The Rattle Bag: The D & E Poems

[realiz]

I am halfway through Lady Chatterly's Lover at the moment. Not a book I would probably have chosen to purchase, but it came by way of some books left by previous tenants. I don't think I have read anything else of DHL's, at least that I remember, and I can't say that I am overly impressed with Lady C, but it is interesting given its noteriety at the time of publication.

[giselle]

Well, this one puts Tennyson's 'The Eagle' right into the shade doesn't it?

Although, thinking about it, I suppose Tennyson was writing a descriptive poem about an eagle, no more.

I am thinking this by DHL is a poem about 'America' symbolically speaking, perhaps.

I don't know that I agree with the symbolism of a bloodthirsty eagle. Well, I don't agree with it, but DHL was a bit of an old woman at times.

I got cross with him in 'Sons and Lovers' when he described going to collect his father's wages and being pushed to the back of the queue by the coal miners. They wouldn't have done that......and he and his Mum, were a couple of infuriating snobs.

I love his books though, and this is a wonderful poem.....I just don't agree with him.

Penny --- thanks for your amusing observations of DH Lawrence, must say I largely agree. I read Sons and Lovers many moons ago and I thought DHL was a bit ... wimpy .... at least to the extent that he is reflected in his characters (and I think that he does bare his soul a great deal in his writing). I can only think of his relationship with his mother (and perhaps generalized to relationships of sons and mothers of this ilk) as seriously confused. As to the Eagle, I like the poem, quite brilliant really. What I took away is that DHL is writing about the state of America, particularly the southwestern US, at the time and reflecting on its society and culture and future. I think you are right about the inappropriateness of the 'bloodthirsty eagle' image ... to my mind this is DHL twisting the nature of the predator eagle to one that kills for pleasure rather than survival and I think this is completely incorrect. The choice of the eagle and its American symbolism is excellent though, pretty hard to come up with another symbol that is more powerful.

[Penelope]

Giselle wrote:

The choice of the eagle and its American symbolism is excellent though, pretty hard to come up with another symbol that is more powerful.

I can equate the American Bald Eagle symbol with the symbol of the Conquering Roman Legions, also an eagle. Both being comparatively benevolent world powers.

I hope you enjoy Lady Chatterley, Liz. I was in my first year at Grammar School when the courtroom controversey occurred and the book was banned. We had copies in our desks......and thought it was a really naughty book. It seems quite tame now.

However, I must admit that some years ago, there was a television production of Lady Chatterley, starring Sean Bean as Mellors the gardener and I was quite smitten, much to my OH's amusement.

[realiz]

starring Sean Bean as Mellors the gardener and I was quite smitten, much to my OH's amusement.

Well, Mellors in the book doesn't sound all that appealing.

On to the next poem about the lowly earthworm (not so appealing as well).

The Earthworm

Who really respects the earthworm,
the farmworker far under the grass in the soul.
He keeps the earth always changing.
He works entirely full of soil,
speechless with soil, and blind.

He is the underneath framer, the underground one,
where the fields are getting on their harvest clothes.
Who really respects him,
this deep and calm earth-worker,
this deathless, gray, tiny famer in the planet's soil.

Harry Edmond Martinson

Maybe not so appealling, but much needed, the earthworm.

[realiz]

This poem is a bit of a puzzler, maybe someone can interpret it. Perhaps Stevens was just playing with us, knowing that this simple but also ambiguous poem would leave people pondering for days.

Earthy Anecdote

Every time the bucks went clattering
Over Oklahoma
A firecat bristled in the way.

Wherever they went,
They went clattering,
Until they swerved
In a swift, circular line
To the right,
because of the firecat.

Or until they swerved
in a swift, circular line
To the left,
Because of the firecat.

The bucks clattered.
The firecat went leaping,
to the right, to the left,
And
Bristled in the way.

Later, the firecat closed his bright eyes
And slept.

Wallace Stevens

[giselle]

My take on this Stevens poem is that its an anecdote about deer running across the hard baked ground of Oklahoma (so their hooves clatter) and encountering the firecat (an aircaft used to fight forest fires) which would be flying low and from their perspective rather erratically .. so the deer react by swerving to the right or left. The poem concludes when the firecat closes its bright eyes, most likely a reference to shutting off the lights these aircraft use when flying in dark or smoky areas. The use of 'firecat' is quite brilliant because it connotes a cat predator, such as cougar, which could be pursuing the bucks. So the image of 'cat' as beast or 'cat' as man-made object blur in our imagination as we read.

We have read other Stevens poems and I think this is a good example of imagination and metaphor that are central to his poetry. Perhaps he is using metaphor to pose a question like ... Where does the world of man and the world of nature start and stop? or is really all just one and we suffer from a delusion of seperateness because that is what we want to believe (at least most of us do)?

Interesting that the firecat is attempting to put out the forest fire and in doing so is intended to save the natural environment from the fire and preserve that environment for the deer among others. The other side of this argument is that such intervention is wrong and that fire is a natural process and should be allowed to run its course and that the natural world will adapt. I don't think Stevens is taking any position on this, but rather he captures the dramatic effect of colliding man-animal situations.

[realiz]

Thank you, Giselle. I did not know there was a firefighting aircraft known as a firecat, and my assumption was that either both firecat and buck were metephorical, or that it was nature vs nature, as in the mammal known as a firecat(not sure if they live in Oklahoma). I also thought of the firecat representing a bushfire. Your interpretation is good, and in the eyes of the bucks, the aircraft might feel like a mighty predator swooping down for a kill.

[Penelope]

I read the poem before I read either of your comments and of course got the wrong end of the stick entirely.

I thought the buck - was a clever way of referring to money - the dollar. The swift circular line - made me think of the way a coin rolls - so I thought of a silver dollar rolling.

Oklahoma! is a film musical to me. LOL

So I thought the poem was talking about the use of money and the idealised perception of America given by the movie industry. So I thought the poet was showing that the landscape of America could be wild and harsh and burning......,

I was wrong. LOL, LOL

Thanks giselle for putting me back on track.

[giselle]

Actually Penny you shouldn't abandon your interpretation too quickly. You might be on to something. I did think it was odd that he used the term 'bucks' rather than 'deer' because normally bucks don't run around in groups without the females being in the vicinity since they are a herd animal, particularly in the case of forest fire, so its much more likely to see a herd of deer running together not just bucks. So 'bucks' could be a reference to money and the swerving 'right - left' reference could be a political right/left metaphor. Of course, there is plenty of ambiguity here and I couldn't explain how the firecat fits in ...here again with the bucks, as in the firecat, there is fuzziness around meanings eg .. buck as an animal and buck as money, a man-made thing and how they may collide. But I think we are digging pretty hard here and could just end up with a big hole !!

[Penelope]

I've got an 'Oklahoma' earworm now.

It makes me laugh because, many moons ago I worked in an office with five other young females, we were all in our teens and early twenties. We had a lovely elderley manageress called Janey. We used to tease her all the time and one day we gradually disappeared from the office, one by one into the ladies loos. When Janey came to look for us, as we knew she would, we started up a chorus from the cubicles with a long howl....

Ooooooooooooooooooooh

Klahoma, when the wind comes right behind the rain!

I've always enjoyed the company of mad people!!