City Eclogue

After reading Ed Roberson's City Eclogue, I began to explore the different themes and ideas he expresses in each poem. Specific themes include natural beauty vs. artificial beauty, the industrialization of society, civil rights, racism, our material world, and pollution of the city. Also, our class discussion was very helpful because I had a chance to hear the other students' perspectives and takes on the book.

I really loved how 'Beauty's Standing' talked about various themes, such as natural vs. superficial beauty, as well as,the industrialization of society, and the destruction of family values. Building up to the section was the poem named 'Beauty's Standing' on page 37. Roberson goes in to great detail in explaining his thoughts on society's view on beauty. In class, we discussed that he could be talking about how we have warped our view's on beauty and have manipulated our world and society to a point where everything seems too superficial. For example, he says, “people talking to pictures in a magazine culture live on walls flatter than ground'. He is referring to the fact that we are so focused on what society tells us to look like. Another way of looking at this poem would be in the title. Maybe he could be referring to beauty's status, or its place in society. Meaning, perhaps natural beauty does not have a place in society anymore and we are too focused on looking perfect. Its a twisted society for sure. 

I really enjoyed the way Roberson was extremely descriptive in his writings. Throughout the poem, I noticed he kept describing the city as being trashes, or filthy. He discussed pollution a lot too. One description, in particular, that stuck out to me the most was the way he personified the city. For example, on page 42 Roberson writes, 'The flesh form of the city doesn't move in the same time as the city's material forms move into era and monument'. I loved this writing because it made me feel bad for the city in a sense. He represents the city as being alive and human-like, but continues to express that this society is just destroying it, turning it into this industrial dump. He also continues to explain that we are at fault for this madness. On page 45, he says 'never guilty of any more obvious than wanting things this way'. I feel he was trying to say that we have built this society to fit our luxurious needs, yet at the same time we are the fools destroying it. We have destroyed all of the natural beauty that the world brings. Its a shame if you ask me... 

I also enjoyed how Roberson set up the beginning of the book. He started to describe our world as being this beautiful place, filled with different parts of nature. Then he completely changes the mood of the story in a split second. He states on page 16, 'beautifully flowering trees you'd expect should rise from seeds whose fluttering to the ground is the bird's delicate alight or the soft petal stepping its image into the soil but here come the city's trucks bumping up over the curb'. This adds onto his idea of how we have destroyed the natural beauty of our world. He continues to discuss how our cities are disgusting and polluted. He provides very descriptive sentences, using the words 'trash' and 'garbage' frequently. This theme really makes me stop and wonder about how I have taken this world for granite. The main point I noticed was our society needs to focus on the nature of the world and not try to ruin it with all of our waste and unnecessary trash. We to recycle more and take care of our beautiful planet, before its one huge landfill....