A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island Frank O'Hara The Sun woke me this morning loud and clear, saying �Hey! I�ve been trying to wake you up for fifteen minutes. Don�t be so rude, you are only the second poet I�ve ever chosen                         5 to speak to personally                                  so why aren�t you more attentive? If I could burn you through the window I would to wake you up. I can�t hang around                           10 here all day.�                     �Sorry, Sun, I stayed up late last night talking to Hal.�  �When I woke up Mayakovsky he was a lot more prompt� the Sun said                                  15 petulantly. �Most people are up already waiting to see if I�m going to put in an appearance.�                                       I tried to apologize �I missed you yesterday.�                       20 �That�s better� he said. �I didn�t know you�d come out.� �You may be wondering why I�ve come so close?� �Yes� I said beginning to feel hot wondering if maybe he wasn�t burning me                25    anyway.                �Frankly I wanted to tell you I like your poetry. I see a lot on my rounds and you�re okay. You may not be the greatest thing on earth, but                      30 you�re different. Now I�ve heard some say you�re crazy, they being excessively calm themselves to my mind, and other crazy poets think you�re a boring reactionary. Not me.                                                     35                                 Just keep on like I do and pay no attention. You�ll find that people always will complain about the atmosphere, either too hot or too cold too bright or too dark, days                   40 too short or too long.                                 If you don�t appear at all one day they think you�re lazy or dead. Just keep right on. I like it.  And don�t worry about your lineage                        45 poetic or natural. The Sun shines on the jungle, you know, on the tundra the sea, the ghetto. Wherever you were I knew it and saw you moving. I was waiting for you to get to work.                                               50                                    And now that you are making your own days, so to speak, even if no one reads you but me you won�t be depressed. Not everyone can look up, even at me. It                      55 hurts their eyes.�                           �Oh, Sun, I�m so grateful to you!�  �Thanks and remember I�m watching. It�s easier for me to speak to you out here. I don�t have to slide down                              60 between buildings to get your ear. I know you love Manhattan, but you ought to look up more often.                                                    And always embrace things, people earth                     65 sky stars, as I do, freely and with the appropriate sense of space. That is your inclination, known in the heavens and you should follow it to hell, if necessary, which I doubt.                                         70                                        Maybe we�ll speak again in Africa, of which I too am specially fond. Go back to sleep now Frank, and I may leave a tiny poem in that brain of yours as my farewell.�                   75 �Sun, don�t go!� I was awake at last. �No, go I must, they�re calling me.�       �Who are they?�                                 Rising he said �Some               80 day you�ll know. They�re calling to you too.� Darkly he rose, and then I slept. Questions 1.) What is the meaning of the Sun's message? 2.) What can be inferred from the poem about Frank? 3.) Who is "they" that the Sun is referring to in lines 77-80?

Analysis The speaker is Frank O'Hara himself, who has just had a conversation with the sun. Because the sun has the ability to speak, the poetic element of personification is used. This poem is also an example of apostrophe because Frank talks back to the Sun and carries a conversation with it. The poem is the one promised to Frank by the sun from lines 74-75. The audience is no one in particular. O'Hara is writing for himself, disregarding the criticisms of the sane and crazy poets alike. He is writing despite whether or not people will actually read his writing. The purpose of the poem is to let readers of Frank O'Hara's poetry know why and for whom he is writing. He is writing because that is his occupation. He never answers if he enjoys writing or not, but he writes not for the critics or to attract new readers. This poem could also serve as advice for new writers. According to the sun, writing is something one should always continue despite the comments for the sun is always reading the work even if no other person does. The occasion is Frank�s conversation with the Sun. This poem reveals many characteristics about Frank O'Hara. In lines 49-50, the sun states that he was "waiting for you [Frank] to get back to work." These lines signifies a breaking point in his career as a poet where he quit writing according to other�s tastes and began to write according to his own. He must have been vacationing in Africa for in line 72, the sun states that, "Maybe we'll speak again in Africa." Frank also lives in Manhattan and absolutely loves living there (63). The last stanza is the most abstract in the whole poem. The sun announces that he must leave because "they're calling me" (77-78). According to the scientific theory that the sun revolves around the earth, the sun could be referring to the other half of the world that is calling out for light. Lines 80-83 reinforces the initial message of the poem. If Frank continues his steady work, the world will eventually see his work and give him the recognition he deserves. The phrase, "Darkly he rose" (82), in the last line contains a paradox. The sun does not have the ability to rise darkly, because the purpose of the sun is to give light.

poem taken from Wider Than the Sky edited by Scott Elledge (1990)