Constantly risking absurdity by ferlinghetti

CONSTANTLY RISKING ABSURDITY VS YOU, READER 1

Constantly Risking Absurdity by Ferlinghetti

Constantly Risking Absurdity is one of the most famous poems by Ferlinghetti. The

poem discuses and at the same time illustrates various elements of poetic art of the poet. It

begins with focusing on the person who creates the poem as on an individual who creates a

kind of entertainment:

Constantly risking absurdity

And death

Whenever he performs

Above the heads

Of his audience.

Ferlinghetti involves a theme in the poem, which becomes parallel to the statement of

Robert Frost that a poem is “a performance of words.” Ferlinghetti sets an image of a circus,

which maintains values and perspectives of the artist, for whom the absurdity, which is

described in the poem, is the most serious threat which is not being accepted as something

serious.

This line is broken by Ferlinghetti after the skills of the poet are shown by the

“performs”; then a pause follows and it brings a kind of modification or qualification on a

notion which is apparently established.

The sequence which is used as an introductory one could have been ended after the

line number three – the forth and the fifth lines let the readers know about concerns of the

poet about intelligibility which is addressed to the masses, average readers; at the same time

he maintains the conforming to the controlling image of the top.

Ferlinghetti continues with the description of the artistic performance:

The poet like an acrobat

Climbs on rime


To a high wire of his own making

And balancing on eyebeams

Above a sea of faces

Paces his way

To the other side of day

Performing entrechats

And sleight-of-foot tricks

And other high theatrics

And all without mistaking

Any thing

For what it may not be.

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that Ferlinghetti creates assonance of

“rime”, “climbs”, “high”, and “wire” in order to tighten the patterns of the sound of the lines

of the poem. Thus, echo of sound in “climbs” and “rime” promotes underscoring of the line

image.

As critiques state, “The wire is “of his own making” as the poet, attempting to

discover and embody his own voice, creates his own challenge. The “eyebeams” reflect the

need of the poet for an audience and are also “I-beams,” the subjective aspects of the poet’s

creation. The next two lines show a familiar Ferlinghetti technique of rhyming the last word

of a line with the first word of the next line.”

Whitson states that the true rhyme of “way” and “day” also carries on the assonance

of “faces” and “paces” and “the other side of day” is the world of art, the world of darkness,

of dreams, of danger, of images. The phrase “sleight-of-foot tricks,” perhaps with a glance at

Wallace Stevens’ “The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man,” reveals the poet taking on a

common phrase and altering it slightly to make it appropriate for the acrobat-on-a-high-wire


image, but also for the poet performing his sleights on feet – metrical feet. The last lines of

this section emphasize Ferlinghetti’s obsession with accurate observation and with the

dangers induced by the pathetic fallacy.”

It is necessary to pay attention to the fact the the following section of the poem

develops the artistic role importance, creating an allusive bow to the truth and beauty of Keat:

For he’s the super realist

Who must perforce perceive

Taut truth

Before the taking of each stance or step

in his supposed advance

toward that still higher perch

where Beauty stands and waits

with gravity

to start her death-defying leap.

A glance at surrealism is created by the first line, which at the same time focuses on

the sound and structure echoes of “perforce perceive” in order to clarity perception of the

poet. It is suggested by the context of truth and beauty that the “taut” truth might also be

“taught” truth if to follow the tradition of the part performers of the literature.

“Stance” and “step” are alliterated and sounds of the “stance” and “advance” make a

rhyme, thus calling attention to the artistic process deliberation.

As for beauty, it perches above the artist, in this particular case it is characterized by

the critique as something which is “ready to defy, in a multi-level pun, gravity, as well as

death, in the Grecian-urn sense of immortality.”

In the last section of the poem, Ferlinghetti focuses on the human artist:

And he


A little charley chaplin man

Who may or may not catch

Her fair eternal form

Spread-eagled in the empty air

Of existence.

It is suggested, that the image of Chaplin is used to bring spirit of proletariat, or a

proletarian artist who is engaged in some action or even and he may not be able to reach

success in it. However, the artist dares to become involved even with no benefits for oneself

and even with no guarantee that he is safe (“in the empty air”); thus, he has no means to save

himself or his beauty.

Finally, the poem can be viewed as some testimony to its author. He believes that he

dares to make more tricks and more risky steps than any of the contemporary poets.

However, sometimes he loses the balance, so he tries to catch the image of beauty, its form in

the poem (Skau, 1989).

Analyzing the poem it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that it has some

resemblance to accentual verse. It is also important to mention that the poet does not make e

very line to be double stressed, syllabic, or alliterative. However, the style is used in order to

suspend the readers and later cast their gaze over all people from some height.

Ferlinghetti decided to separate the lines by the stresses amount, but not by counting

syllables, as many poets do. If an audience would be listened to while watching a high wire

act, it would be possible to notice that all the people are held in some kind of suspense by the

performer theatrics.

The performer sways all the time and sometimes it feels that one is nearly falling.

However, later the balance is restored again, the moves become more confident and then the


balance is lost again. Surprised inhalations represent the responds of the audience and each

time after the balance is obtained again, the audience gives exhalations of relief.

All these features of a performance were taken into account by Ferlinghetti when

composing the poem. He used a strongly stressed line to demonstrate the sway of the poem

and make the readers inhale.

Then the poet makes the lines slide to the left of the paper very slowly, calming the

reader down. Ferlinghetti uses less stress lines to reach such effect. Later the poem regains its

balance and the readers give an exhale.

The poem does not have any particular amount of syllables counted, which is

common in syllabics, neither has it had any specific amount of metrics which are stress and

not stressed. This pattern cam be compared to actions of an artist who planning his theatrics

and does his best to prevent the audience from being bored.

Hypnotic affect of suspense is realized by the artist, and the poet places the readers in

the trapeze artist’s shoes. From such height the readers can see all the “truths of humanity.”

The poem is opened by the words that the poet is risking death and absurdity above the

audience and above his readers.

Ferlinghetti does not main to claim that poets make some exploits due to their

physical powers and because of this risk their lives, but his aim is to explain the risks to put

one’s thoughts and feelings into a poem.

It can be compared only to walking on a high wire which is at the same time a

dangerous and terrifying journey which is undertaken to find one’s own beauty and truth in

people.

Some critiques believe, that theatrics of acrobats are used by Ferlinghetti as a devise

to fool the audience, to make a show for them, to amaze them and also get a great attention.

Constant struggle of the acrobat is used to find even more risky obstacles and actions which


are aimed at creation of entertainment and showing that the poet is still in his journey towards

vitally important answers.

As it has been already mentioned above, the poet is compared to Charley Chaplin in

order to show the readers that there is nothing supernatural about the character, but he is a

usual person. The poem is ended by showing readers that the end of the rope might never be

reached. Thus, the questions remain to be unanswered and the poet remains to be “spread-

eagled in the empty air of existence.”

It is also necessary to pay attention to the fact that the poem explains that very often

poets are lonely in their search for the truth and beauty – this loneliness is demonstrated by

the acrobat on the rope (An analysis of Lawrence Ferlighetti’s “Constantly Risking

Absurdity”).

You, Reader by Billy Collins

Biography of Billy Collins is very important to be taken into account in order to

understand the spirit of the poem better. The poet was born in 1941 and his first collection of

poems which was called Pokerface was published in 1977, having gathered more than

200,000 sales.

The poet was born in New York City, where he attended College of the Holy Cross.

Later he receives PhD degree in Romantic poetry at the University of California.

In academia he spends a lot of time, teaching English. In 2001 he was appointed as

the American Poet Laureate and received a national profile for the warmth and humorous

poetry which inspires.

As his biographer, notes, “An aiding legacy of his laureateship is the Poetry 180

project and resulting anthology which encourages high school students to read contemporary

poems for pleasure.”


Numerous awards have been received by Collins, including fellowships, which he

received form the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Collins continues his close association with the city and he was elected as the New

York state Poet for 2004. As it is mentioned in his biography, he “prefers the term

“hospitable” to “accessible” for his poetry and the experience of reading his work is indeed

asking to be invited into the home of a cordial and considerate host.

Collins frequently addresses the reader directly, thereby establishing what he has

described as a “temporary companionship.” His poems characteristically open with a specific

domestic context which creates intimacy, but the initial premise, that “little common ground”,

develops into something much stranger by the close: as Collins has said his poems might

unfurl logically but “the progress is usually toward something that is beyond my sense of

logic.”

The journey is often by way of humorous; few poets are as frequently hilarious as

Collins, but this is entirely compatible with depth and his poetry is not afraid to explore our

most serious preoccupations (You, Reader by Billy Collins).”

The collection of poems which involve “You, Reader” is set up in a chronological

form. Before the poems, start, the reader is addressed by the poem “You, Reader.” Some

experts interpret it with a tone which is taunting as Collins describes the readers, provides

some details of their characters, mentioning that they should be creative to the same extend as

he is.

However, his nervousness remains to be open, and it gives hints on the emotional

reaction of the whole collection of the poems. It is a very courageous step to address the

readers directly; at the same time it is an effective way to approach them.

Some irony and very clear sincerity can be found in the poem. The poet creates

atmosphere of a usual day, mundane routines, challenging imagination of the readers.


Starting the poem, Collins does not hide his curiosity or attitude towards the readers –

from the very first lines it is seen that he views the readers as people who can do the same as

he does:

I wonder how you are going to feel

when you find out

that I wrote this instead of you.

It is very likely that this way he expresses not only his attitude to people, but also

demonstrates that all of them are equal in their abilities. However, because of some reasons

they do not devote their time to the same issues, even if they are considered to necessary.

Collins continues:

that it was I who got up early

to sit in the kitchen

and mention with a pen

The lines above start demonstrating that the poet is not in a good mood and there is a

kind of reproach to the readers. Comparing “You, Reader” with “Constantly Risking

Absurdity”, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the poem by Collins does not raise

him above all people; of course, it demonstrates some difference, but it is not similar to

Ferlinghetti’s attempt to high the poet above other people to the height of an acrobatic rope.

The rain-soaked windows,

the ivy wallpaper,

and the goldfish circling in its bowl

Collins describes the environment he finds himself into. It does not differ from the

environment which many people find themselves in – it is grey, there is nothing special about

it, and in the current case even the goldfish which is circling in its bowl represents daily

routine. The poet continues:


Go ahead and turn aside,

bite your lip and tear out the page,

but, listen -- it was just a matter of time

before one of us happened

to notice the unlit candles

and the clock humming on the wall.

Similarly to Ferlinghetti’s poem, Collins demonstrates that all the life and finding

answers to the questions is just a matter of time. However, unlike Ferlinghetti, Collins

suggests that answers can be found, while Ferlinghetti emphasizes the fact that in many cases

something might happen and life of a poet breaks or finishes even before he reaches his aim.

Plus, nothing happened that morning--

a song on the radio,

a car whistling along the road outside--

The lines above contribute to creation of the routine atmosphere which looks like

unchangeable – it might be an attempt to demonstrate negative mood of the poet, and at the

same time an attempt to picture dullness of life, which is not changeable regardless of the fact

if anything is done or by whom it is done.

and I was only thinking

about the shakers of salt and pepper

that were standing side by side on a place mat.

Environments described by two poets differ a lot – the first one places the poem in a

circus, while the second one prefers choosing home, and particularly kitchen. However, both

images are aimed to picture life which has many sides and it is necessary to see them. At the

same time they demonstrate that it is necessary to act and take into account numerous factors


to reach the aims.

I wondered if they had become friends

after all these years

or if they were still strangers to one another

Similarly to Ferlinghetti, as well as many other poets and writers, Collins asks

questions in the poem. These are aimed at further description of the situation which the

protagonist of the poem finds oneself in.

like you and I

who manage to be known and unknown

to each other at the same time --

And again, more and more issues which the poet want to address are arisen in the

“You, Reader” in order to challenge those who read the poem. After this Collins gives clear

pictures of self and of the readers:

me at this table with a bowl of pears,

you leaning in a doorway somewhere

near some blue hydrangeas, reading this.

Wiring this way, he, similarly to Ferlinghetti demonstrates the difference between the

readers and himself. In the case of Ferlinghetti, he poses poets to be above the readers, but he

allows them to rise to his height and shows what his life is like. While Collins does not claim

himself to have some significant distinctions from usual people, he just mentions that he,

through his poetry, helps people to realize the things they could have been realized on their

own.


References

An analysis of Lawrence Ferlighetti’s “Constantly Risking Absurdity.” Retrieved from

http://jhamann.hubpages.com/hub/An-Analysis-of-Lawrence-Ferlinghettis-

Constantly-Risking-Absurdity

Skau, M. (1989). Constantly Risking Absurdity: The Writings of Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Troy, NY.

You, Reader by Billy Collins. Retrieved from

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=6479

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Constantly risking absurdity by ferlinghetti