I have to say that I rather enjoyed the poetry of James Dickey, though at times found it hard to understand and even harder to connect with. Still in the poem The Heaven for Animals, I found it interesting that he imagines and creates this very distinct place where animals rule through his poetry. These animals live as they did on earth, but better, glorified and each class; both predator and prey know their place and is contented with it. I hope heaven has hip boots!!
I also really liked the poem Cherrylog Road and how the speaker, though himself a dangerous motorcylist from "the wrong side of the tracks" speaks about theforbidden love and the anticipated sexual tryst of Doris Holbrook. It was ironic to me that this love affair to place in a junkyard, when thecouple could commit their sin in peace and away from prying eyes, but it also allowed the narrator to indulge in another fantasy of his. This poem so masterfully combinied the themes that we have been discussing this semester, female virginity/purity, masculinity,courtship, and even danger.
Dickey's poems also symbolized to me the realization and the basking in the simple things that may be gone all too soon. The dog laying on his feet in A Dog Sleeping on My Feet, or the sweet experience of commanding the animals while out at sea all day in Walking on Water, or even sleeping outside in a tent and hearing the animals in Sleeping out at Easter. Dickey provides his readers with many things, but one of the best is the emotions that the poems evoke.
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I liked a lot of Dickey's poetry too. Cherrylog Road was a really nice poem I liked it because of the story it had and for me it was easier to understand. It was a little funny that the only place they could meet was at the junk yard, but that I guess that shows how this is an immature, forbidden love.
Jenilyn,
James Dickey’s poems were some of the most difficult poems to understand that I have read thus far. They were especially difficult since I feel that they are so vague at times and are very open for one’s own interpretation. I found it interesting that you picked out that each class of animals was glorified in “Heaven of Animals” for I did not understand that section. I guess it is just difficult for me to actually picture all animals or even people for that matter to be equal in their own ways, yet still have unique qualities at the same time especially since in the world that we live in today, no one is actually treated equally.
I totally agree with you, thats exactly what i thought of when i read The HEaven of Animals. I feel like it was still life, but the best life for those indiviual animals. The hunters got the best prey, and the hunted got to live over and over agian, never haveing to have pain and dying. For a fair heaven for animals, this seems to be it.
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