Disruptive Juxtaposition

Monday, September 18, 2006

RJ: "The Dumka" by B.H. Fairchild

The Dumka

His parents would sit alone together
on the blue divan in the small living room
listening to Dvorak's piano quintet.
They would sit there in their old age,
side by side, quite still, backs rigid, hands
in their laps, and look straight ahead
at the yellow light of the phonograph
that seemed as distant as a lamplit
window seen across the plains late at night.
They would sit quietly as something dense

and radiant swirled around them, something
like the dust storms of the thirties that began
by smearing the sky green with doom
but afterwards drenched the air with an amber
glow and then vanished, leaving profiles
of children on pillows and a pale gauze
over mantles and table tops. But it was
the memory of dust that encircled them now
and made them smile faintly and raise
or bow their heads as they spoke about

the farm in twilight with piano music
spiraling out across red roads and fields
of maize, bread lines in the city, women
and men lining main street like mannequins,
and then the war, the white frame rent house,
and the homecoming, the homecoming,
the homecoming, and afterwards, green lawns
and a new piano with its mahogany gleam
like pond ice at dawn, and now alone
in the house in the vanishing neighborhood,

the slow mornings of coffee and newspapers
and evenings of music and scattered bits
of talk like leaves suddenly fallen before
one notices the new season. And they would sit
there alone and soon he would reach across
and lift her hand as if it were the last unbroken
leaf and he would hold her hand in his hand
for a long time and they would look far off
into the music of their lives as they sat alone
together in the room in the house in Kansas.

~ B.H. Fairchild


*

Huh. Hmm. The first stanza's so... so... dull. Ten lines and one real image? I like my poetry to be made of thicker stuff. I forgive this poem that initial slackness, however, in that the subject matter requests and makes good upon that quiet outset: it is the peace from which the poem spirals out, says its peace about the sobriety nostalgia and gratitude can (should?) impose, and eventually returns to. The poem begins in Kansas, in other words, and returns to Kansas by stanza four: "together in the room in the house in Kansas", as an ending, is way more powerful than the words themselves have any right to be. This is what's meant when we say a line or an ending must be earned: "the sky green with doom" and "the homecoming, the homecoming, / the homecoming" transfigure the ending line into more than the sum of its parts. It's a final line rife with the weight of lived experience.

17 Comments:

  • I balk at the idea of a lamplit window evoking distance. Plains are vast, sure, but vaster still when unpopulated, and the warmth of the image draws you into the poem rather than spiraling you out from it, which you identified, correctly, I think, as the general direction of Mr. Fairchild's next stanza. When a poet draws on such a borderline cliche image (the "hearth," as I saw it) s/he necessarily evokes the traditional cliched responses, in this case ones of coziness, nowness. By sticking the word "distant" before the simile he has set up a rather "disruptive juxtaposition," working against the image's time-honored inclinations and perhaps adding to your feeling that the first stanza falls flat. At least, it added to my feeling that you are right. On the other hand, the hearth is nothing if not nostaligic, so maybe I need to swallow the simile like so many green lawns and slow mornings. Can you even write a poem intended to evoke nostalgia without lapsing into some cliche? Is nostalgia too manufactured a feeling to avoid these pitfalls? I'm actually asking that question. Recommend someone. Or go at it yourself and post it on up here.

    On a brighter note, I have to say that the last image is extremely effective, perhaps because of the proliferation of the word "hand." Hand: durable, gnarled, multifaceted, effective, experienced. To compare it to something that might one day be blown away, stunning.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:34 PM  

  • Hi, Anon. You wrote: "Can you even write a poem intended to evoke nostalgia without lapsing into some cliche? Is nostalgia too manufactured a feeling to avoid these pitfalls?" I say Yes to the first and No to the second. I'm in favor of nostalgia. Or perhaps I'd be more precise if I were to say memory: nostalgia contains a twinge of "Ah, those were the days." Sepia-tinged photographs on the mantle and the like. What seems to redeem this nostalgic impulse however - albeit a partial redemption in the case of the Fairchild poem at hand - is a persistent if low-level hum of uncertainty and change. Of danger. Nostalgia alone won't do: that's for Hallmark cards and home movies. Well-pitched reminiscences can have a home in accomplished and skilled poetry if that reminiscence comes coupled with an awareness of some greater stake. That's my take. Didn't mean to rhyme right there.

    By Blogger Wil, at 9:43 PM  

  • "spiraling out across red roads and fields
    of maize, bread lines in the city, women
    and men lining main street like mannequins..."(stanza 2)

    Why are the men and women like mannequins??? What do these lines mean? What are the "bread lines"??(I just had a test on this poem and I want to know the answers, thank you.)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:17 PM  

  • @Anon

    Bread lines = long lineups during 1930's (economic depression) of people waiting outside Soup Kitchens and such for food.

    pretty self-explanatory, especially if you've taken Social Studies 11.

    By any chance you didn't fail that course did you?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:53 PM  

  • Is this a lyrical, didactic, pastoral or an elegy? Kind of confused =(

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:50 PM  

  • I had that same test too, and I chose didactic. I didn't think it was a lyric or an elegy, but it blended several ideals together, so that made it confusing. My answer is probably wrong as well.

    The mannequins should represent thoughtlessness.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:59 AM  

  • To anonymous:
    "Is this a lyrical, didactic, pastoral or an elegy? Kind of confused =("

    I have the same test as you I believe, and I chose pastoral. It can't be didactic because didactic is an educational/instructional poem where it would constantly go: "Tell him...tell him" etc etc. And an elegy is a funeral poem. I'm just torn between lyric and pastoral because if you recall the caption at the top of the test where they state that a "dumka" is a form of song, but also pastoral is about countryside as well. But I chose pastoral because it did not have a specific rhyme scheme. I could be wrong.

    "spiraling out across red roads and fields
    of maize, bread lines in the city, women
    and men lining main street like mannequins..."(stanza 2)

    Why are the men and women like mannequins??? What do these lines mean? What are the "bread lines"??(I just had a test on this poem and I want to know the answers, thank you.)

    To Anonymous:

    I put that the men and women are well-dressed because mannequins are those display dolls that are dressed up in clothing at retail stories. It was either between well-dressed or thought-less if I were to connect that to mannequins.

    -------------

    But for the meaning of the poem I used the hint from the written response for the poetry section as to what the poem is trying to say. Since they asked us to write about contrast, I believed that the poem could be about his parents thinking about their past working as farmers until the depression broke out, people began to move into cities? Well I read the caption at the bottom for "thirties" and it read something along the lines of the great depression with financial problems and unemployment causing people to move out to cities.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:11 PM  

  • Heh, I think we all had the same test...

    I chose Pastoral as well.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:33 AM  

  • Hi, Im sure this is lyric poem. But could you tell me what was the answer to the question: what happened to the old couple after the war? They gain financial wealth, they are not comfortable with their traditions, or neighbours and there was the forth option as well?
    What is the theme of this poem?
    Thanks

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:28 PM  

  • what does "and now alone
    in the house in the vanishing neighborhood" means in this poem?
    Thanks

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:29 PM  

  • Haha. I'll help you guys out here.

    The parents are contemplating the significant events of their lives.

    "the dust storms of the thirties that began / by smearing the sky green" is personification.

    "lining main street like mannequins" implies that the people are spiritless. If you read the poem a couple of times, you will realize that they are lining the streets waiting in food lineups during the great depression. They are not like mannequins because they are well dressed, they are not. They are not thoughtless, just spiritually broken by the depressing times surrounding them. During the Great Depression, suicide was at it's highest in North America ever. So, the answer is: the people were spiritless.

    The phrase "smile faintly and raise" is assonance.

    The repetition of the phrase "the homecoming" emphasizes the relief people experienced after the war was over.

    The parents experience an increased interest in music after the end of the war. It helps them reminisce on their lives, which the music is a symbol of.

    The poem "The Dumka" is a lyric. It is not pastoral, because it is not about country life. It is literally a recollection of life's events for the couple. It is not didactic, there is no instruction involved. It is not an elegy, either. It is a lyric. BIG hit at the beginning of the section where it tells you that a 'dumka' is a type of song.

    Lastly, the symbol in the poem is the music. The music, as stated a few of times in the poem, represents the lives of the couple. The swirling and magical feeling that you get while listening to music was enough to trigger their memories. The music, in other words, is a symbol of their past.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:51 PM  

  • what test was this poem on ?
    which test are you people talking about?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:21 PM  

  • it was on the english 12 exam.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:50 PM  

  • it was in english 12 exam.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 5:52 PM  

  • What term best describes stanza 2

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:07 PM  

  • I'm not sure but im in 10th grade and our teacher gave us this assignment but i think stanza 2 is a flashback since they are talking about what they had to do.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:32 PM  

  • hey you guys.

    Im' currently in grade 12 and was looking for some help on this poem through Google. Good thing I found this post!

    Most of your answers seem to be correct according to the released provincial exam on the BC ministry site.

    Here's the link:

    Exam:http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/search/grade12/english/release/exam/0908en_p.pdf

    Answers:http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams/search/grade12/english/release/key/0908en_pk.pdf

    Check if your answers are correct!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:06 PM  

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