I have to admit, I probably haven't read any poetry since I graduated high school. I read several of the Dickey poems, and really didn't feel like I knew what he was talking about in any of them, other than that he appears to really like nature, which is cool. I actually like poetry because I feel like most poems are so vague and ambiguous that I can make them mean almost anything anyone wants them to. So, it would probably help to show you how this poem looked inside my head.
I'd have to say my favorite of the poems I have read so far is "The Heaven of Animals." Dickey seems to be comparing the assumed innocence of cute wild animals to their primal instincts by framing his poem in "the circle of life." The poem starts out talking about "soft eyes", which made me think of little baby animals. While he never mentions what animal he specifically is talking about (maybe all, maybe a specific one) I was thinking about lions while reading this. Dickey says they have no souls, and "their instincts wholly bloom." I took this as meaning the cute little baby lion in my head is growing up and its instincts are taking over, telling my lion that he is "more deadly than he can believe" and must hunt and kill to survive. I think that Dickey is trying to compare the percieved innocence of the wild that some see to the actual hunting, kiling, and gore that it takes to survive.
I have no idea why Dickey wrote this poem. Maybe he just really loved nature and wild animals. Maybe this is a metaphor. If it is, it could be a metaphor for all kinds of ideas related to human survival and violence. Maybe he is saying to people who view nature and animals as "better" than humans that animals are just as violent and brutal as men. Perhaps he is saying that every creature on earth has their instincts that tell them to survive, no matter what. He also says something that I found interesting, even though I have no idea what he meant by it: "Having no souls, they have come,/anywyay, without their knowing." It is unclear whether he is saying that just animals have no souls, or noone has souls, or if he means the animals are better/worse off for not believing in God and afterlife.
I feel like I haven't said anything with any actual meaning in this blog. I wonder if that's what poets want when they write-to create an intentional confusion on the part of the reader that provokes all kinds of different interpretations of their work. Or maybe Dickey is rolling in his grave with frustration at my stupidity. Either way, I like being able to look at these poems from basically any angle and making them fit my argument, whatever it is.
5 comments:
First of all I love the picture that you made of you and the lion. (Also love that it's your default.) I agree with you that Dickey really seems to like nature because in nearly all of the poems that we were given he always relates them back to the wild. I agree with you about the natural instincts that the animals are born with. I also agree with you about poets writing so that the reader can interpret in many different ways. I really don't like it when they do this because I never can actually figure out what they're saying and the thousand interpretations don't help the situation.
I think that the metaphor about human survival is accurate. It could be the larger idea that men are born innocent. But after time they are harden by tragedy and misfortune and develop a survival instinc that prevents them from fully enjoying life. It's like a young animal that learns he has to be vicious to survive in this world. A dog eat dog world.
I liked your interpretation of Dickey's poem, mainly for the fact that it helped me understand what he was trying to say. I am terrible when it comes to interpreting poetry, so reading your analysis was interesting and made it easier for me to understand.
Matt,
I too feel that poems never have just one real clear-cut meaning, which personally drives me crazy. In my favorite poem, I made religious connections, yet I still feel that they could be completely off from the message in which Dickey intended to get across to his readers. I guess I will never know. In this poem that you reflect on however, “The Heaven of Animals”, I did in fact make that same connection to a lion when he uses phrases such as “crouching” and “hunting.” When Dickey starts to write about waiting on tree limbs, I quickly changed my animal to a panther instead. I could not make a connection between the descriptions of these animals to a message, however your interpretation of the poem being that Dickey is saying that they “must hunt and kill to survive” fits very nicely. When thinking back on it, I agree that he is most likely talking about survival of the fittest. I also had a strange thought: What if Dickey is describing human beings as animals hunting one another, and only the strongest survive? It adds an odd spin to the poem’s meaning and can be applied to everyday life, such as the competitive business world that exists today.
Matt,
I would have to disagree with your last paragraph. :) I thought what you wrote was pretty insightful. I really was clueless when it came to this poem, and it has been interesting to read how everyone else interpreted it! But I really like how you said that you thought perhaps Dickey was trying to kind of debunk the myth of the innocence of the wild. It seems really fitting. Obviously, Dickey had a deep affection for nature and wildlife, and I think in order to love something, you have to respect it. And if Dickey felt people were taking animals for granted and not realizing what they really were, it would make sense for him to write this poem, in hopes of changing peoples view points.
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