BY:BOB FRAPPLES

David Bottoms

Biography

Born September 11, 1949

Son of a funeral director and a nurse, his father was the inspiration for many of his poems

Mercer University, B.A. in 1971

West Georgia College, M.A. in 1973

Florida State University, Ph.D. in 1982

(“David Bottoms”)

Biography

First full-length book of poetry won the 1979 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets

Has had over one hundred poems appear in magazines such as the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and the Southern Review

(Risser)

Critical Overview: Bottoms’ Trademarks

Southern settings and characters that reflect his personal experiences

Realism and simple language

Southern settings and characters

Bottoms’ poetry depicts “raucous scenes of the everyday South—ordinary, yet somehow mystical and always wonderful” as they “capture eternal truth and beauty by crafting images of ordinary lives and landscapes” (Dunlap).

“Bottoms is more than a regionalist” (Risser).

Realism and Simple Language

Similar to the use of a simple setting, the use of simple language gives the more complicated themes a greater effect.

Robert Penn Warren commented that "David Bottoms is a strong poet, and much of his strength emerges from the fact that he is temperamentally a realist. In his vision the actual world is not transformed but illuminated” (“David Bottoms”).

“Bottoms describes concrete subjects realistically, often the subjects work on the level of metaphor as well” (Risser).

“Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump”

Loaded on beer and whiskey, we rideto the dump in carloadsto turn our headlights across the wasted field,freeze the startled eyes of rats against mounds of rubbish.Shot in the head, they jump only once, lie stilllike dead beer cans.Shot in the gut or rump, they writhe and try to burrowinto garbage, hide in old truck tires,rusty oil drums, cardboard boxes scattered across the

mounds,or else drag themselves on forelegs across our beams of lighttoward the darkness at the edge of the dump.It's the light they believe kills.We drink and load again, let them crawlfor all they're worth into the darkness we're headed for.

1

5

10

Southern Settings and Characters

“We drink and load again, let them crawl/for all they're worth into the darkness we're headed for” (13-14).

Bottoms uses these ordinary characters and a distinctly Southern activity/setting– men on their way to shoot rats at a dump - as a canvas for a more intricate theme – death is inescapable.

Realism and Language

Interest in realism evident in attention to specific details: “old truck tires” (8); “oil drums” (9)

“It's the light they believe kills” (12) – Simple, informal voice of speaker highlights naiveté of rats/irony they cannot outrun death

Metaphor: “darkness we’re headed for” (14) is representative of death

Works Cited

Bottoms, David. "Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump." Armored Hearts. David Bottoms. Copper Canyon Press, 1995. 5. LitFinder for Schools. Web. 5 Apr. 2013.

"David Bottoms." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Biography In Context. Web. 22 Feb. 2013.

Dunlap, Barry L. "Waltzing Through the Endtime." Christianity and Literature 54.3 (2005): 458+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.

Risser, Lynn. "David Bottoms." American Poets Since World War II: Third Series. Ed. R. S. Gwynn. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 120. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.