. Meaning includes the complex of feelings and ideas.
posted by Randy Barnett @ 12:59 PM
5 Comments:
(sorry it took so long to turn in!)
In the poem, Walcott uses the images of "monuments", "battles" and "martyrs" to represent the human construction of history. The images from the Bible and the events such as the Renaissance are accounts human use to mark and define history. Through the poem, Walcott shows that history, however, is not man made, but rather is natural and therefore he uses things from nature to represent it. Walcott argues in his poem, that history can not be defined. Walcott shows, that as the human race evolves, we become more obsessed with defining history, and the more skewed our definitions actually become. Because people are trying so hard to understand history they overlook what is right in front of them and make it much more complicated. Walcott represent peoples misinterpretation through his poem. The poem begins with the sea. As the poem progresses, Walcott digresses further and further away from the sea. The at the end, Walcott incorporates, “fireflies with bright ideas, and bats like jetting ambassadors and mantis, like khaki police”, things that are not related to the sea. The poems ends with the lines, "like a rumor without any echo of History, really beginning." History begins here because that is when humans began to define it. However, our definition of history is as close as fireflies and bats are to the sea.
Walcott also suggest that history is not a human construct because in reality history is stronger and more durable than anything humans are capable of building. These monuments, battles, martyrs are merely scratches upon history’s surface. To us, a building may seem to last for eternity, but in contest of all history it will crumble within a short time.
In “The Gulf,” Walcott compares the good and bad aspects of America and the good and bad aspects of his home. He discussed that one of the bad aspects of America was materialism and capitalism. This comes across in the line “Each seems a petal shivering from its core.” He is also able to relate to America and this is visible in the line “the South felt like home.” He also says “The Gulf, your Gulf, is daily widening.” He is seeing similarities between America and his home land.
Walcott is on a plane in the air between America and his home. He is able to see the materialistic qualities because he has a perspective from above. However, he is not just in a plane; he has the ultimate vision as if he were in heaven. The poem begins with Walcott thinking about America and the aspects that he doesn’t like. He continues to alkalize his individual experiences. After observing and comparing America and his home he says “I have no home.” He relates equally to both America and his home.
This poem is depicting a single moment of peace and tranquility felt by the author, Derek Walcott. This moment of calm and sudden while surprising goodness that overcomes the world is as miniscule and dramatic as “the pause between dusk and darkness.” Walcott depicts its length by reciting “this season lasted one moment […] but, for such as our earth is now, it lasted long.” In this description of the time that the peace existed we can read so much about the author and his feelings toward the chaos of the world and because moments do not exists when the entire world feels nothing but peace, that moment was a “phantasmal” one that felt longer than all the rest.
As is common in stories of peace, we have the bird, in which case I immediately thought of the dove, a universal symbol of peace. In this case, it is the birds who are lifting the dark clouds that hover over the world and prevent us from seeing the good that ecists. The birds are therefore uncovering our eyes, or temporarily allowing us to see and feel what we are constatly blinded from seeing and understanding. These birds,, who have “the privelede of their birth,” are bringing with them their meaning of freedom for all. The birds of freedom suggest that where we are now, we will also be imprisonned whether by eachother, ourselves or others, it will not be until we can spread our wings and fly to a new place, a place uncorrupt by current society that we can be truly free and until we are truly free we cannot obtain genuine peace.
Ultimately, this poem is about peace but it stems from the author’s unhappiness with the way in which he sees the world and its status in the sense of to what extent freedom actually exists. Walcott has created a fantasy with his diction and imagery showing us an idealistic world for one second that would have “lifted the net[…] above all change” and created a world based on peace, love and freedom.
i don't know if i needed to state this but my entry is on the phantasmal poem by walcott and its one page double space 12 pt font in word, thanks! =)
“The Season Of Phantasmal Peace” by Derek Walcott
In this poem, Walcott expresses his wishes for world peace. Though seemingly overdone and cliché, Walcotts depiction is not simply a hope for a better future. He begins by speaking of one “phantasmal” moment, when a myriad of birds fly through the sky together. These birds are significant, as many cultures hold such creatures to high esteem. They are often seen in mascots, and for the United States, we have the eagle as a symbol of our freedom, liberty, and justice, and we have the dove as the ultimate symbol of peace. Thus, these birds, all seemingly different, come together for one moment. But as we read on, we see that this is not just another hope for peace. Instead, Walcott goes on to describe less peaceful and joyous moments, as his diction begins to conflict with each other. In the first stanza, he used solely words and phrases that expressed happiness. However, in this second stanza, Walcott’s poem comes into conflict as he pairs words such as “icy sunlight,” “battalions waging peaceful cries,” “nets, vines, gauze, trembling.” Thus, we begin to see that there is a problem with this peace. Upon continued reading, the last stanza goes on to evoke Walcott’s ultimate view, that we are “betrayed” and this peace is just a “season passing,” and is put out by something as simple as a shadow. He states that we are currently at a standstill, between extremes, and in effect tells the reader that there is a choice to be made, and that we can help push our world one way or the other, “between fury and peace.”
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