Poem-A-Day/April 15
"He Digesteth Harde Yron" https://poets.org/poem/he-digesteth-harde-yron
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Friends,
We'll talk about "The Paper Nautilus" and this poem--one of my favorite poems, period; maybe top 3 even?--on Friday's ZOOM.
By now you know some how to detect Moore's own idiosyncracies in the unique features of the animals she describes. Here, in this quite tragic poem, she's reflecting upon flightless birds--most of which were wiped out by human "unsolicitude" and "greed". The ostrich is a delightful, noble, survivor.
Note how Moore "builds" her portrait of the bird through quotation, prior descriptions, folk beliefs, and historical fact. This "collage" method of building a composite portrait of the bird is especially thrilling given another one of Moore's stylistic quirks--her long sentences and complex syntax.
"He Digesteth Harde Yron" https://poets.org/poem/he-digesteth-harde-yron
*
Friends,
We'll talk about "The Paper Nautilus" and this poem--one of my favorite poems, period; maybe top 3 even?--on Friday's ZOOM.
By now you know some how to detect Moore's own idiosyncracies in the unique features of the animals she describes. Here, in this quite tragic poem, she's reflecting upon flightless birds--most of which were wiped out by human "unsolicitude" and "greed". The ostrich is a delightful, noble, survivor.
Note how Moore "builds" her portrait of the bird through quotation, prior descriptions, folk beliefs, and historical fact. This "collage" method of building a composite portrait of the bird is especially thrilling given another one of Moore's stylistic quirks--her long sentences and complex syntax.
Hi everyone!
ReplyDeleteI was really struck by this poem because it is so unlike anything I have read before. The first line that really stood out to me came at the end of the first stanza when Moore states that "the large sparrow" "was a symbol of justice." I found this notion to be compelling, as the sparrow is an incredibly ubiquitous and common bird, and yet, has come to symbolize a beacon of hope and justice in the mind of Moore. I believe this is largely as a result of the bird’s ability to stay secure due to its ever-present nature. In the following stanza, Moore takes an increasingly observational tone, depicting how the ostrich "watches his chicks with a maternal concentration-and he's/been mothering the eggs." I found this section to be striking, as she shows how individuals can take on roles outside of the traditionally-stereotyped norms and expectations. She then raises the question of how someone so fragile could get so close to danger while leveraging the symbol of the ostrich. A creature solely prized "For plumes and eggs and young/used even as a riding beast," is arguably misunderstood and mistreated, but is also one capable of redeeming and fortifying itself. The ostrich, "whose plume as anciently the plume of justice," comes to represent freedom and liberation in spite of its "compass-level nervousness" that stems from being constantly hunted. In the next stanza the egg is "piously shown," accompanying by nervous preening, underscoring the bird's fear and unrelenting devotion to its young. After cataloging the bird's redeemable qualities regardless of its constant vulnerability, she continues by stating that ostriches are ultimately admire externally from apparent physical differences. The message of the poem comes in the penultimate stanza, in which Moore states that "The power of the visible is the invisible," or that the power lies in empowering those who are in the most precarious situations, like the ostrich. Over-hunted and underappreciated, the ostrich now signifies resilience in the face of incredible odds. Moore demonstrates that "Heroism is exhausting,/yet it contradicts a greed that did not wisely spare/the harmless solitaire," expressing the underlying message that human avarice can prevail despite intervention. In the final stanza, her characterization of "the sparrow-camel" is intriguing because it brings her back to the initial image, but allows the reader to see more globally why we should revere idiosyncratic, large creatures like the ostrich, ones that catch our eye, rather than isolate them according to their own differences.
See you all on Friday!