Marianne Moore – “A Grave”

A Grave

Man looking into the sea,
taking the view from those who have as much right to it as
     you have to it yourself,
it is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing,
but you cannot stand in the middle of this;
the sea has nothing to give but a well excavated grave.
The firs stand in a procession, each with an emerald turkey—
     foot at the top,
reserved as their contours, saying nothing;
repression, however, is not the most obvious characteristic of
     the sea;
the sea is a collector, quick to return a rapacious look.
There are others besides you who have worn that look—
whose expression is no longer a protest; the fish no longer
     investigate them
for their bones have not lasted:
men lower nets, unconscious of the fact that they are
     desecrating a grave,
and row quickly away-the blades of the oars
moving together like the feet of water-spiders as if there were
     no such thing as death.
The wrinkles progress among themselves in a phalanx—
beautiful under networks of foam,
and fade breathlessly while the sea rustles in and out of the
     seaweed;
the birds swim through the air at top speed, emitting cat-calls
     as heretofore—
the tortoise-shell scourges about the feet of the cliffs, in motion
     beneath them;
and the ocean, under the pulsation of lighthouses and noise of
     bell-bouys,
advances as usual, looking as if it were not that ocean in which
     dropped things are bound to sink—
in which if they turn and twist, it is neither with volition nor
     consciousness.

This poem most, in general, compares the sea to a grave. Moore states that “it is human nature to stand in the middle of a thing but you cannot stand in the middle of this;”. I took this most literally to mean that humans tend to stand in the middle between being buried in the ground and being dead in heaven. Earth stands as a middle ground for human beings and humans tend to not completely understand that. The line that I found to be most interesting was “repression, however, is not the most obvious characteristic of the sea; the sea is a collector, quick to return a rapacious look”. This was a great visual for me because I took it to mean that the sea can not control what it has in it; it instead is almost kind of hungry and like a vacuum for anything that enters it. The poem also talks about the fishermen who are “desecrating” that graves of the sea floor looking for fish. This once again illustrates that humans are ignorant; they don’t realize that they are digging up graves across the bottom of the floor by dragging the net across it

“Be Kind” – Charles Bukowski

we are always asked
to understand the other person’s
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious.

one is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.

but age is the total of
our doing.
they have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.

not their fault?

whose fault?
mine?

I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.

age is no crime

but the shame
of a deliberately
wasted
life

among so many
deliberately
wasted
lives

is.

This was one of the more interesting poems that I have ever read. It really does pose questions about reality that he addresses in some correct manners, I think, and some manners that are a little out there. I agreee with the first point brought up. It is extremely hard to view a seemingly negative viewpoint to us in the way of the one carrying out the action. I found a perfect example of this to be suicide bombers. Those who blow themselves up believe that it is the right thing in the name of their religion to sacrafice themselves (not to mention all the virgins they get…) for their religion. We, as Americans, generally view this as a cruel act and we have gone to war over it. I think that it is true that we need to see both viewpoints sometimes before making judgements.

I am a little skeptical, however, to believe the final part of the poem. Bukowski kind of makes a pretty big assumption about what wasting a life is. I don’t agree with Bukowski. The poem addresses ignorance to look at other people’s viewpoints, and Bukowski seems to agree, in the end, that other people’s viewpoints don’t really matter. I found this poem to be pretty radically egocentric but does provide interesting insight, although I do not agree

“A Man Adrift on a Slim Spar” – Stephen Crane

A man adrift on a slim spar
A horizon smaller than the rim of a bottle
Tented waves rearing lashy dark points
The near whine of froth in circles.
God is cold.

The puff of a coat imprisoning air.
A face kissing the water-death
A weary slow sway of a lost hand
And the sea, the moving sea, the sea. God is cold.

The incessant raise and swing of the sea
And growl after growl of crest
The sinkings, green, seething, endless
The upheaval half-completed. God is cold.

The seas are in the hollow of The Hand;
Oceans may be turned to a spray
Raining down through the stars
Because of a gesture of pity toward a babe.
Oceans may become grey ashes,
Die with a long moan and a roar
Amid the tumult of the fishes
And the cries of the ships, Because The Hand beckons the mice.

A horizon smaller than a doomed assassin’s cap,
Inky, surging tumults
A reeling, drunken sky and no sky
A pale had sliding from a polished spar.
God is cold.

When I originally began to look at this poem, I immediately noticed a difference in the structure of the poem. The first thing that caught my eye was that the repeated ‘God is cold’ at the end of most of the stanzas was not present in the middle stanza. I also realized how the middle stanza is longer than the others around it, and that made me coincidentally think about the poem ‘The Map’. Then once I read deeper into the poem I relieved yet another difference. All of the stanzas around the middle stanza seem to be talking about the terrible wraths of the ocean. However, the middle stanza seems to be more in praise of God. The stanza praises the power of God and portrays him as an almighty figure while the surrounding stanzas view him in a fearful manner. The poem is set up in a contrast where God is seen as powerful in an ultimate sense but is also cold in a harsh sense.