Can somebody please help me analyze a poem ? I am new to poetry ? :)

[ItalianRacer]

Hi, I am new to the forum and new to poetry as well. :)

This poem is entitled "The Last Picture in the World," composed by Canadian poet Alfred Purdy.

A hunched grey shape
framed by leaves
with lake water behind
standing on our
little point of land
like a small monk
in a green monastery
meditating


almost sculpture
except that it's alive
brooding immobile permanent
for half an hour
a blue heron
and it occurs to me
that if I were to die at this moment
that picture would accompany me
wherever I am going
for part of the way

Can anybody please help me with its analysis ? I am supposed to analyze it, though my teacher was rather vague on what exactly I am supposed to come up with.

Thank you all, and I look forward to meeting you all as I become a part of this wonderful forum. :)

[ItalianRacer]

Darn, the "almost sculpture" is supposed to be indented about five spaces, but I can't seem to do it so it appeared to have centred it. Please take that into consideration if it makes a difference to the poem.

Thank you.

[ennison]

I reckon this is a pretty poor poem. Could your teacher not give you a better one to analyse. Anyway I guess it does get the idea of a heron's immobility across quite well. The notion that a picture would accompany him any part of the way is rather odd and probably nonsensical.

[PSRemeshChandra]

A 'hunched grey shape
'Framed by leaves
With 'lake water behind,


Standing on our
Little point of
Land like a small monk.


In 'a greeen mo'nastery medi-
Tating almost sculpture
E'xcept that it's alive,


'Brooding im'mobile perma-
Nent for half an hour
'A 'blue heron.


'And it oc'curs to me
'That if I were to
'Die at this moment,


That 'picture would ac-
Company me
Wher'ever I 'am going,


For part of the way.


The lines were skillfully locked by the poet whoever he was, to prevent full appreciation and enjoyment of his poem by dull wits. It was a common delight to poets of exceptional genius. The picture of the meditating and brooding heron on the end of the field, as immobile as a sculpture is going to be the last picture the dying man is taking along with him to wherever he is going. Therefore it has to be presented as if in a mist, at least that is what the poet wants the image to be for- to be seen in a mist. Since the image itself is far from vague, the unclearness can be created only in the meaning and significance of the image. Anyway, it is a fine picture of a heron, presented as a send-off to a departing human being. Now you can try to sing it: If you once successfully sing it, analyzing is nothing for you. Remember the short last line- For part of the way. 'A friend is a person who not only shows us the way but also walks with us part of the way.'

[JBI]

key words - "wilderness" and "loneliness" in "Canadian wilderness".

See Margaret Atwood's Survival then compare.

This is actually a particularly well developed Canadian genre, of the wilderness and the individual artist - the heron is a transposition - the vision of it alone in the wilderness is a parallel.

That's enough info, homework is assigned not to me, and I don't have my complete Purdy volume with me here in China, so will leave the real digging to you.

[winterroom]

The lines were skillfully locked by the poet whoever he was, to prevent full appreciation and enjoyment of his poem by dull wits.

Since you clearly have the matter in hand perhaps we should all go home.

I think the dullness is in the poem :smile5:

I did like this one by him though:
Lu Yu (AD 1125-1209)
(http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/purdy/poem2.htm)

winterroom

[JBI]

perhaps the dullness is you lack the context. Seriously, there is a background and a genre behind this poem. Not saying it is one of his best, because it isn't, but it has more than you claim.

[lobanw]

Just so I can help a little bit to ItalianRacer with his or her homework, I would say that there is another idea in this very short poem. One of death not as an agony, but death as blending with a world. That's why the fleeting moments are so voyeuristic and almost photographic, where one is watching without a thought. This is even more stress by comparing a stillness of living being with a stillness of a dead object, like sculpture. If it wasn't for the remark "that if I were to die" we would feel that there is already an impenetrable glass pane between the poet and the world.

[PoeticPractice]

I haven't even read the poem, even though it was copied here. What I did read was that you were "new to poetry", and that was the most interesting thing to me. I'm only too glad to help a bit with this topic. As for the poem, you already have some remarkable insight provided for you as an excellent starting point.

What I'd like to stress is the fact that in criticizing poetry we should always be new to it; that's not to deny the importance of the influence of historical circumstance, technique or style, etc. Nor do I intend to argue that art is created from/in a vacuum-state. What I do want to stress is that your subjectivity is imperative in the analysis of art. This can be taken to mean that just because one critic has said something about an object of art, that does not mean you therefore should necessarily agree with it, nor does it mean that you or anyone else can offer nothing else in terms of perspective. There is absolutely no everlasting uniformity to interpreting art, especially in the case of poetry, which is interpreted by reading and use of the imperfect system of language, often producing multiple interpretation--sometimes even by the same person! You can make a guess of a poet's intention or the meaning of a work, and it should be an informed one--as those who've spoken of this particular poem in this particular thread seem to have done--but that does not necessarily mean that this is the end of it. In fact, the people who have offered their opinions naturally would and should expect this, and this is what inspires debate and scholarship over artistry. If someone else were to come along and debate the points already argued about this poem, we could potentially arrive at an open discussion on these matters, and hopefully arrive at a mature process of scholarship. The separate and unique subjectivities and egos of these people in such a hypothetical argumentative situation is an excellent way to open the art right up and learn much more about it than otherwise possible.

What does this mean? This means that, yes, you could take their ideas and use them as a starting point for your own interpretations, but you don't always have to stop there. If you believe something can be argued further/less, or if you believe something altogether different, the reputation of one person or school's interpretation should not necessarily delegitimize your own interpretation--so long as it is informed with likelihood and is within solid reason.