Battery Alexander

For class I was assigned to deeply read the poem "Battery Alexander" in Disclamor by G. C. Waldrep.

After reading through the poem once, I had very little understanding of even it's basic meaning. So, initially, I began by asking some questions. The first thing I did was look up words that I was unsure of their meaning (or, in some cases, I knew the meaning but wanted to double-check my understanding).

These are the words:

• sanguinary - characterized by blood or bloodshed
• lupine - wolflike; ravenous, vicious, savage
• coulter - the blade on a plough that cuts the dirt vertically
• adze - a handtool with a blade at a right angle to the wooden handle, used for dressing lumber
• hasp - a clasp for a door with a padlock or pin

Adze

 

Then I looked up the different plants that Waldrep mentions.

• Monterey cypress - a California native that used to grow in a lot of places but now has gotten quite sparse (I believe)
• Scotch broom - an invasive plant species from Europe that has taken root in California
• Sea-fig - an invasive plant species from Africa that has taken root in California

I also looked up the quotation used in the poem, which is from the Bible, Matthew 15:11. This particular section of the Bible also mentioned the "blind leading the blind" - and earlier in the poem Waldrep talks about the  "blind shielding their eyes" - something that may be connected.

"Battery Alexander" is made up of five parts. Each part has a few stanzas, although some stanzas are made up of only one line.
In the first section, Waldrep describes Alexander as being like the Monterey cypress. He also says that while the capital is far from Alexander, it is still somehow close. He describes the capital as "sanguinary." And he says that "as we live within the bounds of the capital/the capital lives in us."
Alexander was one of not very many batteries built on that side of San Fransisco, which could be a parrellel with the now-lonely Monterey cypress. However, despite being out in the middle of nowhere, isolate and alone, the feeling of the "capital" still overwhelms the place. In other words, the place still has a sense of being American, and having a duty to America. This duty is described as "sanguinary" - an accurate description for a battery and also for America. Saying that we live in the capital and the capital lives in us is an example of a kind of word play Waldrep uses frequently, but it also describes patriotism and America very well - there is a sense of patriotism in places like Alexander, or the "capital" living in Alexander. the best way I can put it is to say that Alexander is American, but America is also Alexander. This first section is mostly a description of Alexander and the feelings of the persona while standing there.

The second section also describes Alexander, getting into more specifics about how this place is different from any other place. The first stanza talks about wandering through Alexander and finding different things - a garden, a maze of pipes, and nothing. Alexander had a rather complicated plumbing system, which explains the pipes. It's unclear whether the garden was planted after Alexander was turned into a park or when it was being used for defense - although Waldrep hints that it was there the whole time in the next stanza. Here, he makes a sort of riddle, asking what defense is without beauty. The answer is "geometry". I get the sense that Waldrep finds Alexander rather disturbing, and the fact that there is beauty there also upsets him. But geometry is also a reference to the use of angles and altitude in Alexander. The mortars at Alexander fired high into the air, using geometry so that they would hit enemy ships from above, striking their thin decks instead of their armored sides. This geometry is references throughout the rest of the poem. In the third stanza, Waldrep talks about "a meaning of intelligence" - perhaps acknowledging the intelligence of using geometry against the enemy, perhaps mocking the idea of using intelligence for killing. He then says that "the blind save their eyes/for the approaching flame" - perhaps referencing Matthew 15 again, although what I initially thought of here was the story that a blind woman saw the flash of the bomb hitting Hiroshima.

In the next section, Waldrep talks about some things he saw at Alexander. The first stanza talks about a hawk being annoyed by a small blackbird. It describes the hawk's prey as everything. The hawk is similar to the mortars of Alexander, as it attacks from above, going after the weak spot of its prey by coming down from above. This stanza also describes the only graffiti he found at Alexander, a violent message "PRO DEATH NOW" - there is no love here like in the other places, only more death. He also mentions for the first time an "object of desire" - something that comes up later and refers to Matthew 15.

The next section is in italics and talks about a dream Waldrep had while in Alexander. In the dream, he is a tour guide speaking another language that he doesn't understand, but everyone else seems to. This reminds me of the story in Acts where the disciples speak the story of Jesus in languages they don't know, a reversal of the story of the Tower of Babel. here, too, Waldrep talks about the different tools mentioned above - he is showing them to the people he is leading around, and they are amazed by them. Perhaps this is talking about advances in technology captivating the people, who then forget about more important things. Waldrep also says that the people and the persona then stand silently in a room with no windows (a prison?) for a long time - being trapped in a place where there is no light or hope. Perhaps this section is a comment on modern life as compared to a more rural life, a reference to the Amish?

The final section begins with a Bible verse, Matthew 15:11. Here, Jesus is saying that eating unclean things is not what makes a person unclean, but saying unclean things. In the next part he critics the Pharisees, saying that they are the "blind leading the blind" - another comment against modern life/war? In the next stanza, "dimension" is another geometry reference. Here, Waldrep is asking a question about war. If "we" are attacked and go to war, we are victims and blameless, but if we start the war, we are bullies who are blamed for the war? Yet America is still hungry for wars, despite not wanting to be blamed, and looks for any chance to get involved. Here also is when Waldrep talks about the invasive plant species. Perhaps he is talking about how wars invade a place, but I think maybe he is talking more baout the batteries. They are all along the coast, invading it, changing it, despite not really fitting into the natural setting. They are, he seems to think, ruining it, killing the natural things that are there, like an invasive plant.

Overall, this poem is slightly more depressing then the others. I get the sense that Waldrep was very disturbed by Alexander for some reason. I think this is reflected in his poem, which is very questioning and concerned.

A conversation with a friend

I don’t know how we got to that subject.
Sitting on my front porch in chilly autumn
waiting for the bus to come and talking
about band (her) and choir (me) and musical (us).
It must have come in a quiet place
but perhaps there was a reason for it.
She was talking about people she knew
in a place she used to live,
a different state to the south.
She didn’t live there long.
She didn’t live anywhere long,
as I would find out later.
Suddenly, she was telling me
about her friend, or neighbor, or cousin
(I can’t remember)
who tried to kiss her
then pulled her down behind a car where no one else could see.
That was it. She didn’t go on.
But there was an expression on her face that told me all I needed to know.
I was lost.
I had nothing to say, and too much to say.
Should I say, “What happened?”
“I’m sorry.”
Or simply, “I know.”
Instead, I made some sort of joke
something that we both used to get away from the subject
like I always do
and probably will continue to do forever.
And I don’t know if that makes me a bad friend
or a good friend.

Immortal Sofa by Maura Stanton - an analysis

Gwen Stephan

Ann Hostetler

Intro to Literature

Poetry Book Analysis

Immortal Sofa: Maura Stanton’s Narrative Poetry in 2008

            Maura Stanton has written six books of poetry. Her latest book, from 2008, is Immortal Sofa. Immortal Sofa is a book full of poems that examine Stanton’s viewpoint in the world, showing her imagination during everyday moments as well as highlighting the way her opinions have changed as she has grown older. The use of metaphor and narrative elements in Immortal Sofa set it apart from her other books, and also helped to convey the story of her life and how she has changed as a person over time.

            Maura Stanton was born on September 9^th, 1949 to Joseph and Wanda Stanton in Evanston, Illinois. She has a BA from the University of Minnesota (1969) and a MFA from the University of Iowa (1971). Her first book of poetry, Snow on Snow (Yale, 1975), won Stanton the Yale Younger Poets Prize, a very prestigious award for a new poet. This book began a career of creative writing that stretched from novels to short stories to poetry and that was acknowledged by many universities and other poets as the start of something excellent (“Maura Stanton” 1).

            Molly Companion (1977) was Stanton’s next book, a novel. Molly Companion was followed by Cries of Swimmers (University of Utah, 1984), a poetry book, Tales of the Supernatural: Poems (1988), a collection of poems, Life among the Trolls (1994), poetry, Glacier Wine (Carnegie Mellon University, 2001), poetry, and finally Immortal Sofa (University of Illinois, 2008), her latest book of poetry. Since her first book, Stanton has also won many more prizes and awards for her poetry, including the Frances Steloff Fiction Prize (1975), the Lawrence Foundation Prize in Fiction (1982), and others (Maura Stanton Biography 1).

            Before Stanton’s first book was published, she married Richard Cecil. As her writing career began to unfold, she worked at several universities, teaching creative writing. She taught at the State University of New York at Cortland (1972-1973), the University of Richmond (1973-1977), Humbolt State University (1977-1978), the University of Arizona (1978-1982), and finally the University of Indiana (1982-present) (Maura Stanton Biography 2).

            From the beginning, Stanton’s work showed an interesting use of metaphor, narrative, and supernatural elements that set her apart from other poets. Her work focuses on the use of human imagination in everyday life. She has been compared to Sylvia Plath for her use of strange metaphors and themes, as well as her ability to take her own thoughts and feelings and lay them out plainly for the world to see. As she went, her poetry, perhaps reflecting her similar interest in prose, became more and more narrative, something that has become a key feature in her book Immortal Sofa. Over time, too, the element of metaphor and supernatural occurrences has remained, though in Immortal Sofa these are not as strong as they have been in the past. Stanton does not look at ghosts and spirits, but at the magic that can happen in everyday life. She looks at aging and death, but in a realistic way tinged with metaphors and perhaps a hint of magic to soften the blow. Immortal Sofa, more than any book before it, uses narrative in poetry and imagination in everyday life.

            One example of a poem in Immortal Sofa tells a story is the poem “At the Vet’s.” “At the Vet’s” is a poem about three strangers overhearing a tragedy at a veterinary office and being unable to reach out to comfort each other or the man whose pet is dying. The poem describes the sick dog right away, then goes on to describe the other people and animals in the room. The poem does not describe the persona, focusing on her observations instead of her character. The strangers listen in as the vet explains to the man with the sick dog that his pet will not get better, and when the man leaves the office all the observers are stunned into silence. Stanton uses the metaphor of an opera to describe how the observers react and make the scene more dramatic, saying that the tragedy leaves “the audience – cats, terrier, people -/ sunk in their places, too stunned to applaud” (Stanton, 12).

            “At the Vet’s” occurs near the beginning of Immortal Sofa and gives the reader an idea of what the rest of the poems are going to be like. It is blank verse, with no rhyming and lots of instances of enjambment. There is only one stanza with thirty lines, and all of the lines are of similar length, giving the poem a very rectangular appearance. While there are thirty lines in all, there are only seven sentences. These sentences are long and run-on, which makes them feel urgent and rushed, not properly formed but running along at full speed the same way one’s thoughts run along at any point during the day. This poem is not focused on perfection in words, but instead hones in on the feelings of the people, focusing on capturing the moment. The use of run-on sentences and enjambment helps to capture this. The block-like format of “At the Vet’s” contrasts with the slightly dizzying pace of the poem and the strange, out-of-body feelings of the people in the poem, perhaps representing how jarring it is when average life is interrupted by tragedy.

            The fact that “At the Vet’s” is blank verse and uses no rhyme makes it feel even more like a short story rather than a poem, which is one of the features of Stanton’s poetry. The use of metaphor is strong in this poem, another common feature in Immortal Sofa. The people in the waiting room of the vet’s office, listening in on the man and the vet as they talk about his dog, are likened to the audience at an opera, while Stanton calls the vet a soprano and the man a baritone. When the man leaves, the people do not reach out to him, despite knowing his pain. They sit silently, an invisible fourth-wall built between them and the man, as if he really were just an actor and they audience members. The observer, while describing the people around herself, stays hidden, like an audience member in a darkened theater. Anonymous, unimportant compared to the actors. This metaphor is used to heighten the feeling of strangeness in the poem, to make the reader feel even more jarred when the tragedy is revealed in the midst of normal life. “At the Vet’s” is an excellent example of Stanton’s use of narrative and metaphor in Immortal Sofa.

            Another of Stanton’s poems that is full of metaphors and narrative elements is “Ode to Pokeweed,” a long poem from the middle section of Immortal Sofa. “Ode to Pokeweed” is a free verse poem that describes a pokeweed plant’s history and the persona’s changing relationship with the plant. At the beginning of the poem, the persona tries to get rid of the plant, but cannot. When the persona does some research, she discovers that the plant has a very long history and several uses. After she educates herself, she feels fond of the pokeweed, and is distraught when the plant is destroyed during a storm. “Ode to Pokeweed” has only one stanza, like “At the Vet’s,” with 105 lines. Every other line of the poem is indented slightly, so that the even-numbered lines start farther in on the page than the odd-numbered lines. The lines are all of similar lengths and there are many instances of enjambment and apostrophe in this poem. Stanton uses many different kinds of punctuation, including commas, periods, dashes, and exclamation points.

            The narrative element of “Ode to Pokeweed” comes in as the persona’s character changes as she educates herself and becomes more tolerant of the pokeweed plant. At first, the persona hates the plant and is fearful that it will poison the wildlife in her backyard. However, after taking the time to research the plant, and discovering how influential and ancient a plant it is, her attitude begins to change. She tells her friends about the plant and mourns deeply when the plant is destroyed by a thunderstorm. When the persona remembers that a new pokeweed plant will grow in its place, she rejoices, and looks forward to meeting the pokeweed plant again. The development of the persona’s character, similar to the development of a character in a novel, is a narrative element that Stanton uses to get the meaning of the poem across.

            Here, too, lies the use of metaphor. In “Ode to Pokeweed,” Stanton describes a relationship between a human and a strange, unknown plant. In her previous books, she has often used nature as a metaphor for humans, and this poem is another example of this. “Ode to Pokeweed” is talking about human nature itself. When it comes to humans, nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Neither are things so simple with the pokeweed plant. Everyone has some sort of usefulness in the world, and everyone has a history with many twists and turns that are almost unimaginable. At first, when meeting someone new, one might feel afraid of him or her or even try to find a way to get away from him or her. However, in taking the time to figure this new person out, one might discover a deep friendship. Even the use of apostrophe helps to make the plant seem more human – Stanton’s attempt to show the reader that humans are not useless or boring, but beautiful and many-layered, like the pokeweed plant.

            The last poem of Immortal Sofa, which shares the same name as the book, also uses a shift in attitude toward an object to present an idea hidden in metaphor. “Immortal Sofa” is blank verse with one stanza and no rhymes, like “At the Vet’s” and “Ode to Pokeweed.” It has eighty-six lines and many instances of enjambment. “Immortal Sofa” talks about a sofa given to the persona by her mother-in-law, taken hesitantly but eventually assimilated into the home. The sofa becomes, after a time, an important piece of furniture in the home and the persona even imagines that it will be in Heaven, a quiet place to rest after life is over.

            Narrative is a large part of “Immortal Sofa.” The poem begins in the present, then goes to the past and works its way forward before guessing at what the future might hold, following a plot that many short stories and novels adhere to. In “Immortal Sofa,” as in “Ode to Pokeweed,” the reader can see a change in attitude toward an inanimate object. At first, the persona does not want to own a sofa, but has to take it because it is a gift. Over time, the persona comes to find that the sofa is a nice place to relax and read, and grows fond of it. Despite moving to several new cities, and despite the fact that the appearance of the sofa changes, it remains in each house she moves to, a place of comfort in new situations. The sofa is the last place of rest for her mother-in-law, who sleeps on the sofa until her death. Then the persona describes finding the sofa in Heaven, and using it as it is used currently – as a place to get away from the noise of everyday life and rest. The language of the poem is very similar to that of a prose piece, with no rhyming to set off this feeling. This poem is one of the most narrative poems in Immortal Sofa, using a distinct plot line, character development, and long sentences to reflect this.

            In “Immortal Sofa,” Stanton uses the metaphor of this sofa to represent the main theme of her book. Stanton often looks at aging and mortality in Immortal Sofa, and this poem is no exception. The sofa could easily represent aging and the acceptance of her own mortality. At first, she describes how college-aged students get rid of their sofas at the end of each year – commenting how young adults do not seem to comprehend their mortality. Then she goes on to talk about her own feelings of discomfort about the sofa and how she refused to get one until it was given to her, again showing the fear and denial of death in young people. Over time, she becomes more comfortable with the idea, and eventually Stanton even links the sofa directly with death when she talks about her mother-in-law’s death and its connection with the sofa. Finally, Stanton finds peace in the idea of the sofa, or death, and even looks forward to the reprieve from the noise of life coming sometime in the future. In “Immortal Sofa,” Stanton uses narrative elements and metaphor to talk about her changing ideas about life and, eventually, death.

            Immortal Sofa, Maura Stanton’s latest book of poetry, is about the way Stanton views the world, how the world affects her, and how she changes as she ages. Most of the poems face the idea of aging, new discovery, and death head-on, using metaphors to make the sometimes-bitter pill of mortality go down easier. Here, to a greater degree than in any of her previous books, Stanton uses narrative to tell the story of how she has changed as a person. She does so in a way that captures the real world and at the same time her own imagination, forming a book of stories in poetry form that is as complex as Stanton is, herself.

Bibliography

“Maura Stanton.” Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Biography In Context. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.

Maura Stanton Biography. Book Rags. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.

Stanton, Maura. Immortal Sofa. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 2008. Print.

Stanton’s Bibliography

Poetry

Glacier Wine (2001)
Life among the Trolls (1998)

Tales of the Supernatural (1988)

Cries of Swimmers (1984)

Snow On Snow (1975)

Fiction

Cities in the Sea (2003)

Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling (2002)

The Country I Came From (1988)

Molly Companion (1977)

In the last summer of my childhood

Alternatives: A poetry imitation exercise

Based on “Building Walls” by Todd Davis

In the last summer of my childhood

I learned to read books

with my heart,

            sinking into a new world

            and realizing possibilities.

In the heat and humidity I played,

creating worlds in my backyard.

Worlds in peril

            that I would save singlehandedly

            becoming an epic hero.

There were three trees in front of my house

that shaded me from passing cars.

I was alone

            and the outside world

            had nothing to do with me.

Then the bees came out and the air chilled.

We went school shopping.

I changed.

            My worlds were gone,

            swallowed by reality.

The smell of cows is green

1. Poem that elaborates an image from rural life

There’s nothing quite like the way

a new calf will suck on your fingers

if you offer them.

They, like our own children, are hungry

for milk or knowledge.

That is a feeling I wish I could replicate.

The smell of horses is yellow

and the smell of pigs is brown,

but the smell of cows is green -

a glorious green smell that makes me homesick.

A smell that makes me remember quieter days,

happier days when everything made sense.

When I drive past a diary farm

I roll my windows down

in the hopes of catching a thread

of green scent.

And a longing, sad feeling

stirs in my chest.

The leaves mottle and shine a metallic purple

1. “Poem with a line by ------------.”

The leaves mottle and shine a metallic purple –Keith Ratzlaff

           

Maybe you wouldn’t understand,

I know there are many who don’t,

but I feel like a new, shiny penny

every time I leave this place.

In that wide-branched tree of my soul

I can feel the places where He has touched me.

The fruits of this tree swell or wither respectively,

the leaves mottle and shine a metallic purple.

He prunes me and shapes me into something

more beautiful than before, yet the same.

Poets Against the War poem

A sent photo


A child’s face
plane with the pavement
like a mosaic
pieced, flat
the pavement is a house levelled
the word is rubble
the word is collateral
a child’s face
flat to the ground
gray, inset
a perfect fit
the earth and bricks and bits of cement
pressed around it
no blood
not even her hair
just the entire face
moon round
part of the picture
icon among all the other fragments
melted into one surface
so tight
not even her shoulders

You saw it before you could stop seeing it
stop seeing it, you will
never stop seeing it
just her face
eyes closed
they have to be, or the sky overhead
could no longer bear
-Heather Spears

The thing that caught my attention with this piece was the easiness with which it reads and the way that is in conflict with the uneasiness it makes the reader feel. The sentences are short, simple, but not disjointed or jarring. There is an easy, flowing sort of meter underneath it, soft and barely there but also not completely absent. These things make me think of peaceful things, but the actual words of the poem are definitely not. The image that this poem creates is horrific, sad, and unfortunately all to common. The idea that the child's face blends in with the concrete around her, and that the photographer chose to focus on her face more than anything else, yet it still takes a few moments to be seen is a rather disturbing one to me. The final stanza is particularly uncomfortable. We've all seen pictures that we can't unseen, horrible things that someone steal an innocence from us. We wish we had never seen it but at the same time we don't, because we know that it is an ugly world out there and to live in a world where everything seems pretty is foolish. Even worse, the sky itself has trouble looking at the scene. The final three lines really strike me, making me sad and feeling true. "Eyes closed/they have to be, or the sky overhead/could no longer bear" The sky - heavens - themselves mourn for this girl the same way we do, and the only comfort we can take is that we don't have to see into her eyes, because the vacancy where there should be life would be too much for us.

WWI Poems

I think WWI poems are very interesting. They somehow capture the difficulties between the taditional and the new more easily than poems from other time periods. After all, everything was changing then. Modernization was happening. Industrialization. Even war itself was completely different than it had ever been before. And for the most part, the changes that were happening were bad. I mean, they turned beautiful countrysides into smoggy, gray, poverty-stricken cities. Everyone was struggling to change their views and their lifestyles to keep up. And then WWI comes along. It's horrific and strange in so many ways, it's almost incomprehensible. It's bigger than any war that's come before it. And at the same time, people can hear more about it because of technology, so it feels closer to home. Everything was in turmoil.
I really like the poems from this time because they capture that. They still, often, use the 'rules' of old romantic poetry - using certain rhyme schemes or meters, etc. - but they are drifting away from the old in subject matter (and, eventually, in form). They talk not about love and beauty but about the horrors of war and the changing world around them. They capture the feeling of being lost in a world that's moving ahead quicker than people can think. I sometimes feel rushed and lost in a similar way, and I can imagine what it must have been like during that time. So I really appreciate the blend of old and new and the feeling that gives WWI witness poems.

9/11 Poems response

Alabanza: While the entire poem has a lot of really great imagery, the end of it is the part that captures me the most. The second to last stanza has very interesting imagery, comparing the attacks to a storm, which I like. But it's the last four lines that I like the best. I like the idea of the spirits of the people talking to one another, seeking something from one another after they have moved on. And I especially like the idea of the Spanish-speaking spirits saying that all they have is music. It's a sad idea, because it's very truthful, but at the same time it is sort of beautiful. The idea that music is all they have, but in some ways it is enough (after all, the other spirits seek it and the Spanish-speaking spirits only offer to teach it, and don't ask for anything else).

Dropping Leaflets: This poem didn't feel as nice to my as the other ones did. I usually like disjointed poems, but in this case I felt it was a little overly separate and hard to get a hold of. At the same time, I like the idea of what she did, and how she made the poem, and the message of the poem is an interesting one. I think the short lines and disjointed feeling reflects how most of us felt after 9/11, too, which is something else about it I like.

Try to Praise the Mutilated World: I think this is the most technically beautiful of the three poems. It has a lot of imagery and a really nice meter without feeling forced. It is more subdued and perhaps traditional than the others, but not in a way that it feel old-fashioned or obsolete. I like this one the best, because of the imagery.

Modern Poetry

This is a blog discussing my thoughts and feelings on modern poetry. I am writing this blog for my Introduction to Literature class at Goshen College. This semester we are focusing on modern poetry, so this blog will contain poems by myself as well as my thoughts about poems by others.