Poetry Anthology - City Blues

Poetry Anthology - City Blues

Text (NB: the bits in brackets represents the pairings of words in the original poem):

Sunday dawn in a November city

the bully (light)(sun) wades in

set glass aflame

(slams)(puts) (dark)(hard) shadows on anything

not big enough to take it.

The wind (strips)(unzips) trees

makes them tittle-tattle

harsh small talk

(puts)(drives) their leaves into a lurch

somewhere.

A sheet of paper

(followed)(chased) by a coke can

takes ridiculously to the air

(floats)(flaps) into the sunlight

is a (swan)(bird)

tumbles

knows its place

as the less fortunate should.

In the (shadow)(shade)

this (minuscule)(small) steeple

somes to the point

which is more than can be said

for the big-time (corporations)(companies)

and their (skyscrapers)(sky-spoilers)

(napalmed)(lit up) by that

lousy sun.

Notes:

Title: City Blues: urban landscape; 'blue' - melancholic, depressed, sad; 'Blues' - music? 'City' - depressed city, going through recession?

Themes: Conflict: between nature and (the lack of) humans? Between rich and poor?

Structure/Form: free verse; poet gives reader choice: you can choose a synonym or antonym. Good/Bad word in each pair

There is a clear juxtaposition between poverty (here, being the coke can and paper) with the rich (big, commercial buildings).

There is contrast between the weather (wind, sun) and man made things, such as the coke can, paper, big buildings

The reader is allowed to choose his own path, like he would do in life, by given a choice of words to choose. Usually, one word is significantly more powerful and destructive than the other. This perhaps indicates that the author's message is trying to tell us that you have to act powerfully and destructively in the city in order to succeed. If you don't force your way into the city, then you splutter and grind to a halt, much like the coke can and paper.

There are four sections (as represented by the four chunks of text written above):

1) Sunrise

2) The Wind, Trees

3) The Wind, Litter

4) Church, Sky Scrapers

Section 1 - Sunrise:

Streets are deserted

Religious day ('Sunday Dawn')

The sunlight is being personified

Section 2 - The Wind, Trees:

Wind is destructive: 'strips', 'drives', 'lurch'

Section 3 - The Wind, Litter:

Rubbish = symbolic of people

        paper -> elegant/transformed 'bird/swan'

'tumbles / knows its place' -> failure + representing dreams/hopes

Section 4 - Church, Sky Scrapers:

Sun: 'napalmed', 'lousy', 'bully', 'sets glad aflame' --> Sun = bully