Robert+Pinsky

Morgan Campbell ROBERT PINSKY

Biography:
Robert Pinsky was born on October 20, 1940 in Long Branch, New Jersey. After graduating Long Branch High School, he went on to further his education at Rutgers University and then to graduate work at Stanford University. One of his best-selling books was, The Inferno of Dante (1994). It was a Book-of-the-Month-Club Editor's Choice, and received both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award. Some of his other awards and honors include; the William Carlos Williams Prize, the Harold Washington Award from the City of Chicago, the Italian Premio Capri, the PEN-Volcker Award and the Korean Manhae Prize. He recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the PEN American Center. Robert is one of America’s top-level poets, translators and literary critic.

Want Bone
1 The tongue of the waves tolled in the earth's bell. 2 Blue rippled and soaked in the fire of blue. 3 The dried mouthbones of a shark in the hot swale 4 Gaped on nothing but sand on either side.

5 The bone tasted of nothing and smelled of nothing, 6 A scalded toothless harp, uncrushed, unstrung. 7 The joined arcs made the shape of birth and craving 8 And the welded-open shape kept mouthing O.

9 Ossified cords held the corners together 10 In groined spirals pleated like a summer dress. 11 But where was the limber grin, the gash of pleasure? 12 Infinitesimal mouths bore it away,

13 The beach scrubbed and etched and pickled it clean. 14 But O I love you it sings, my little my country 15 My food my parent my child I want you my own 16 my flower my fin my life my lightness my O.



Robert Pinsky’s “The Want Bone” is appropriately titled in which the poem is about wanting, desire, and longing. This is a slightly erotic poem that explores different states of wanting through four stanzas. The first sentence of the poem begins with the image, “The tongue of the waves tolled in the earth’s bell.” The tolling of the bell conveys emptiness and hollowness. The next line, “blue rippled and soaked in the fire of blue,” introduces a repeating image which is simple and energetic. In the next line, the central image is introduced, the shark’s jaw. Pinsky names the shark’s jaw, “the want bone” to actualize wantingness. The “dried mouth bones” of the shark that are “gaped on nothing”, “tasted of nothing and smelled of nothing,” and is “uncrushed, unstrung,” even as tongue of the waves are tolling, suggest an image of desire. Pinsky emphasizes the erotic nature of this desire in describing the jawbone as "the shape of birth and craving" that is forever "mouthing O." The “O” is a visual device that represents openness. In the following stanza, Pinsky focuses on energy of sexual imagery. The phrases “groined spirals” and “pleated like a summer dress” give erotic content that is packed with desirous energy. Then he redirects the attention to the absence in wanting by wondering where the shark has gone. He does this by asking, "where was the limber grin, the gash of pleasure?" Next, Pinsky switches back to the central image of the shark pared with action imagery. The next lines, "infinitesimal mouths bore it away, / The beach scrubbed and etched and pickled it clean" demonstrates the billions of bacteria nibbling away at the shark. Then, the verb choices "scrubbed and etched and pickled" encourage the energy of desire. Finally, the last three lines of the poem, the verb tense switches to present, which indicates that the desire is ongoing.

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Shirt
1 The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams, 2 The nearly invisible stitches along the collar 3 Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians

4 Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break 5 Or talking money or politics while one fitted 6 This armpiece with its overseam to the band

7 Of cuff I button at my wrist. The presser, the cutter, 8 The wringer, the mangle. The needle, the union, 9 The treadle, the bobbin. The code. The infamous blaze

10 At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven. 11 One hundred and forty-six died in the flames 12 On the ninth floor, no hydrants, no fire escapes—

13 The witness in a building across the street 14 Who watched how a young man helped a girl to step 15 Up to the windowsill, then held her out

16 Away from the masonry wall and let her drop. 17 And then another. As if he were helping them up 18 To enter a streetcar, and not eternity.

19 A third before he dropped her put her arms 20 Around his neck and kissed him. Then he held 21 Her into space, and dropped her. Almost at once

22 He stepped to the sill himself, his jacket flared 23 And fluttered up from his shirt as he came down, 24 Air filling up the legs of his gray trousers—

25 Like Hart Crane’s Bedlamite, “shrill shirt ballooning.” 26 Wonderful how the pattern matches perfectly 27 Across the placket and over the twin bar-tacked

28 Corners of both pockets, like a strict rhyme 29 Or a major chord. Prints, plaids, checks, 30 Houndstooth, Tattersall, Madras. The clan tartans

31 Invented by mill-owners inspired by the hoax of Ossian, 32 To control their savage Scottish workers, tamed 33 By a fabricated heraldry: MacGregor,

34 Bailey, MacMartin. The kilt, devised for workers 35 To wear among the dusty clattering looms. 36 Weavers, carders, spinners. The loader,

37 The docker, the navvy. The planter, the picker, the sorter 38 Sweating at her machine in a litter of cotton 39 As slaves in calico headrags sweated in fields:

40 George Herbert, your descendant is a Black 41 Lady in South Carolina, her name is Irma 42 And she inspected my shirt. Its color and fit

43 And feel and its clean smell have satisfied 44 Both her and me. We have culled its cost and quality 45 Down to the buttons of simulated bone,

46 The buttonholes, the sizing, the facing, the characters 47 Printed in black on neckband and tail. The shape, 48 The label, the labor, the color, the shade. The shirt.



Robert Pinsky’s poem “Shirt” is written in a series of sixteen sections of three lines each. Within the poem Robert reflects upon a shirt he wearing. This poem is not in chronological order in which the scenes switch back and forth between describing the physical shirt he is wearing, and the history of the shirt and workers who produced it. In the first section of the poem, Pinsky uses vivid imagery to draw attention to the various pieces of fabric that are being sewn together to create the physical shirt. “The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams, /The nearly invisible stitches along the collar” (lines 1-2). He then finishes the section by informing the reader that the shirt is made in a “sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians” (Line 3). In section two, Pinsky continues to describe the factory workers. He points out that they take breaks, eat, talk about money and politics. (Line 4-6) He does this to “humanize” the workers and let the reader know that they’re just like regular people. Robert then begins section three by bringing the reader back to wearing the shirt. “Of cuff I button at my wrist.”(Line 7) He then instantly switches scenes in the following sentences, describing the different machinery found in the factory. The punctuation in this section provides a dramatic effect. “The presser, the cutter, the wringer, then mangle. The needle, the union/ The treadle, the bobbin.” (Line 7-9). Pinsky does this to reference the hard work of the factory workers. He ends this section with “The infamous blaze.” This adds shock factor and interest and makes the reader want to know what’s to come next. Throughout sections 4-8 Pinsky dives into history as he talks about the tragic disaster of the Triangle Factory. The rhythm and tension speeds as he tells about the “One hundred and forty six (women who) died in the flames”, as there were no hydrants and no fire escapes. (Line 10 – 12) He tells about the witnesses watching men helping women out the building, then into “a streetcar, not eternity “ and how some jumped out windows to death on the street. Pinsky begins section 9 by referencing another poem and poet. “Like Hart Crane’s Bedlamite, “Shrill shirt ballooning”. The word “bedlamite” refers to an insane person. Pinsky is inferring that the male helper in his own poem, is the person throwing himself off the bridge in Hart Crane’s poem. Then Pinsky writes, “Wonderful how the pattern matches perfectly.”(Line 26) This line not only brings attention to how the two poems relate, but also back to the shirt. Sections 10 is all about patterns and fabrics. The poem then transitions again in section 11- 12 and gives readers’ history about Scottish clothes and workers. Sections 13-14 goes back to the shirt factory and gives images of the sweating workers. Sections 15-16 tie everything together in the end. These sections close the poem by making the reader feel more appreciative for the shirt they are wearing and to not take it for granted.

ABC
1 Any body can die, evidently. 2 Few Go happily, irradiating joy, 3 Knowledge, love. Many 4 Need oblivion, painkillers, 5 Quickest respite. 6 Sweet time unafflicted, 7 Various world: 8 X=your zenith.



Robert Pinsky’s “ABC” uses the alphabet to convey the theme of life. He starts off the poem by stating, “Anybody can die, evidently. Few go happily, irradiating joy, knowledge, love” (line 1-3). When he says this he means, everyone dies, but few can say they’ve lived happy, bright life full of knowledge and love. Then Pinsky goes on to say, “Many need oblivion, painkillers. Quickest respite” (line 4-5). Meaning, those who don’t go happily may have lived life trying to forget everything, and fix problems with pain killers for quick relief from reality. These people spend their “sweet time” disconnected from the world (line 6). The final line of the poem states, “Various world: x = your zenith” (line 7- 8). I thought of this final line as a math problem. To me, “various world” represents whatever world you and your mind live in, the way you live your life, your situations, and your problems. The “x” represents whatever you put into life and make of it. “Your zenith” is the outcome of your decisions and what you get out of life. As the zenith being your highest point, to me this represents your breaking point in life or your best (happiest), most successful point in life. So to me, this poem means that life is what you make it. You should live life to the fullest, let go of regrets and the past, and live a happy life. You are in control of your own “zenith”. Will your life be a breaking point or will it take you to the sky?

Dying
1 Nothing to be said about it, and everything- 2 The change of changes, closer or further away: 3 The Golden Retriever next door, Gussie, is dead,

4 Like Sandy, the Cocker Spaniel from three door down 5 Who died when I was small; and every day 6 Things that were in my memory fade and die.

7 Phrases die out; first, everyone forgets 8 What doornails are; then after certain decades 9 As a dead metaphor, "dead as a doornail" flickers

10 And fades away. But someone I know is dying- 11 And though one might say glibly, "everyone is," 12 The different pace makes the difference absolute.

13 The tiny invisible spores in the air we breathe, 14 That settle harmlessly on our drinking water 15 And on our skin, happen to come together

16 With certain conditions on the forest floor, 17 Or even a shady corner of the lawn- 18 And overnight the flashy, pale stalks gather,

19 The colorless growth without a leaf or flower; 20 And around the stalks, the summer grass keeps growing 21 With steady pressure, like the insistent whiskers

22 That grow between shaves on a face, the nails 23 Growing and dying from the toes and fingers 24 At their own humble pace, oblivious

25 As the nerveless moths, that live their night or two- 26 Though like a moth a bright soul keeps on beating, 27 Bored and impatient in the monster's mouth.

Robert Pinsky's poem, Dying, is a free verse poem. The poem begins with the line “Nothing to be said about it, and everything”.