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....
excellent response, well done.
ReplyDelete