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Post by Gerry on Feb 5, 2019 20:35:58 GMT -5
This poem exists in sharp contrast to the Hass poem, and it establishes its metaphor and then turns it. How successful is that turn? And how do we read that ending metaphorically?
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Jimmy
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Post by Jimmy on Feb 5, 2019 21:58:07 GMT -5
I think the turn is successful for at least two reasons:
1 - It is quick and surprising, basically an entire sentence reduced to two words “BUT, wait a minute, WHAT just happened?”
2 - Those two words are an interesting way to say “however, when we look more closely” or something much more mundane - he almost mimics present day sort of slacker speech. I’m not sure if that existed in his time or not. Also, the hard consonant “T” creates a jerky feeling and I almost want to physically turn my head when I read it.
I read the end as saying that old age can be a time of contentment and freedom. Perhaps the “old lady” of the title is awakened by this idea. That spirit is shrill, not necessarily beautiful, but it can be mustered in sufficient strength to not stop the aging process but certainly temper it with vigor.
To me its worth noting that Williams breaks from pure image onbervation to make some judgement in the last three lines. I think this move gives the poem much of its strength. The bird songs don’t merely exist in the wind - they temper it. This personifies a conflict between the two in which the piping is cast more positively. Also, the word shrill - this makes it more realistic, not just descriptive but judged as being an unpleasant sound. The other key word for me is “plenty.” This again is imagined as he could have stopped with saying it was loud or a chorus or something. No, it was a “piping of plenty” - which to me connotes peace. He does something similar in his poem “The Great Figure” - takes one word and teaches us how to read the poem.
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Post by betsey on Feb 6, 2019 21:08:42 GMT -5
I like your But, what? interpretation, Jimmy.
It interesting that the title is in singular "an old lady" but the images are plural - birds, flock, husks. Perhaps the old lady is each one of us, gaining and falling, all "buffeted by a dark wind," all mortal.
WCW's images are so sharp -- small cheeping (as distinct from shrill piping) birds, bare trees (yes, I am winter, above a snow glaze). One other poet draws such power from stark images - Dickinson. The poem is not without hope, though, despite death lurking . The flock doesn't need fertility. We need but awaken to a natural world. I hope he is right about the tempered part.
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linm
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Post by linm on Feb 7, 2019 11:59:32 GMT -5
The poem struck me as burying some honest truths inside the pattern of old age/winter contrasted by respite/ consolation. The birds are "small" and "cheeping" -- just the sounds convey insignificance; they are "gaining and failing" in their flight; the seeds are now "husks" and "broken," the piping is "shrill," no longer birdsong. Even though the pattern suggests a movement from diminishing and failing, to a positive resolution, I find that resolution is hedged throughout the poem. There is a turn, but the turn discovers more signs of decline, life reduced to survival, resting and eating. The "piping of plenty" is itself tempered by its shrillness. For me, the poem makes an old lady uneasy, more awake to the whole harsh scenario.
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Post by bluebird on Feb 7, 2019 19:19:14 GMT -5
The first 6 lines provides an image of a flight of small birds "skimming" "bare" trees "above snow"
but the first line tells us what the metaphor refers to.
We already know the poem is about old age as it is part of title but with the idea of "waking"
her...(both perhaps to wake her up but then I also thought of the Irish "wake" for the dead which is usually
a kind of merry time with food and drinks and story telling....so perhaps also to cheer her up.
The second set of 6 lines presents a push-pull...gaining, failing...so there is a sense of life in the old girl yet
though of course while the title speaks of one old lady the metaphor is of a plurality ... a flock in flight; so
who or what is the "old lady" that the poem is meaning to wake up? The first 3 lines of the second set of 6
presents a struggle (being tossed about in a kind of powerful darkness of winter wind) which seems to be
a metaphor for the difficulties of old age as a population or as an individual member of such a group.
The line "But what?" the turn phrase, for me is much like a Japanese Haiku technique
where he poet says, "wake up" and then reveals the philosophical point or the "lesson."
The last two lines of this middle 6 line section that contains the turn shows that the small birds have come to rest,
have positioned themselves, not in the most comfortable place, BUT they are attempting to do the best they can
to rest/survive this harsh period (of life) when both strength and resources are failing. The lesson, I suppose, is that
one must, in old age, be practical but not dour as next lines show.
The Final 6 lines presents the situation, the scene, the "where" and it is snow (that we know already is "glazed" and so
reflective...it is covered with what has been consumed or used already (broken seed husks) and perhaps this is a metaphor
for our past, our memories (and in this way it resembles the Hass poem, especially the beautiful musing: "Blackberry,
blackberry, blackberry"....and in WCW's poem the place the birds have come to rest (the refuge of the elderly which is
their memories of strength, joy, accomplishment etc.) sings out of them a perhaps shrill yet celebratory song of a life
well lived and enjoyed. The "piping" is reminiscent of bag pipes that have a rasp to them but one that files right down
to the soul and all the grace within it. I've often been struck by the edge the voices of old people can have, yet if you
touch them, as you may know, they are as soft as feather down.
WCW does not divide the poem into 3 sections but if were going to illustrate it I would do so in 3 images i.e. a triptych
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Susan
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Post by Susan on Feb 8, 2019 17:32:06 GMT -5
Does the metaphor work? I think yes, because of the turn. It is so simple it seems obvious, but then the obvious become more complex. Old age IS a flight of small cheeping birds... but now let me tell you more about what they are doing, how they are moving, how harsh the weedstalks are, etc. etc. I agree that the end seems a bit more hopeful -tempered, piping of plenty are positive.
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