2. What is a poem?
―It is not meters, but a meter-making
argument, that makes a poem—a
thought so passionate and alive
that, like the spirit of a plant or
animal, it has an architecture of its
own, and adorns nature with a new
thing‖
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. Thus, the greatness of Ferlinghetti’s
―Constantly risking absurdity‖ will be
evaluated on the following criteria:
Not its meter, but its ―meter making argument‖
Its passion and liveliness
The originality of its architecture
If it ―adorns nature with a new thing‖
4. Constantly risking absurdity
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrachats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
6. Acrobat imagery
Subject of poem ―performs/above the heads/of his audience‖ (3-5)
How appropriate that poem is structured:
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
The word ―he‖ is literally above the word ―heads,‖
which is literally above ―audience‖ – as a real acrobat
would literally perform above the heads of his
audience
the poet risk writing ―above the heads/of his
audience‖ – they might not understand his
message(4-5).
7. The unique indentation and choppy spacing on
the poem contributes to Ferlinghetti’s attempt
to convey that, like an acrobat, the poet
is, ―balancing on eyebeams/above a sea of
faces‖ (9-10).
As an audience follows the ―entrechats/and
sleight-of-foot tricks/and other high theatrics‖
of an acrobat, the poem’s reader’s eyes follow
its staggered phrases unconventionally spaced
across the page and his written ―sleight-of-foot
tricks‖ (14-16).
8. The structure of the poem mimics the climbing action of an
acrobat in the way the phrase is broken up into lines and spaced
strategically:
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
9. The structure also mimics his taking of steps:
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
The way in which the poet uses emjambment, cutting lines off
mid-phrase, reflects his climbing ―toward that still higher
perch,‖ as ideas are cut off into sections and the structure
resembles an various levels, like perches (24).
10. A transition occurs midway through the poem on line 19:
For he’s the super realist
as ―For‖ is the first word to be capitalized since the first
word of the poem, signaling a transition or development to a
new idea (19).
11. It is noted that he ―must perforce perceive/taut truth‖ to
advance, ―toward that still higher perch/where Beauty
stands and waits‖ (20-1, 24-5).
However, though Beauty will ―start her death-defying leap,‖
he ―may or may not catch/her fair eternal
form/spreadeagled in the empty air/of existence‖ (27, 30-3).
o He is trying to attain beauty
o He may or may not attain or ―catch‖ her
12. Yes, ―Constantly risking absurdity‖ is
a great poem
No conventional structure or meter, but present
structure and meter best emphasize poem’s point
Passion and liveliness in the thrill of risky theatrics and
death-defying stunts
Ideas and ―architecture‖ of poem are truly
different, original, and suiting to its idea
Throws out new idea:
13. To think about…
Taking the ―next step‖ can be risky, but such risks are
often necessary to get to ―that still higher perch‖
One ―may or may not catch‖ the ―fair eternal form‖ of
who or what one seeks – so to risk so much for the
change of failure can seem absurd
But, one can choose an existence of always trying to
reach that perch, and thus ―Constantly risking
absurdity‖ in the process
