Randall Jarrell and His Use of Allegory

By Ben Trube


Allegory can be defined as "a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning throughconcrete or material forms; figurative treatment of onesubject under the guise of another." The acclaimed poet and literary critic Randall Jarrell is well known for his expert use of this literary tool in his poems. In doing this, he could paint a picture through his poetry that not only provided a literal meaning, but also a second, deeper one. As said by Professor Stuart Christie, his use of allegory allowed him to fashion his poems "so as to serve a dual purpose: first, of transcending the text and context of the world as given..." ("Jarrell's Allegories"). Throughout the poetry assignment, I have been primarily focusing on two of Jarrell's poems: "90 North" and "Next Day." When analyzed, both of these works reflect this idea of an allegorical style, in that they allow the reader to glean a second, deeper meaning from the poem - as opposed to solely the superficial one that results from little to no analysis.


In another of Christie's essays, "Mecanics of allegory in Randall Jarrell," he says this: "Yet, for Jarrell, the story a poem tells...a functional process driven by the listener's root dissatisfaction with the world as it is, as well as with the world the story describes." This idea is best displayed in "Next Day." The subject of this poem is an older woman who - as it would appear through reading the story - was once beautiful, but has seemed to lose her luster as she has grown older: "I am afraid, this morning, of my face. / It looks at me / From the rear-view mirror, with the eyes I hate, / The smile I hate. Its plain, lined look / Of gray discovery / Repeats to me: “You’re old.” That’s all, I’m old." (Next Day) On the shallow end of interpretation, one can utilize Christie's statement and gather that she truly, deep down, is dissatisfied with the way she has aged and longs for the days when she was beautiful. However, with analysis that makes us put on our metaphorical floaties and venture into the deep end of analysis, one can find that there is a second meeting which, as said in the first paragraph, transcends the text itself. One can glean from "Next Day" not only a perspective regarding old age and how one looks, but the struggle that the character has mentally and emotionally with the fact that even the most beautiful work of art by the most famous artist will fade over time. The idea of wisdom to facts regarding this and others directed towards the general bleak outlook on life and how it is solitary and simply a journey towards death which is portrayed in this poem also appears in "90 North" and is likely representative of Jarrell's feelings as he aged. This adds to the poem significantly in that it gives us depth and insight not only into life, but into the mind of the author: which is something which we do not often get an opportunity to do.

"90 North" also contains a good example of meaning that transcends the literal text, though the two are more closely tied than in "Next Day," as the end of the poem references what Jarrell was "going for," seen here: "...Is worthless as ignorance: nothing comes from nothing, / The darkness from the darkness. Pain comes from the darkness / And we call it wisdom. It is pain" ("90 North"). As was referenced in "Next Day," the deeper meaning which Jarrell embeds in his poem forms from the narrator/subject becoming "wise" to the workings of the Universe and the facts of life. Here, the facts learned include that what one dreams about isn't always what it's cracked up to be, and that after a certain point, all of an individual's steps are "south" - meaning that they are traveling towards the inevitable death that awaits man. Jarrell's use of allegory in this poem contributes much more depth to the poem when analyzed, providing a wealth of knowledge which can be gleaned simply by a little bit of close analysis of the poem.

In conclusion, an important part of what made Randall Jarrell's poetry great was his use of allegory. By using it, he added a significant amount of depth to his poems: give a reader much more to analyze and providing insight into the philosophical workings of the world and life as we know it: whether that be regarding the fading of beauty or the journey towards an inevitable death that we call life.

Links:
"Jarrell's allegories" : Academic OneFile: http://bit.ly/KAwGYo
"Mechanics of Allegory in Randall Jarrell": Academic OneFile: http://bit.ly/N1SiOo
"90 North": http://bit.ly/JxLM3l
"Next Day": http://bit.ly/waFb9L
Stuart Christie Info: http://bit.ly/KS46Pr

(764 Words)
***Note: As Andrew and I were doing separate posts, I was curious as to how many links I actually needed to have from credible/outside sources. It said three on the assignment sheet, but did that mean three each or between the two of us? If it is, indeed, the former then I will do my best to work another in there. Thanks!

Randall Jarrell: A Man of War

Randall Jarrell expressed his deep passion for poetry and literature through harsh criticism. His style lent itself to another love of his, the battlefield. In 1942 He left the University of Texas at Austin for the United States Air Force. He found a common link between war and literature in "a job title he considered the most poetic in the Air Force," a celestial navigation tower operator. Jarrell romanticized the theater of war as so meny writers before him had. Suzanne Ferguson writes in Poetry of Randall Jarrell, about his use of theme as "relatively few and closely related as they evolve through his thirty-year writing career: in the poems of the thirties, the 'great Necessity' of the natural world and the evils of power politics; in the poems of the early forties, the dehumanizing forces of war and ways to escape or recover from these through dreams, mythologizing, or Christian faith; in the poems of the fifties, and continuing into the sixties, loneliness and fear of aging and death, again opposed by the imagination in dreams and works of art; and in some of the last poems, the defeat of Necessity and time through imaginative recovery of one's own past." As she observes Jarrell focuses upon war and the human reaction to war. In his poem The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner, Jarrell parallels feelings of intimate human connection and complete detachment from human emotion. Key words like "froze" and "nightmare" signal the lack of communication, while on the other hand "mother's sleep" and "dream of life" encapsulate the desires of all peoples, to live comfortable and to continue living. 

The Death of a Ball Turret Gunner

From my mother's sleep I fell into the State, 

And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze.

Six miles from earth, loosed from its dream of life,

I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters.

When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose.

Jarrell's great fixation in the forties was on death and dying, this work would rise to be celebrated as his truest and best remembered work. Hayden Carruth said "a considerable bulk of poetry ... the war poems make a distinct, superior unit." He wrote this in Nation to remember an author he cared about. He further believed that war had changed him even though he had only been a pilot instructor for Air Force in World War II. Jarrell's clean and well practiced poetry became more scattered and punctuated after the violent shock he encountered during the war; Carruth notes this same change "His early poems are sometimes mannered or imitative, and often artificially opaque; but from the first, he wrote with ease, and suffered none of the verbal embarrassment customary among young poets. When the war came he already possessed a developed poetic vocabulary and a mastery of forms. Under the shock of war his mannerisms fell away. He began to write with stark, compressed lucidity." These works would bring death to the forefront of his mind as his career continued, to consume him in the last years of his life. Still debated is the question of Jarrell's alleged suicide on U.S. 15-501. His close friend Robert Lowell wrote to Elizabeth Bishop "There's a small chance [that Jarrell's death] was an accident. . . [but] I think it was suicide, and so does everyone else, who knew him well." With a somewhat tragic yet average end to his life, Jarrell is one to be remembered as a man of passion and conviction. In his constant search for knowledge, he found time to appreciate life as it is before death took him. In his poem Eighth Air Force is a warm remembrance of his compatriots from the war and also a fitting farewell of his own as "just a man".


Eighth Air Force


If, in an odd angle of the hutment,
A puppy laps the water from a can
Of flowers, and the drunk sergeant shaving
Whistles O Paradiso!—shall I say that man
Is not as men have said: a wolf to man?
The other murderers troop in yawning;
Three of them play Pitch, one sleeps, and one
Lies counting missions, lies there sweating
Till even his heart beats: One; One; One.
O murderers! ... Still, this is how it’s done:
This is a war.... But since these play, before they die,
Like puppies with their puppy; since, a man,
I did as these have done, but did not die—
I will content the people as I can
And give up these to them: Behold the man!
I have suffered, in a dream, because of him,
Many things; for this last saviour, man,
I have lied as I lie now. But what is lying?
Men wash their hands, in blood, as best they can:
I find no fault in this just man.


Sources:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5028212

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/randall-jarrell

"90 North" and "Next Day" Poem Analysis (AP Style)

"90 North" and "Next Day" by Randall Jarrell
Analysis by Ben Trube

(A: "90 North"   B: "Next Day")

1. Who is the speaker in the poem?  Describe.

A.                            The speaker in this poem is an unknown narrator, possibly Jarrell himself. Can be seen as

a man who lives an average life who dreams of great things.

B.                             The speaker here is an unnamed woman who is visiting the grocery store. She obviously

once was beautiful, but has aged and isn’t necessarily a goddess anymore.

2. Who is the audience of the poem?

1. B. The audience in both of these poems is the reader, and is aimed towards the world as a whole. Both regard the thoughts or dreams of a specific person, and the poem tells the world about said goings-on in the head of the narrator.

3. What is the situation and setting of the poem?

1. It takes place in a man’s bedroom, where he is sleeping and dreaming about doing great things, such as visiting the North Pole, and the struggles related to it as well as life.
2. An unknown woman is at the grocery store, and is reflecting on how she used to be beautiful, but has aged badly and is no longer quite as good looking as she once was and how she is growing older. She thinks about death and is confused.

4. State the poem’s central idea or theme in a single sentence.

1. No matter what one does, they are always alone, and despite what we may call wisdom – it is merely pain.
2. Beauty fades, and all that is must end.

5. Describe structural pattern of the poem both in terms of visual patterns and sound patterns (stanzas, rhyme scheme, meter, free verse, alliteration, repetition, etc.)

1. “90 North” is written in free verse and does not rhyme. Stanzas are 4 lines long. In terms of repetition, specific keywords occur often: particularly “darkness,” “nothing,” and warm-cold metaphors.
2. Structurally speaking, this poem has stanzas which are generally six lines long and is written without a specific meter. It does contain end rhyme, often between the second and fifth lines. It has vocabulary which often either directly mentions or describes old age.

6. Comment on the poem’s diction.  How does diction relate to tone?

1. The diction in this first poem contains words which generally reflect the setting – which is a cold, “unbroken” wasteland that is the North Pole. It adds to the the bleak tone of the poem, representing death, darkness, and overall meaninglessness. The use of contrasting emotions throughout the poem add to this significantly.
2. The word choice reflects a tone or mood lf confusion and fear as the narrator grows old. The phrase “I am afraid” dominates the second half of the poem. As well, we see yet more negatively connotated language as she describes her feelings, using terms such as “miserable,” “vile,” and “hate” which conflict with more positive words like “exceptional,” “gay,” and “bliss.”

7. Is imagery dominant?  Explain.

1. Yes, Jarrell’s description of the North Pole is dominated by imagery, of a flag snapping in the harsh wind, of a barren, arctic wasteland, and of his loneliness and sadness regarding dreams and reality. As well, his personification of the “darkness” and everything he says regarding it is very well made, and the image of his loneliness and meaninglessness at the “pole of my existence” sticks in my mind.

B.                             “Next Day” is also chock-full of imagery, most of which describing the narrator’s former

       beauty, using phrases such as “I was good enough to eat: the world looked at me/and its          

 mouth watered. How often they have undressed me,/the eyes of strangers!” As well,

 Jarrell carefully paints the image of the narrator visiting the grocery store and the 

 actions of the bag boy.

8. Is the poem narrative (creating a “story” of sorts) or lyric (suggestive rather than concrete, often expressing a single emotion)?

A.    B. Under my analysis, both “90 North” and “Next Day” are lyric poems, each generally containing two emotions or categories of emotions. The former relates the contrasting emotions of wonder and then meaninglessness. It suggests the knowledge that the old saying “ignorance is bliss” is true and that wisdom comes from darkness and is, in a sense, pain. Similarly, the latter relates the contrasting emotions of the jubilance that was young beauty and the sadness and longing that is old age. In the end, it suggests the depressing truth that life is very much as lonely and solitary voyage, and that all that is beautiful eventually fades.

9. Comment on figurative language (metaphor, extended metaphor, simile, idiom, personification).

1. The most obvious figurative language can be seen in the last two stanzas, in the form of the personification that is “the darkness” that is knowledge and wisdom regarding life. As well, there are many instances of metaphor and personification throughout – “All winds end in this whirlpool I at last discover,” “the childish night,” and “the flakes came huddling.” I love this, as it helps to support the imagery that makes up this great poem.
2. This poem, too, is brimming with metaphor and other figurative language. One in particular which I found interesting was: “my wish is…that the boy putting groceries in my car see me.” – in this case, the narrator doesn’t literally mean that the boy can’t see her, but that he can’t see how beautiful she really is/was both internally and externally. The images that Jarrell’s uses of figurative language paint are what make these poems as good as they are.

10. Explain any symbols.  Is the poem allegorical?

1. In a sense, this whole poem is a symbol: the man’s dreams and subsequent journey symbolize the lack-luster effect that realizing something that what one thought would be life-changing isn’t, and that ignorance truly is bliss. In the case of this poem, the North Pole to which the narrator journeys symbolizes wisdom and knowledge regarding life, and the dreams about this voyage from his childhood and the “darkness” both represent ignorance and the happiness provided by it. The poem as a whole also symbolizes the journey towards death and the tipping point between youth and old age. Everything leading up to the narrator’s journey represented hope and youth, whereas everything is described thus: “Turn as I please, my step is to the south,” the south representing old age, death, and general loss of hope. In this sense, the poem can be seen as being allegorical.
2. “Next Day,” too, seems to be a narrative which – as a whole – is a symbol, however it lacks the deeper, second meaning that makes something allegorical. The majority of the meaning of this poem can be gleaned from the surface, in that much of it is a symbol for old age and the bleak future that all of us face. The boy who is carrying the narrator’s groceries symbolizes the world as a whole – which no longer sees the beauty that this woman once had.

Works Cited

“90 North” by Randall Jarrell http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~richie/poetry/html/poem122.html

“Next Day” by Randall Jarrell http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177158

Eight Air Force Annotations

Eighth Air Force

BY RANDALL JARRELL
Annotation by Andrew Nelson

If, in an odd angle of the hutment, -> encampment of huts

A puppy laps the water from a can

Of flowers, and the drunk sergeant shaving   

Whistles O Paradiso!—shall I say that man      ->strong memories  resurfacing

Is not as men have said: a wolf to man?                and which

                                          -> vicious/murderous    cause the man strife to

The other murderers troop in yawning;                 remember

Three of them play Pitch, one sleeps, and one   

Lies counting missions, lies there sweating                ->"ing"verbs disrupt the 

Till even his heart beats: One; One; One.                       pattern of rhyming

O murderers! ... Still, this is how it’s done:

This is a war.... But since these play, before they die,       ->rhyming/ominous

Like puppies with their puppy; since, a man,                         creates image of a dying 

I did as these have done, but did not die—                              man

I will content the people as I can

And give up these to them: Behold the man!        ->lies to himself, lies
                                                                                       around him, lies within

I have suffered, in a dream, because of him,   

Many things; for this last saviour, man,                     - Jarrell plays upon the idea

I have lied as I lie now. But what is lying?                    of bodies  in graves and

Men wash their hands, in blood, as best they can:      the men who lie about the

I find no fault in this just man.                                        past

"Eight Air Force" and "Goodbye, Wendover; Goodbye, Mountain Home" Poem In-Depth Analysis

By Andrew Nelson

• http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178019

1. Who is the speaker in the poem?  Describe.
1. Limited 3rd person. The speaker has seen war , and destruction. Just as well they are remorseful and nostalgic at the same time, and are at a loss to explain the evil and somewhat malicious nature of the human spirit to cause war at all.

1. Who is the audience of the poem?
1. THe intended audience for the poem may be the young who idealize war, however the message of the poem rings true for all people.

1. What is the situation and setting of the poem?
1. After a fierce conflict thought is given to the implications of actions taken and the repercussions to come. A man mull over his past and parallels it with the innocence of his puppy, which scampers about the room.

1. State the poem’s central idea or theme in a single sentence.
1. War will live on, but will mankind?

1. Describe structural pattern of the poem both in terms of visual patterns and sound patterns (stanzas, rhyme scheme, meter, free verse, alliteration, repetition, etc.)
1. not a meter, but there is a rhyme scheme. Two rhyming lines, one not, and two more rhyming. Ninth line repeats “one” several times.

1. Comment on the poem’s diction.  How does diction relate to tone?
1. Jarrel uses innocuous language like lap and puppy to contrast murderers and blood to emphasize the ridiculousness of mankind to be playful and innocent one moment and vicious and cutthroat the next. His tone is somewhat cautionary yet somewhat pessimistic, looking at the way in which he juxtaposes ideas of death, life, and love.

1. Is imagery dominant?  Explain.
1. yes it is suggestive of much of the man’s surroundings including his pet and tells the story of his past vividly.

1. Is the poem narrative (creating a “story” of sorts) or lyric (suggestive rather than concrete, often expressing a single emotion)?
1. A narrative. Tells the story of his time in war his thoughts about it and then summarizes the meaning of peace as time before the next war.

1. Comment on figurative language (metaphor, extended metaphor, simile, idiom, personification).
1. The poem uses an extended metaphor of puppies as men to play up ideas of incompetence of men and incredulity at the thought of them.

1. Explain any symbols.  Is the poem allegorical?
1. In a small way it is allegorical using small dogs yet not terribly much as the poem is rather short.

• TPCastt formate: Goodbye, Wendover; Goodbye, Mountain Home
• http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse/74/3#20590889

T = Title

• Examine the title before reading the poem. Consider connotations. What do you think of or associate with the title?
• A great loss. Considering Jarrell's partiality to war stories it may be somewhere lost due to bombing or incursion. Alternatively though this could reference a bildungsroman, or story of grow even if the poem would be out of character.
• P = Paraphrase

• Translate the poem into your own words. Be literal, looking for denotative meaning. Resist the urge to jump to interpretation. A failure to understand what happens literally sometimes leads to an interpretive misunderstanding. What is being said?
• Women move their children elsewhere.Their husbands fight in the war, being moved from laredo to Kearns. The men don’t really care where they go. Their going to Kearns most likely, and it’s not for certain.Women worry for their men as they drink and talk with sailors; They leave while the men prepare for overseas movement. They will leave in the morning. Still no word as to where they are truly headed.

C = Connotation

• Examine the poem for meaning beyond the literal by looking at the language and form. What is not being said?
• Observe:
• Diction
• indicative of personal experience with informal terms like ORD’s which has to be explained outside of contextual clues.
• Imagery (especially as it presents, metaphor, simile, personification)
• The humanizing of the argument with the image of sobbing women and anxious men before war.
• Symbolism
• The women’s trip home symbolizes the ever widening gap between those military husbands and wives.
• Irony (paradox, understatement, oxymoron)
• the men are just as lost as their wives as they leave for war.
• Effect of sound devices (alliteration, meter, onomatopoeia, assonance, rhyme)
• the repetition of Kearns represents the looming thought f war’s reality to the soldiers.

A = Attitude

• Tone – Examine both the speaker’s and the poet’s attitudes. Remember don’t confuse the author with the persona. What is the attitude?
• Observe:
• Speaker’s attitude toward self, other characters and the subject
• Attitudes of characters other than the speaker
• Poet’s attitude toward the speaker, other characters and finally toward the reader

S = Shifts

• Note shifts in speaker, attitude or mood. What changes?
• Occasion of poem (time and place setting)
• Key words (but, yet)
• Punctuation (dashes, periods, colons, etc.)
• Stanza divisions
• Changes in line and / or stanza length
• Irony (sometimes irony hides shifts)
• Effect of structure on the meaning

T = Title (reprise)

• Examine the title again, this time on an interpretive level. What do we now know about the title?
• It does mean in fact the moving of military troops to airfields. The Two names are Second Air Force fields

T = Theme

• First list what the poem is about (subject), then determine what the poet is saying about each of these subjects (theme). Remember, theme must be expressed as a complete sentence. What is the overarching idea?
• Separation-just as hard for those leaving as those staying
• war-unintelligible from subservience

• Print versions of analysis templates are available in class. If you create an electronic anthology, your analyses can also be electronic (templates are available on Mrs. Hazle’s website) Scan your annotated poems and upload as part of your electronic anthology.
• Include a works cited page at the end of your anthology which indicates the sources of the poems.
• Work Cited
• Jarrell, Randall. "Eighth Air Force." Poetry Foundation. harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, n.d. Web. 20 May 2012.
• Jarrell, Randall. "Goodbye, Wendover; Goodbye, Mountain Home." Poetry Foundation. harriet Monroe Poetry Institute, n.d. Web. 20 May 2012.