Robert+Bly

By: Callie Granger

Biography:
Robert Bly was born in Minnesota on December 23, 1926. He attended Harvard University, then got his M.A from the University of Iowa. Bly has written numerous poems, and prose books, as well as translated Norwegian poems into English which introduced writers to the States that would have not been known. He started a literacy magazine for translation in the United States and co-founded “American Writers against the Vietnam War” As a poet, translator, and editor he has helped shape American poetry.

Call and Answer
1 Tell me why it is we don’t lift our voices these days 2 And cry over what is happening. Have you noticed 3 The plans are made for Iraq and the ice cap is melting?

4 I say to myself: “Go on, cry. What’s the sense 5 Of being an adult and having no voice? Cry out! 6 See who will answer! This is Call and Answer!”

7 We will have to call especially loud to reach 8 Our angels, who are hard of hearing; they are hiding 9 In the jugs of silence filled during our wars.

10 Have we agreed to so many wars that we can’t 11 Escape from silence? If we don’t lift our voices, we allow 12 Others (who are ourselves) to rob the house.

13 How come we’ve listened to the great criers—Neruda, 14 Akhmatova, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass—and now 15 We’re silent as sparrows in the little bushes?

16 Some masters say our life lasts only seven days. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">17 Where are we in the week? Is it Thursday yet? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">18 Hurry, cry now! Soon Sunday night will come.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">When first reading this poem it grabbed my attention because of how relevant it is today for it to have been written so long ago. The poem is written in first person present tense using “I” and “We” so that its message stays appropriate for any time period. Recently, there have been things happening in the world that can only be changed by the efforts of the people. For example, the civil war in Syria, multiple shooting deaths of African American males by law enforcement officers, and young people taking their own lives due to them being bullied or just unhappy. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Robert Bly uses rhetorical questions to make the reader think about their own personal values. Bly first questions why we do not “lift our voices these days and cry over what is happening.” This metaphor gets the reader to think about whether they have been an advocate for their own personal views. Bly says to “Cry out and See who will answer.” If there is something that you are passionate about there is no reason to remain silent about it, because there can be no change without the “call.” The call is a call to action, and the answer is the support that will follow once the call is made. The “jugs of silence” represent how issues have been contained and not dealt with. The word “cry” is repeated multiple times throughout the poem in verb and noun forms. The criers are advocates for their values. Some of the criers named are “Henry David Thoreau”, and Frederick Douglass, who were both writers and activists that made significant impacts in history. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This poem is about knowing exactly what you believe in and standing up for it before it is too late. The call to action at the end of the poem starts off with an analogy. Bly points out that “<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">some masters say our life lasts only seven days.” He then says to cry out before Sunday comes, which means to make a difference before it is too late. Without anyone trying to make the world a better place it will stay the same or get worse. Robert Bly first questions the reader on their views, shows them exactly why they need to advocate for themselves, and then tells them to do it before it is too late.



Snow Banks North of the House
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;"> 1 Those great sweeps of snow that stop suddenly six 2 feet from the house ...

3 Thoughts that go so far. 4 The boy gets out of high school and reads no more 5 books; <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">6 the son stops calling home. 7 The mother puts down her rolling pin and makes no 8 more bread.

9 And the wife looks at her husband one night at a 10 party, and loves him no more. 11 The energy leaves the wine, and the minister falls 12 leaving the church. 13 It will not come closer 14 the one inside moves back, and the hands touch 15 nothing, and are safe.

16 The father grieves for his son, and will not leave the 17 room where the coffin stands. 18 He turns away from his wife, and she sleeps alone. 19 And the sea lifts and falls all night, the moon goes on 20 through the unattached heavens alone.

21 The toe of the shoe pivots 22 in the dust ... 23 And the man in the black coat turns, and goes back 24 down the hill. 25 No one knows why he came, or why he turned away, 26 and did not climb the hill. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Snowbanks North of the house is a poem that anyone can relate to. Robert Bly uses metaphors to represent the aspects of life that many people are afraid to ask questions about like, relationships, love, and most of all death. Lines 1-15 show some of the metaphors used to introduce the symbols which represent themes in this poem. For example, “the great sweeps of snow that stop suddenly,” “thoughts that go so far,” and the son that “stops calling home.” The wife who no longer loves her husband shows that love can fade. The minister that falls leaving the church and the wine spoiling are symbols of turning away from religion, and more specifically Christianity. A minister is a strong figure in society and supposedly very close to God. A minister falling shows him moving away from the church. The wine represents the blood of Jesus Christ, so its spoiling is saying that Jesus Christ is not pure as he seems and questions the power of Christ. Bly uses personification when he replaces death with “the man in black”. The color black being used shows the reader that death is mysterious. Bly implies that humans do not understand why death sometimes comes when it is not wanted or expected. He says “no one knows why he came or why he turned away. The theme that stands out more than any other is death. If I had to rename this poem in a way that give the reader direct insight into what it would be about, I would call it “All Things Fade” Robert Bly shows that there is never any stability in life. Everything changes eventually. Feelings fade, the seasons change, we lose the ones we love, and then we lose our own lives to death. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #333333; display: block; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif; font-size: 16px;">

__ **The Buried Train** __

1 Tell me about the train that people say got buried 2By the avalanche--was it snow?--It was 3In Colorado, and no one saw it happen. 4There was smoke from the engine curling up

5Lightly through fir tops, and the engine sounds. 6There were all those people reading--some 7From Thoreau, some from Henry Ward Beecher. 8And the engineer smoking and putting his head out.

9I wonder when that happened. Was it after 10High School, or was it the year we were two? 11We entered this narrow place, and we heard the sound 12Above us--the train couldn't move fast enough.

13It isn't clear what happened next. Are you and I 14Still sitting there in the train, waiting for the lights 15To go on? Or did the real train get really buried; 16So at night a ghost train comes out and keeps going...

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In "The Buried Train", Robert Bly uses a calm tone, and symbols to recall an event that greatly impacted the speaker and the listener’s lives. Both people in the poem are having a conversation about the event. The speaker asks many questions like “Was it the year we were two?”. The speaker is probably talking to a friend or a sibling because they are the same age. It was ironic that the speaker asked a question, and then answered the question right after asking it. They asked the question and actually responded with details about the incident including smoke that rose from the train and where it took place which was Colorado. The poem is slightly confusing because it was said that the accident was in Colorado but it is never really revealed where the accident took place exactly. The speaker is talking about the tragedy very calmly. I was led to believe that the two people in the poem are angels that are recalling their death because it seems like they would not have survived the accident and they refer to the train as a “ghost train.” <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The poem is short, with no rhyme scheme. It is more like a short story than a poem. The speaker first asks about the train tragedy, then he gets an answer that has the details of the train getting buried in it. The speaker continues and tries to make the crash sound normal to the person listening. Then the question of when the accident happened along with a transition into the present where the speaker and the listener are in “a narrow place”. This might be the train station in Colorado. The speaker actually says that it isn’t clear what happens next. Before in the poem it was only implied that the two people really didn’t know what was happening in the past or the present. In the third stanza it actually says that they don’t. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The train is one of the symbols in the text. It represents life going on normally, the avalanche is the problem that shakes up life, the ghost train is how the event haunts the speaker, and the train being buried is the tragedy that is being covered up. The questions being asked show confusion and how mysterious the accident is. Even at the end there is no clear conclusion about what actually happened. The speaker asks whether they are “still sitting there, in the train waiting for the lights to go on.” This shows that they have been traumatized about the accident and still aren’t completely over it.