The Statue A Modern Poem Essay Research

The Statue: A Modern Poem Essay, Research Paper

.The Statue., by John Berryman, portrays the human race to be ignorant

and

uncaring. The poet bares a cynical attitude toward mankind. According

to the definition

of modern poetry, .The Statue., by John Berryman, is a modern poem.

Modern poets were inspired by Walt Whitman, who changed the form of

poetry

by choosing freestyle, and .abandon[ing] the standard line lengths,

rhymes, and standard

forms of traditional poetry. (Jonvanovich 738). Capitalization,

punctuation, phrasing,

and sentences are all altered from their accepted form. Capital letters

appear in the

middle of a sentence, and periods appear in the middle of a stanza.

Sentences begin and

end in odd places, and normal syntax is disrupted. Modern poets rapidly

change subjects,

.producing the sense of dislocation that some poets think is

characteristic of modern life.

(Jovanovich 739).

The content of modern poetry also differs greatly from that of previous

styles.

Many modern poets have adapted a cynical outlook on the world.

According to

Jovanovich, the poetry is experimental and often dark, with anger

directed toward society

in general. Topics can include .the lives and perspectives of the

disillusioned, [and] the

outcast. (Jovanovich 575). Poets realize how .alluring, but how

destructively false [are]

the values and appearances of the few at the top of society. (Jovanovich

575). Modern

poetry is also rooted in French Symbolism, which portrays different

things, such as

material objects or the seasons to be symbols of something deeper.

Another important

element of modern poetry is the poet.s perception of reality. According

to Ellmann, the

modern poet questions reality and is unsure of the objective world.

Poets wish to express

.how important individual perception is in shaping reality. (Jovanovich

574).

The form of .The Statue. shows John Berryman.s break away from

conformity.

Berryman himself said he wanted to write .big fat fresh original and

characteristic

poems. (Bayley 86). Gary Arpin claims Berryman is fascinated with

technique.

According to Diane Ackerman, Berryman.s grammar use is different than

that of any

previous poets. Capitalization is found in the middle of a sentence and

in the middle of a

line. For example, the word .Respect. is capitalized in the middle of

the sixth line of the

second stanza: .For the ultimate good, Respect, to hunger waking..

Punctuation in .The

Statue. is also different than that found in traditional poems. For

example, Berryman

chooses to leave out commas in the sixth line of the sixth stanza:

.These thighs breasts

pointed eyes are not their choosing.. Berryman chooses to end his

sentences in strange

places. He places a period in the middle of the first line of the

fourth stanza:

.Disfigurement is general. Nevertheless.. According to Arpin, Berryman

experiments

with syntax. .A deliberately ruptured syntax quarrels with the unbroken

surface of style.

(The Times Literary Supplement 67). In the sixth line of the second

stanza, .For the

ultimate good, Respect, to hunger waking,. the word .hunger. is stressed

by placing it in

front of the word .waking.. These examples show that grammar is an

important part of

modern poetry.

The stanzas in .The Statue. shape the modern poem. Berryman wrote

seven

eight-line stanzas. Joel Conarroe notices a pentameter form is

interrupted in each stanza

by the fourth line, which has a tetrameter pattern. For example, line

three of the third

stanza says, .To spend its summer sheltering our lovers,. while line

four says, .Those

walks so shortly to be over.. Conarroe also says that each stanza in

.The Statue.

completes a thought, and Berryman changes subject quickly from one

stanza to the next.

Stanza one is about the sad condition of the world, stanza two is about

yearning for

tomorrow, and stanza three is about romance. Berryman changes subjects

so rapidly to

symbolize the disheveled state of modern life.

.The Statue. is also defined as a modern poem by its content. One

major subject

in .The Statue. is the difference between a poetic view of mankind, and

a worldly view

of mankind. Poets, according to Conarroe, look at mankind cynically.

This is

exemplified in the first stanza, when the statue, .looks only, cynical.

. .. at the city filled

with disappointment. The poet is also tortured. He can not share his

feelings with the

world about, .Wise resignation and world-weariness. (Conarroe 28). The

statue is also

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