Saturday, April 5, 2008

Intro. to "Body and Soul" by Charles Wright

Wright, Charles. "Body and Soul." The Norton Introduction to Poetry. J. Paul Hunter, Alison Booth, and Kelly J. Mays. 9th edition. New York: Norton 2007. 227-28.

This poem covers a lot of ground in each stanza using a plethera of figurative language. It reminds us how much there is to life, to not live close minded. My favorite part of the poem is the last lines,
Walk as though you'd been given one brown eye and one blue,
Think as though you thought best with somebody else's brain,
Write as though you had one hand with the last pencil on earth,
Pray as though you were praying with someone else's soul.

I enjoy these lines because they state in a short and simple manner to live with an open heart.

I like the way Wright uses metaphors and similes and his word choices. The poem is full of contradictons in that Wright states what we think we are, and says that we are not; for example, "The world's body is not our body,/ although we'd have it so." I really enjoy the Wright's style.

This poem relates to John Keat's poem "To Autumn." Wright uses the seasons to describe how we overlook the world that we are in. Keat's poem reminds us of all of the things that the changes of the seasons bring about. It reminds us that the world exists beyond ourselves as does "Body and Soul."

2 comments:

Melissa Kerrigan said...

I really like those last few line of the poem that you pointed out; they have a lot of meaning. When I read them my first thoughts were of the saying "Take a walk in someone else's shoes" or any version of that. It is really a testiment to appreciate every single moment one is given upon this earth. Though it is simply stated, it has a loud message, and I like the way you described it as well.

Marissa said...

I like how "Write as though you had one hand with the last pencil on earth" makes it suddenly so very urgent. The image conveys to me the idea that as soon as you start "writing" and keep it up, you're going to wear the pencil down to nothing--that there's a definite ending point--and yet, it's not something that can wait. Kind of a carpe diem feel.