Resurrection of Nature and Modernity in Merwin's `Drunk in the Furnace'
By
Golam Rabbani
29th batch
M.A.
Session: 2003-2004
Department of English
Jahangirnagar Univesity
Savar, Dhaka
Bangladesh
Merwin comes forward to rescue human and humanity with his barrier breaking voice that has been hurled against the harsh walls of reality. He dives into the wreck of himself and the world and creates a new dimension where the resurrection of a modern era appears with a new tone of Nature and harmony. The revivification is based on the new visions in the old songs, formation of the abandoned, antiestablishment, the marginalized prophet who has some new prophecy, a new interpretation for nature and the theme of recycle. The major symbols are the `Furnace' and the `Drunk' who circulates the idea of resurrection throughout the whole poem. The new song of new era is expressed through the music of metallic materials, which is the way of the prophet to teach real essence of life. Also a subtle denigration is there for the institutional Christianity. Aggressively, self-consciously, defiantly, the poem reasserts themes in a new key chosen for its excruciating dissonance. "The Drunk in the Furnace" establishes a complex vantage point from which Merwin can survey the wreckage of human cycle. The poem is, like its central figure, both defiant and circumspect: it secretes stories, none of which are allowed to emerge. But in the context of the entire cycle, especially in the light of its reconstructed development, it is lucid enough.
Inspiration is a major phenomenon in this poem where the song is the source of it. The metallic song produced and composed by the drunk shows the vision of modernity. Here the drunk works as...
... middle of paper ...
... desires a simple world free from all ambiguities. Only a resurrection of present modern world and Nature can ensure this freedom. The harmony in nature and stability of human mind are way to realize the true meaning of life.
Prepared by:
Golam Rabbani
29th batch
M.A.
Session: 2003-2004
Department of English
Jahangirnagar Univesity
Savar, Dhaka
Bangladesh
Works Cited:
Bowers, Neal. "W. S. Merwin and Postmodern American Poetry." The Sewanee Review 98 (1990): 246-59.
Molesworth, Charles. "W. S. Merwin: Style, Vision, Influence." W. S. Merwin: Essays on the Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelson and Ed Folsom. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1987. 145-58.
Ramsey, Jarold. "The Continuities of W. S. Merwin: 'What Has Escaped Us, We Bring with Us.'" W. S. Merwin: Essays on the Poetry. Ed. Cary Nelson and Ed Folsom. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1987. 19-44.
...us 75.1 (Jan. 1991): 150-159. Rpt. in Poetry Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 58. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.
Meinke, Peter. “Untitled” Poetry: An Introduction. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010. 89. Print
Thomas." The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003. 101-10. Print.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Fifth Edition, Vol. 2. W.W. Norton & Company, New York. C. 1998
Poemhunter Inc., n.d. Web. The Web. The Web. 4 Dec. 2013. Davis, Arthur P. “Hughes.”
" The Southern Literary Journal 17.2 (Spring 1985): 54-66. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed.
Masson, Davis. Essays Biographical and Critical: Chiefly on English Poets. La Vergne, Tennessee: Lightning Source, Inc., 2007.
Mays, Kelly. "Poems for Further Study." Norton Introduction to Literature. Eleventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc., 2013. 771-772. Print.
Brooks, Cleanth. The Well Wrought Urn: Studies of the Structure of Poetry. London: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947.
Abrams, MH, et al. Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.
Abrams, M. H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Vol I. 5th Ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1986.
Mar. 1972: 86-100. pp. 86-100. Major, Clarence. American Poetry Review.
The consistent pattern of metrical stresses in this stanza, along with the orderly rhyme scheme, and standard verse structure, reflect the mood of serenity, of humankind in harmony with Nature. It is a fine, hot day, `clear as fire', when the speaker comes to drink at the creek. Birdsong punctuates the still air, like the tinkling of broken glass. However, the term `frail' also suggests vulnerability in the presence of danger, and there are other intimations in this stanza of the drama that is about to unfold. Slithery sibilants, as in the words `glass', `grass' and `moss', hint at the existence of a Serpent in the Garden of Eden. As in a Greek tragedy, the intensity of expression in the poem invokes a proleptic tenseness, as yet unexplained.
William Wordsworth. “Lucy Gray.” English Romantic Poetry .Ed. Stanley Appelbaum. New York: Dover Publications, 1996. 33 – 4.
"The Poetry of William Wordsworth." SIRS Renaissance 20 May 2004: n.p. SIRS Renaissance. Web. 06 February 2010.