Phillip Levine is extremely talented. I'm never someone who really gets into poetry, but the way Levine writes does tend to grab my attention. Everyone time we do one of these blogs I have a tough time understanding Levine's poems. That being said, after rereading a few times I notice how much purpose he writes with, and how much there is to take away from his short little poems. It is important, in my opinion, to pay attention while reading poems, you never know what you might learn if you do...
War leads to sacrifice, and sacrifice is an essential part of war. Levine makes both of these points clear in his poem "The Book." In the poem Levine is describing a book washed up near soldiers in 1842 by a river where a war had been fought. The book is said to have reached the soldiers through "a great cost." The book is well decorated, it is "deckled in gold, bound in leather, substantial, and [been written in] a fine pen." The soldiers then see a little boy who, presumably, wrote the book. The soldiers ask him if he wrote the book, but he says his father wrote it. The boys shows the soldiers the book. In the book there are pictures of Spaniards. The narrator then explains that even though there were Spaniards represented through pictures in the book, "the men who gave their life to save the river were Indians."
So it's a bit confusing but I think the underlying message in this poem is that sometimes, people make sacrifices and don't get the recognition that they deserve. The Indians here sacrificed their lives to save the river and instead of them being celebrated, they were replaced in the book by photos of Spaniards.
Based on your description, there seems to be a lot of contrasting back-and-forth elements sprinkled into this story, if you will. I can see how it may be difficult to understand Levine's poems through and through. But, alas, I guess that's the very essence of poetry: unpacking each layer the author has embedded into their work, and analyzing the underlying meanings in your own way.
ReplyDeleteYour poet actually seems really interesting, even if it is sometimes hard to understand because of the contradicting elements. Also, the meaning of this poem is really interesting as well as how the poet was able to use a boy and his book to depict how people make sacrifices and are often not recognized for them.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that even though you're not someone who's into poetry, you've been able to connect with your poet and appreciate their talent. Your poet sounds interesting, and sometimes when you go back to reread a work that might be tough to understand, you are able to observe things that you didn't catch before.
ReplyDeleteI completely relate to not being into poetry but simultaneously recognizing a poet's potential, talent, and skill, despite not necessarily enjoying the poem itself. I agree that poetry can be super confusing and your poem seemed to have some layers of complexity to it, but I think that being able to analyze it and come up with what you think it means can be fun in its own weird kinda way.
ReplyDelete