Ending Abstractly
One thing that I have noticed while reading Applewhite's poems is his tendency to end abstractly. Applewhite includes concrete images and narration of events in the middle of his poems, but he often ends with a few abstract words.
For example: In "A Tapestry in the Palazzo Pamphili"--
Final stanza:
as you have stitched our lives in needlepoint.
Otherwise, the seasons leave us these thread-
bare glances, eyes large with freedom, knowing.
Here, he brings in a easily visualized image in the first line of the last stanza, but ends with two terms that encompass all of the other imagery that he has presented throughout the poem: "freedom" and "knowing."
In "The Mortal Father":
The last four lines--
as in another world. The majesty of mind
that once explored eternity is at end.
Against the perspective of time, now we miss
his speech: its persistence and consciousness.
Applewhite once again ends in very abstract terms, but perhaps "the majesty of mind that once explored eternity is at end" is more vague and abstract that the final reference to persistence and consciousness, since they are at least in reference to a speech.
A third example, from "Postwar Days":
looks of veterans left their victory pressure
that hastened our labor, as we heaved and bent.
The heat hovered over in a transparent specter
revealing the future: accelerated and violent.
By ending the poem with several more abstract words instead of concrete language, Applewhite is providing a succinct end that suggests to the reader what themes of his poems are. It is as if he is giving the reader a hint--"read it again, this time considering acceleration and violence." The abstract ending connects the reader to the poem as well, since many of the ideas that Applewhite concludes his poems with are applicable to the human condition in general--violence, consciousness, freedom, knowledge. While this is valuable, I think that it is also indicative of one weakness of Applewhite's poems--he attempts to convey too much, to tackle too large of a subject, in a single poem.
For example: In "A Tapestry in the Palazzo Pamphili"--
Final stanza:
as you have stitched our lives in needlepoint.
Otherwise, the seasons leave us these thread-
bare glances, eyes large with freedom, knowing.
Here, he brings in a easily visualized image in the first line of the last stanza, but ends with two terms that encompass all of the other imagery that he has presented throughout the poem: "freedom" and "knowing."
In "The Mortal Father":
The last four lines--
as in another world. The majesty of mind
that once explored eternity is at end.
Against the perspective of time, now we miss
his speech: its persistence and consciousness.
Applewhite once again ends in very abstract terms, but perhaps "the majesty of mind that once explored eternity is at end" is more vague and abstract that the final reference to persistence and consciousness, since they are at least in reference to a speech.
A third example, from "Postwar Days":
looks of veterans left their victory pressure
that hastened our labor, as we heaved and bent.
The heat hovered over in a transparent specter
revealing the future: accelerated and violent.
By ending the poem with several more abstract words instead of concrete language, Applewhite is providing a succinct end that suggests to the reader what themes of his poems are. It is as if he is giving the reader a hint--"read it again, this time considering acceleration and violence." The abstract ending connects the reader to the poem as well, since many of the ideas that Applewhite concludes his poems with are applicable to the human condition in general--violence, consciousness, freedom, knowledge. While this is valuable, I think that it is also indicative of one weakness of Applewhite's poems--he attempts to convey too much, to tackle too large of a subject, in a single poem.
posted by Lauren at 6:21 AM
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