Young Writers Society

Constantly Risking Absurdity

.....Constantly risking absurdity
............................................and death
...............whenever he performs
.................................................above the heads
..........................................................................of his audience
...the poet like an acrobat
..................................climbs on rime
............................................to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
.......................................above a sea of faces
........paces his way
.........................to the other side of the day
performing entrechats
.................................and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
..............................and all without mistaking
.....................any thing
...................................for what it may not be

.....For he's the super realist
...................................who must perforce perceive
.....................taut truth
.................................before the taking of each stance or step
....in his supposed advance
......................................toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
........................................with gravity
.................................................to start her death-defying leap

And he
.........a little charleychaplin man
...............................who may or may not catch
...........her fair eternal form
...............................spreadeagled in the empty air
.................of existence




- Lawrence Ferlinghetti

That's fantastic.

You're right, too, it's so much better with the formatting. I think it works so well with the topic of the poem, and how easily it is read, even though it looks like it would be horrid to read, doesn't it. ^^

Lesson learnt: formatting makes a huge difference.

Thanks so much for posting it, Curves. ^^

*Hearts* Le Penguin.

That was wonderful.

It's strange...I don't see too many of these kinds of poems nowadays...I miss them...

Oops. I forgot to put my analysis on this. Oh well!

Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem, “Constantly Risking Absurdity,” is about a poet’s struggle to achieve perfection in his art. Ferlinghetti, a writer and publisher, helped pave the way for beat poetry, which is a poetry that emphasizes rhythm foremost. In his writings, he loved to experiment with words and take poetry to a new level, where he produced some remarkable works. Throughout his life, he tried to encourage new means of expression and he supported many writers and beat poets actively by publishing their work and introducing to the public new types of poetry.

Ferlinghetti’s poem compares writing poetry to tightrope walking, using metaphor, language, and design to hint that a poet writing a poem faces just as much of a struggle as an acrobat balancing on a tightrope. In the beginning, it seems that Ferlinghetti is speaking more of an acrobat than a poet since the first five lines appear to describe an entertainer who risks ridicule by his audience and death from a fall (1-5). However, Ferlinghetti connects tightrope walking and poetry together when he says directly after the first five lines, “the poet like an acrobat / climbs on rime / to a high wire of his own making” (6-8). When this comparison is first put forward, it sounds a little strange. Tightrope walking is usually performed in a circus in front of hundreds of people as a form of entertainment while poetry is usually written alone. Walking on a tightrope is seen as dangerous; writing poetry is not. Yet with this poem, there seems to be certain similarities between the struggles the acrobat faces and the struggles the poet faces. Like the acrobat, the poet must entertain the reader and, in the pursuit of entertainment, the poet is “constantly risking absurdity” by experimenting with language in such ways that might prompt ridicule from his readers, rendering the poem meaningless and the poet discredited (1). At first, the second line “and death” doesn’t seem to support this connection between acrobat and poet since if the acrobat fails his trick, then he’ll fall and risk death in a very real sense (2). However, metaphorically speaking, if the poet fails to convey the meaning of his poem and is discredited, his writing ceases to be meaningful, which signifies the death of the poet. As the poem continues, the metaphor between poet and acrobat is continued by descriptive language of the piece. The poet does ballet tricks “and other high theatrics,” perceives “taut truth” of the tightrope, and the final “death-defying leap” of Beauty (13-15, 21, 25-27). All of these descriptions are referring to the poet, yet the language is clearly describing an acrobat instead, which gives the reader the impression that the poet continuously has to face the struggle that an acrobat faces. The comparison between the poet and the acrobat is further emphasized by the design of the poem. The poem doesn’t have any periods or commas in it, which are ordinarily used in poetry to slow down or stop the reader, giving them a pause. Instead, the poem uses many awkward line breaks and indentations that are irregular. This design aids the poem by making the reading of it jerky and uncomfortable. Instead of reading it smoothly, like a Shakespeare sonnet, the reader’s eyes dart from one line to the next as if the reader were balancing, trying to restore order in this poem. The lack of punctuation forces the reader read the poem without taking any long pauses and, by the time the poem is over, the reader’s eyes are tired. This gives the feeling as if the poet had to cross from the beginning of the poem to the end of it without a break in one thought, balancing along the way past the jerky line breaks. In this way, the poet becomes the acrobat and his poetry that he writes becomes his balancing act.

Though the poet in this poem walks on the tightrope partly to entertain the audience with paltry tricks and theatrics, he also is striving toward a higher sense of beauty and perfection through his artistry. He climbs on “rime” which is a homophone that sounds like rhyme, but actually means a frost on cold objects (7). This word makes him seem very high up, for frost only would cover a rope when it is either very cold or very high up. In this way, his tightrope spans the world and he is able to pace “his way to the other side of day” by walking across the world from where the sun rises to where the sun sets (8-12). This tightrope that spans the world is “of his own making,” and to the reader, it appears very likely that he’ll slip and fall on this rope (8). This makes it seem absurd that the poet seems to disregard his safety and perform all these beautiful ballet moves for the audience, such as the “entrechats” and “other high theatrics” (13-15). Yet, even while he is doing all these tricks, he seems to be constantly aware of his situation, not “mistaking / any thing / for what it may not be” (16-18). Since the poet is in such a precarious position, he must be careful in how he perceives his surroundings. Unlike his audience, which can choose to be willfully deceived by his tricks, he must realistically be able to access what the “taut truth” is so he is able to make his way “in his supposed advance / toward that still higher perch / where Beauty stands and waits” (24-25). In this way, even though he does small tricks for the audience to watch, all his motions are ultimately aimed towards approaching “Beauty,” hoping to get closer to a higher beauty and perfection through his own sense of artistry (25).

Even though the poet is constantly working towards perfection, there is doubt whether he will be able to hold on to this beauty when it finally comes to him. “Beauty” is personified so that instead of being an abstract ideal that he is aspiring towards, it is described as a woman who waits “with gravity / to start her death-defying leap” (25-27). Beauty has become real and she holds some gravity, which means that she carries a force with her that could crush the poet in his attempt to catch her in her leap. Though she will never die since her leap is “death-defying,” he is only mortal and, if he, failing to catch her, falls, then he risks “death” (27, 2). Yet, even if he is able to catch beauty, there is still doubt whether he can hold on to it for long. Towards the end, the poet is described as “a little charleychaplin man / who may or may not catch / her fair eternal form” (29-31). This is an allusion to Charlie Chaplin’s movie, “The Circus,” a movie that Ferlinghetti probably saw when he was a young boy, given that Ferlinghetti was nine years old when this movie came out and Chaplin movies were very popular at this time. In this movie, Charlie Chaplin, who plays a clumsy bum simply known as “The Tramp” as a character, joins a circus as a clown and, through a twist of events, is eventually forced to walk the tightrope when the tightrope walker goes missing, despite little training and no preparation. He does this willingly, hoping to win the ringmaster’s daughter’s heart. During his act, everything goes wrong and finally Charlie Chaplin is forced out of the circus, only to have the ringmaster’s daughter come follow him after her father beats her. As she begs to let him take her, Charlie Chaplin’s character, realizes that he cannot keep her and, despite all his desire to keep her with him, is forced to let her go back to her empty existence in the circus. In much the same vein, the poet, though he desires Beauty, is forced to leave “Beauty” “spreadeagled in the empty air / of existence” (32-33). He cannot have her entirely, so he leaves Beauty. Yet, at the same time, Beauty cannot fall, instead seeming to be suspended indefinitely in her form as she leaps towards the poet. In this way, though the poet can never catch her fully and thus can never achieve perfection, Beauty’s trace still hangs around him and his art, making his risks on his sense of artistry and life worthwhile to him.