american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
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58 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
<strong>the</strong> “verbal record” of <strong>the</strong> “poet’s orig<strong>in</strong>ary experience <strong>in</strong> nature”<br />
(28–29, 80). As such, <strong>the</strong> poet’s experiences with <strong>the</strong> environment are<br />
<strong>the</strong> driv<strong>in</strong>g force of a poem’s creation. Experience, <strong>the</strong>refore, is primary,<br />
and language is a “flexible tool” used to represent and transform<br />
<strong>the</strong>se experiences <strong>in</strong>to <strong>poetry</strong> (80). Whereas Scigaj’s focus on <strong>the</strong><br />
“referential base of all language” (5) would seem to take some of <strong>the</strong><br />
creation out of poem-mak<strong>in</strong>g, Snyder’s “Front L<strong>in</strong>es” employs both<br />
micro-level metaphors and an extended metaphor. This figurative language<br />
has <strong>the</strong> rhetorical effect of heighten<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> stakes for <strong>the</strong> environment.<br />
Also, though <strong>the</strong> poem does not explicitly refer to <strong>the</strong><br />
speaker’s experiences, many readers are likely familiar with Snyder’s<br />
history as a logger, fire lookout, and environmental activist.<br />
Snyder beg<strong>in</strong>s “Front L<strong>in</strong>es” by personify<strong>in</strong>g those who harm <strong>the</strong><br />
environment as rapists and <strong>the</strong> environment itself as a woman practic<strong>in</strong>g<br />
self-defense. The first l<strong>in</strong>e depicts succ<strong>in</strong>ctly what <strong>the</strong>se rapists cause:<br />
“cancer” (18). He thus creates a strangely powerful mixed metaphor<br />
of rape and cancer. Like a metastasiz<strong>in</strong>g cancer, rapists spread across<br />
<strong>the</strong> land and destroy it. The depictions that follow of <strong>the</strong> rapists’<br />
actions and <strong>the</strong>ir effects on <strong>the</strong> earth are unequivocal. In <strong>the</strong> second<br />
stanza, <strong>the</strong>ir actions are perverse: <strong>the</strong> “Realty Company” and its<br />
clients “say / To <strong>the</strong> land / Spread your legs.” Here, Snyder compares<br />
<strong>the</strong> depraved abuse of a woman with <strong>the</strong> greedy abuse of <strong>the</strong><br />
land for profit. In <strong>the</strong> fourth stanza <strong>the</strong> rape imagery is more visceral<br />
and figurative. The speaker imag<strong>in</strong>es <strong>the</strong> bulldozer as a man rap<strong>in</strong>g a<br />
woman; it “gr<strong>in</strong>d(s),” “slobber(s),” “sideslip(s),” and “belch(s)”<br />
“on top of ” <strong>the</strong> earth and its bushes, which Snyder pictures as hav<strong>in</strong>g<br />
“sk<strong>in</strong>ned-up bodies” (my emphasis here and below). Snyder pa<strong>in</strong>ts<br />
<strong>the</strong> wanton siege of <strong>the</strong> environment by greedy men and <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
mach<strong>in</strong>es as a stomach-turn<strong>in</strong>g rape scene.<br />
All rapes are brutal, but <strong>the</strong>y are doubly so when both men and<br />
mach<strong>in</strong>es are <strong>the</strong> perpetrators. The angry and <strong>in</strong>trusive mach<strong>in</strong>es <strong>in</strong><br />
“Front L<strong>in</strong>es” po<strong>in</strong>t to a disturb<strong>in</strong>gly problematic relationship<br />
between humans and <strong>the</strong> environment. The pa<strong>the</strong>tic fallacies show<br />
how much agency humans have ceded to conscienceless mach<strong>in</strong>es and<br />
fur<strong>the</strong>r suggest that humans have become like mach<strong>in</strong>es <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
unth<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g (and programmed) abuse of <strong>the</strong> earth. “A cha<strong>in</strong>saw<br />
growls ” like a predatory animal and “jets crack sound” overhead as if<br />
disturb<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> basic senses of <strong>the</strong> natural world. Under <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>fluences<br />
of such predatory mach<strong>in</strong>es <strong>the</strong>re can only be “foul” breezes. The<br />
poem suggests that such a proprietary and destructive relationship<br />
with <strong>the</strong> land leads to or is symbolic of <strong>the</strong> overall “sickness” of<br />
America. As Katsunori Yamazato has claimed, Snyder “<strong>in</strong>dicts” an