The other world by Robert Wrigley (Corina Moscovich)

The other world

So here is the old buck

who all winter long

had traveled with the does

and yearlings, with the fawns

just past their spots,

and who had hung back,

walking where the others had walked,

eating what they had left,

and who had struck now and then

a pose against the wind,

against a twig-snap or the way

the light came slinking

among the trees.

Here is the mangled ear

and the twisted, hindering leg.

Here, already bearing him away

among the last drifts of snow

and the nightly hard freezes,

is a line of tiny ants,

making its way from the cave

of the right eye, over the steep

occipital ridge, across the moonscape, shed-horn

medallion and through the valley

of the ear's cloven shadow

to the ground,

where among the staves

of shed needles and the red earthy wine

they carry him

bit by gnawn bit

into another world.

Robert Wrigley

Few emotions are more complex than those dealing with death. “The other world” is a poem about a dead buck. The setting is very important: Since the beginning the word “here” marks territoriality. Visually, the word “other” in the title makes a contrast with the word “here” in the first line. It is a cyclical poem which starts with the title “The other world” and finishes almost with the same words. The title is quite open as it may be interpreted as a world after life, a world underground or an underworld. Both the title and the ending talk about another world we don´t know. Wrigley discusses two possible worlds: The world of the dead and the world of the alive, the world of the people and the world of the animals.

There are simultaneous meanings to be read in this poem. And there is no absolute meaning. The meaning is relative. What the reader brings to the text of the poem is important in deconstructing meanings and their positioning. The authority for meaning lies nowhere specifically; this encourages the reader to value multiple perspectives, meanings and interpretations. Through his strategies of imagery, personification, and the use of tone, the author is able to take an event such as finding a dead buck, and interpret this to be seen as analogous to life itself. Just as the deer met its death, we too will one day meet our death. Unlike the deer we are aware of mortality. Human beings may care about a dead deer but they care more about mortality.

The narrator describes the animal using dramatically different terms. The deer is now dead. He is no longer an animal. The dominant reading of the poem is the real description of the dead animal. While the reader can sense some sympathy for the deer, the narrator seems to speak objectively as he is not overly emotional about the situation. Throughout this naturalistic poem, the tone of the poet seems somewhat indifferent. The words “where” and “what” make me think of a piece of news. There is a reported speech form where an event is being told. The poem also goes from general to particular. There are many references and details. Most of the words refer to nature, either to vegetation or animal life. To understand a part of nature is to understand a part of ourselves.

“The other world” is composed by 30 stanzas, divided in two parts. The taste of this poem depends primarily upon a series of contrasts, not only in the state of the dead animal, but also in technical aspects of the poem such as mood and rhythm. It doesn´t have a rhyme pattern. However, there is a rhythm in the reading achieved by alliteration and monotony in the reporting of past actions.

The use of the relative pronoun along the first part of the poem gives a unique relevance to the mutilated buck. We get the feeling after so much crude, real description. The first part of the poem focuses in the past life of the old buck. It is a continuing naming of actions. There is a well-achieved contrast between these actions and the rigidness in death. In the second part there are words such as “moonscape”, “ground” and “earthly” with a common connotation. The first part of the poem talks about the deer as a whole. The second part is like a division of the same animal into many parts. We find a contrast of dimension with the “tiny ants”, “making its way”. The visual image that description gives to the reader is very powerful. These ants make the deer another deer. They highlight the change of biological status of the buck. There is a transformation. The last three lines of the poem are very powerful in meaning. This is thanks to their shortness. It is like an abstract of the whole poem: The personal pronoun “they” appears here for the only time in the poem.

Just as we learn from the buck, death is a part of life, without death, there would be no life; it is inevitable. In one´s journey through life, one will encounter hardships along the way; although these may impede our progress, we always move forward.

Corina Moscovich

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer BY JOHN KEATS. The impact of a book...

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer

BY JOHN KEATS

Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,

   And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;

   Round many western islands have I been

Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.

Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

   That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne;

   Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:

Then felt I like some watcher of the skies

   When a new planet swims into his ken;

Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes

   He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men

Look'd at each other with a wild surmise—

   Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

What book has had an impact on you comparable to Homer´s impact on Keats?

Reading and analyzing John Keats´s poem was an important part of the process. Then, I deeply thought about the books I have read in my life. I have chosen “Kane and Abel” by Jeffrey Archer. That book has had an impact on me comparable to Homer´s impact on Keats. I have read the book twice, the first time I was a teenager and the version was in Spanish. It was really amazing. Being so young, the book has opened my eyes. it helped me to understand, to be more curious, to want more. Not only did I learn about other people´s lives but I also learnt geography and economy. The second time I read it was like a reassurance, like a deep breath. It was 10 years later and the version was in English. It was a review of the book and of the things that happened to me. I gave the book another meaning, perhaps more complete. (Probably, if I read it every decade, it will be a different book each time).

Specific topics caught my attention: First, the story about two brothers being so different and so similar at the same time. Second, the way to face human life, from birth to death. Third, ambition, which is shown to the reader as different shades of an apparent bright color. Since then, I started to believe that basically, there are two kinds of people: One who looks for opportunities. Other, who waits for things to happen. No matter which one we are in, we always need perseverance.  

I felt inspired to create... I intended to convey in a poem the nature and meaning of the book´s impact. The reason I have chosen the shape of a poem and not a short story is because of the strong feelings that the book produced on me: I could only express them in a poem. I have tried to use words related to books and play with them regarding disposition. The structure of the poem itself and the movement I gave to certain stanzas has to do with the meaning I wanted to transmit.

What was challenging for me was to put together my “impact”, taking into account “John Keats´s impact” and at the same time feel the poem as an artistic creation. For the author, there is always a challenge in the artistic creation. The ones who will read or see the product: It may be the reader; it may be the critic or the need to be understood. In my opinion, artistic creation should be free of fears or worrying about who or how is going to interpret it/to be interpreted. But there is an inner critic inside the artist and the balance between them has to be reflected in the artistic creation.

Looking at the index

of my own biography,

I have found pages

with nothing to hide.

Following a canon

did not know which one

simply following it

did not where

it

   could

             take

me.

I have been smelling,

touching, tasting,

counting, searching

until one day

I realized

I have not been reading

I have not been reading

I realized

An archer shot an arrow

at the target of my age.

My life made a twist

in the less

                 expected

                                book.

I discovered a tool

that gave sense

to my entire history.

The language of literature

was in me

waiting to be clicked.

The arrow left behind

came back

to give another shot.

When there was no need

of reading again

the same biting chapter,

a highlighted character

invited me there

for just one more time…

  

To navigate through seas of words

and endless

                   possibilities

                                       of experimentation.

To open a door

I always wanted to open.

A desert island.

A tempting dessert.

A door I will never close.

Corina Moscovich

“Mimetic criticism: Poštolka (Prague) by Christian Wiman” by Corina Moscovich

Poštolka (Prague) by Christian Wiman

 When I was learning words

and you were in the bath

there was a flurry of small birds

and in the aftermath

of all that panicked flight—

as if the red dusk willed

a concentration of its light—

a falcon on the sill.

It scanned the orchard's bowers,

then pane by pane it eyed

the stories facing ours

but never looked inside.

I called you in to see.

And when you steamed the room

and naked next to me

stood dripping, as a bloom

of blood formed in your cheek

and slowly seemed to melt,

I could almost speak

the love I almost felt.

Wish for something, you said.

A shiver pricked your spine.

The falcon turned its head

and locked its eyes on mine.

For a long moment then

I wished and wished and wished

the moment would not end.

And just like that it vanished.

“Mimetic criticism: Poštolka (Prague) by Christian Wiman” by Corina Moscovich

What is the reality of human experience? As reality is the context in which the work is studied, one may think this was a real event in the poet´s life. Mimetic criticism is committed to truth, reality, and the idea that literature, in some ways, imitates life. The narrator is learning through imitation. The life of a human being and the life of an animal... As the falcon, the narrator needs to take a glimpse of his life. As the falcon, he never looked inside their story, an apparent surface story where feelings could not be expressed.

Poštolka is a poem composed of 28 lines, arranged in seven verses. There are nine sentences within those verses. It is written in a simple style. One part of the poem talks about the falcon, another about the narrator´s couple: “ours”, “naked next to me”, and “the love I almost felt” and a third one about the narrator´s feelings in such a confusing moment.

The first two lines give an account of what was happening: when and where. It gives images of the physical contemporary setting: “When I was learning words”, “you were in the bath”, “red dusk”, “orchard´s bowers”, etc. But then the physical world of the two lovers cannot be found so precisely. The 3^rd line is a continuation of the action made by the falcon. The fact that the falcon is a diurnal bird helps to make the poem more credible (According to the dictionary, a falcon is “any diurnal bird of prey of the family FALCONIDAD, sometimes trained to hunt small animals for sport”). The 4^th and 5^th lines give the reader an idea of what is happening between this couple.  The fourth line breaks the poem. The narrator is not alone anymore because he calls her in to see. And she goes next to him. When there is love there is no fear. The 6^th line has a fast rhythm. Many verbs that denote action: “wish”, “said”, “pricked”, “turned”, “locked”. The 7^th line, on the contrary, has a slow rhythm. Few verbs that denote no action but an end: “wished” (3 times), “would not end”, “vanished”.

Literature mirrors the world, reality. It is this idea that leads us to view the literary work as a true imitation, reflection or representation of the world and human life. The image of the falcon is allegorical, as the meaning is represented symbolically. It seems the falcon is an instrument to make the reader realize the kind of life this person is having. The poem is a narrative that talks about an event in a day in the narrator´s life: the intrusion and presence of a falcon.

The name of the poem Poštolka (Prague) and the sentence “When I was learning words” made me think of a foreigner in another country. I was surprised to find out that some of my thoughts in my brainstorm were confirmed by real facts. I found out that Christian Wiman, the author, has been a foreign lecturer at the Prague School of Economics. Poštolka is a poem that is better understood with the help of reference sources. Also, the sentence “I called you in to see” gives the idea that the narrator is surprised by the presence of the falcon. The woman was not afraid of the falcon. Probably she was familiar with it. I found out that the peregrine falcon is among Slovakia’s protected species and that there is an organization in Prague devoted to falcons whose website contains a live web camera view of peregrine falcons nesting on Tynsky Church at Prague, Czech Republic.

The poem is very visual. Throughout the poem there are verbs and words related light, vision and flight: “red dusk” (red color image), “a concentration of its light”, “scabbed”, “eyed”, “looked inside”, “I called you in to see”, “when you steamed the room” (white color image), “as a bloom of blood” (red color image), “seemed to”, “locked its eyes on mine”, “vanished”.

Both the rhythm and the sound of words themselves contribute to the meaning of Poštolka. In the first verse there are many words containing the “W” sound, like “when, was”, “were”. The rhyme pattern is ABAB. There is alliteration in “bloom of blood”. The voice in the poem is in first person but the point of view is omniscient and circular. It starts in a room, probably a place for study. “When I was learning words”, “it eyed the stories facing ours”, then the bird on the sill takes a view of the place. Then it shifts to the woman´s body, then to the woman and the narrator, then again to the narrator. The writer writes as if mirroring words: corresponding pairs. The repetition of the word “almost” shows the narrator´s emotion of that moment. The same as in “I wished and wished and wished” at the end of the poem. The, “For a long moment I wished and wished and wished the moment would not end”. Also, “When I was learning words and you were in the bath...” “pane by pane”. 

The use of pronouns and personal references is very interesting. The references to “you” and “I” are fairly similar in number. There are five “I”, one “ours”, one “me”, one “mine and then four “you” and two “your”. The use of “it” to replace “the falcon” is notorious because it gives more strength to the idea that the falcon is just an incident in these people´s lives. The word falcon itself appears two times in the poem, near the beginning, in the second verse and towards the end, in the sixth verse.

Through an eventful moment in his life, the author of Poštolka makes us think about deeper topics. He represents his world in the poem and readers see that representation in the text: Life as a continual change preceding death, as we are always in process. 

Corina Moscovich

die Lebensfreude, Joie de vivre, Zest for life, alegría de vivir

When I was (living) in Germany, during an important one to one conversation, the word “die Lebensfreude” was mentioned to me. 

As I wasn´t sure about its meaning, my friend looked it up in an English-German dictionary and told me: “joie de vivre” (yes, in an English German dictionary). Of course, having the French expression helped, but still, I was not sure about the exact meaning. With a quick search online through the cell phone, we discovered another synonym, this time in English: “Zest for life”.  I wrote it down on a piece of paper that I kept with me for a long time. As I love languages, dictionaries, etymology, etc; I decided to write down these three meanings, in case someone is interested.

Zest for life. Zest: Singular, Uncountable. Zest (for sth): enjoyment and enthusiasm: he had a great zest for life.

die Lebensfreude Das Leben (life) and freude (joy) means high spirits, soulfulness.

Joie de vivre is a French phrase often used in English (I told you!) to express a cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit.

Alegría de vivir could be a Spanish translation for the above, although they do not mean exactly the same.

Four languages, four different expressions for a beautiful concept. I wonder what Saussure would have said about this...

Corina Moscovich