Poem by Robert Louthan: Metaphor for Escape
This poem by Robert Louthan is a metaphor in itself, written in blank verse. It is written in a very conversational rhythm, as if talking to the reader. Most of the words used are common enough to be in the vocabulary of a person with an eighth grade education, so the audience is not just the well educated readers, but also ordinary people. This poem might be published in a men's magazine or even a sports magazine. Of course, like all readers, I bring my own baggage with me, my own experience and understanding. There is no rhyme, but the poet uses easily blended sounds. The rhythm is controlled by the line length and line breaks to speed up or slow down as the poet wishes, to call attention to important words: materializing moon, fluttering lids, atrophied. The word "orbit" creates a full stop slowing to "he'll ever own"? There is a pause with the full stop mid-line, followed by the short statement: "Oh, yes." Then the rhythm speeds up again with the next few lines until the word curse supplies another full stop.
The poet asks if poetry is to remind the average man that he cannot fly to the sun or the moon, that he cannot have everything his brain envisions or his eyes see and that he cannot become an astronaut (the only orbit he'll ever own). So we start out with the statement that poetry is for the average person working a job he does not love. Those he does use qare necessary for preciseness. Communicate something that helps him express himself. It is that very human reaction that the poet incites in the reader: Thank God, it's him and not me. Is it to tell him that big dreams are out of his reach? He uses the metaphor of the descending sun and materializing moon to suggest technological magic is what he sees, until he is reminded that it is real magic, and out of reach. The poet allows us a peek into his life and a share of his final freedom in sleep, and we share the images he sees, becoming enriched by them, and knowing that we, of course, are not in need of escape, because we are the poet. part goes more slowly as it forces us to slow after "future", another line break mid-phrase. Give him something to share, as we want to share our most valuable thoughts. We have escaped the boredom of the ordinary life, and the poet is the master of escape. The poem itself is a metaphor for escape. The example given in the poem is another metaphor, the cosmos as heavy machinery more complicated and hard to run than what they work with, "and curse". It's a statement that poetry is for the ordinary people, not just the elite. In order to pull out the meaning, we have to look at the poet's images and the metaphors.
Common topics in this essay:
Robert Louthan,
Thank God,
factory worker,
,
levitating blanket,
he'll own,
ordinary people,
materializing moon,
escape poet,
poem metaphor,
statement poetry,
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