Instead of a focused analysis, today I’m going to touch upon the material I read, namely 5 cantos of Dante’s “Divine Comedy” and the poem “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens. While I have never attempted reading the first poem before, the second poem is more familiar, yet unfamiliar every time I read it.
Dante’s work is epic poetry, a foray into the depths of hell where the rings of hell hold many famous names; we meet Homer and Ovid, Pythagoras and Euclid. Virgil, the poet, is the shade of the guide and Dante is led to by him. The translation of HW Longfellow is not difficult to read, and I’m finding it enjoyable. I thought it would be more difficult to understand, but it is easy enough.
Wallace Stevens in his poem talks of the blackbird, with 13 sections dedicated to it and tied together by it. Each narrative is disconnected to the other, and the narrative is prism-like. A classic example of Cubism, the poem deserves to be read less an Imagist poem, and more a cubist poem. It elevates the image of the common blackbird into a bird worth writing a poem about. The poet democratizes the voices and perspectives of looking, of seeing and of being. This is a poem that therefore requires a lot more close reading than I’m doing here.
I’m also rereading “Persuasion” by Jane Austen and reading essays by R.W. Emerson on the side. His essay “The American Scholar” is a favorite, where he talks of the necessity of a scholar being a man of life, of action.
And that’s it for today. Managed to write some poetry, as well and keeping a reading record on my new iPad. Life is exciting. 🙂
Leave your comments below and let me know if you’d like to suggest any poems I should read and write about!
Athira Unni 