| b o d y Look closely at the letters. Can you see, entering (stage right), then floating full, then heading off---so soon--- how like a little kohl-rimmed moon o plots her course from b to d ---as y, unanswered, knocks at the stage door? Looked at too long, words fail, phase out. Ask, now that body shines no longer, by what light you learn these lines and what the b and d stood for. |
| Lindsay Kaplan ENG 11 Professor Quinney February 18, 2003 An Explanation of Merrill's "b o d y" James Merrill's poetry often combines subtle elements of clever puns and multiple meanings, as well as autobiographical context that is general enough to be universally recognized by man. His acclaimed talent to combine figurative word play with emotional introspection is obvious in "b o d y". Layering different questions and allusions over the title word, he is able to bring a profound depth to the simple four-letter word and transform it into a declaration of his life, death, and the acknowledged plight of his existence. Beginning by reaching out the reader, Merrill opens "b o d y" with a simple, subtly alliterated command, to "Look closely at the letters." Immediately, one is drawn to the bold, drawn out title word, the spaces between each each letter giving them their chance to stand alone and be taken in as individuals. After his initial command, Merrill uses the rest of the first stanza, and the first line of the second, to ask if the reader can see the developing imagery and metaphors he himself sees within the word, "b o d y". His explanation of what he sees within "b o d y", or the poem itself, is only ten lines. However, Merrill is adept at wordplay and layering ideas upon specific phrases and words. Though the poem appears short, there are many meanings and themes that overlap to form this misleadingly simple poem. "Can you see," Merrill asks, and places the letters on a proverbial stage. Comparing each letter to an actor on stage, they enter the scene "(stage right)" to indicate one reading them left to right, or stage right if one were to be acting. The letters are each players in this absurd performance. As one reads a word, the meaning enters, exits, but forever stays in your mind. The letters are an important part of a whole, yet each letter has its own significance and contributions to the pronunciation and the definition of the word. Like actors, each letter plays a part and is part of the greater whole, the word or the play itself. The use of the theatrical metaphor is to compare an individual's life as a role in a play that continues long after they themselves pass. Shakespeare once wrote "All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players: / They have their exits and their entrances" . If "b o d y" is the play, and the page life, each letter is a player. A man, like a player, enters and exits. The show of life continues on though the character might be absent. Merrill enjoys to making coy references to other literary works, framing the original implications in the context of his own unique brand of writing. The reader is then asked to see "b o d y" "floating full, / then heading off-- so soon". Merrill again uses alliteration twice to emphasize the depth of his words. The play that is alluded to takes on another meaning as life, or Merrill�s life in particular. One enters life and lives their life, as the adage says, "to the fullest." This allusion is an indication of man's attempt to create a satisfying life before their time is over. Merrill lived his own life to the fullest, publishing poetry throughout his extensive life of traveling until he passed abruptly while vacationing in 1995. Although his immediate death was sudden, it was not unexpected. Merrill had been diagnosed with AIDS years prior, and had obviously anticipated his death. This is quite evident in "b o d y", which was published posthumously in his last collection, A Scattering of Salts. The letters of the word "b o d y" are next attached to imagery, as the "o" is compared to "a little kohl-rimmed room" which "plots her course from b to d". Merrill draws a mental picture of the "o" as a moon, rising and setting from the "b" to the "d" of the title. The moon, a shining globe of light in a night sky of darkness and nothingness, symbolizes the individual's life as journey on a predestined path that needs to begin at "b," or birth and end at "d," or death. Although the journey of "o" needs to be firmly placed between the letters " b" and "d," the context of that "o" is unique to each person. This is the course that the "o" plots in the poem's fifth line. Rimmed in black like an eye, the "o" also signifies one's personal outlook and view of the world and the body that they belong to, as well as the acknowledgment of one's own existence. One's eyes are open between birth and death, for they are conscious of their own life in the present, as well as their birth that precedes them and inevitable death that follows once the eye has shut and the "o" has finished its journey. The body is the tangible separation between birth and death. It is the evidence of a life lived, and the realm of palpable truth for an individual. Looked at from a strictly solipsistic viewpoint, it is the only aspect of life that one can truly know. Though Merrill wishes to continue his thoughts between the two stanzas of the poem, there is a noticeably awkward gap between the two. Here, he introduces the final player, the "y" of "b o d y". This final letter, "knocks on the stage door" from the poem's second line. One of Merrill's most notable abilities as a poet is the wry talent of breathing life into cliches, or dead metaphors. Suddenly, "knocking on death's door" is viewed in stark frankness. Personified as an actor in the final scene of the play, the "y" is "unanswered." Forming the letter into a question, the reader is forced to read "y" as the word "why." The question of death, life and this brief existence is never answered. It knocks on the stage door of life, but there is nothing able to sufficiently answer the powerful inquiry. Perhaps what is left unanswered is the question Merrill asks the reader, if one can see what he can. "b o d y" is broken up into a demand, a question, a comment, and another demand. In line eight, Merrill's lone comment relates back to his original demand to focus on the letters in the title. However, now he solemnly states that when "Looked at too long, words fail, / phase out." When reading a poem, or a even a word, for an extended period of time, literal meaning begins to break down. The words lose their meaning, the context is loss, and what was once words becomes inky scribble on a piece of paper. Suddenly, letters take on new meanings and spaces have new importance. Similarly, "b o d y" transforms from a tangible human being, to an exposition of the path from birth to death. Figuratively, a life that is looked at for too long loses meaning and becomes pointless in the grand scheme of things. A body is transient, as an individual's life is. Again, Merrill commands the reader in the eighth line to take notice of the letters, and to "Ask, now that body shines / no longer, by what light you learn these lines". Body no longer shines because the brilliant ball of light, the "o", which is life, has set from the "b" to the "d". The bold strikes of the "b" and the "d" are the lines which Merrill refers to, as well as his written verse. Between the lines of the "b" and the "d", sits the full o of life that our eyes once focuses on. One's attention is also called to Merrill's poetic lines. "b o d y" consists of two rhymed cinquains, with both stanza's first line in iambic pentameter, rhyming with the last line of the cinquain. This A / B / C / C / A rhyme pattern places particular emphasis on the third and fourth lines of the stanza, with a satisfyingly rhymed conclusion. As the reader continues into the last lines of the poem, he or she is subconsciously looking for a subtle rhyme to satisfy the rhyme scheme from the first stanza. Lastly, Merrill wants the reader to understand "what the b and the d stood for." Beyond understanding that the "b" stands for birth and the "d" stands for death, he is concerned with acknowledging what birth and death stand for. They are the beginning and the desuetude of life, for the "o" of "b o d y" most always be read between the gates of "b" and "d". Body is no longer shining for it has faded away in one's consciousness as they read. It exits one's mind like a player from a stage. It sets like a sun or moon. It passes like a life, full of hope yet destined for its ultimate fate. Conveniently reminiscent of a particular soliloquy in the one of Shakespeare's plays, MacBeth, Merrill's opinion of life ending so quickly echoes MacBeth's fatalist views. "Out, out brief candle!" Shakespeare once penned, comparing life's futility to a shortly lived light, shadows and the theater. Merrill manages to capture Shakespeare's cynical ten line monologue and create a witty poetic soliloquy of his own. Rather than speaking aloud to an audience, Merrill implores the reader to consider the "b o d y", the poem, and life itself. James Merrill uses multiple allusions and metaphors to thoroughly explain his opinion of life and death in his poem, "b o d y". Carefully melding together ideas and drawing them out for the reader in ten lines of verse, his cunning style and scholarly technique is only overshadowed by his raw, emotional depth. |
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