The irregular stanzas are scattered all over the page, like a bomb has exploded within the poem. The truth of the matter is there is so much great poetry out there, its a wonder were not stumbling over it more often than we are. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. At the poem's conclusion, the speaker addresses his mother and asks her to teach him how to love a man properly, before appealing to a land "where apples thunder / the earth with red hooves. Every single person that visits Poem Analysis has helped contribute, so thank you for your support. Heres a brief paragraph where I should offer my apologies for being away so long, but I dont know that anything matters so much as the poems themselves and the words about them, when they appear. It holds a certainty that many other things dont have Most things may never happen: this one will. cigarette as footsteps fill the square like stones, a store window. In the second stanza of Aubade,the speaker focuses on what it is about death that hes so worried about. I check that poets bibliography, find a title that jumps out at me, and bam, read one of the best poems Ive read all year. These include but are not limited to examples of enjambment, caesura, imagery, and similes. Words used in close vicinity with "body." In the case of the former, the use of the apostrophe to address figures that are not literally present (i.e., "O father," "O mother") not only emphasizes the speaker's perceived distance from his own family, but also sonically echoes the content of the rest of the poem by mimicking noises of sexual pleasure. We've been around since 2011. Request a transcript here. Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare. In his take on the Garden of Eden in A Little Closer to the Edge, Vuong adds a twist to the tale of Adam and Eve. Wherever one looks in the collection, they see along with the speaker that the body is central in unifying all these disparate and opposite experiences simply because it is the physical material that underpins life, which itself is so curious and strange so as to connect things that otherwise would seem totally unrelated. He knows that eventually, the darkness outside will give way to light but for now, he gets to look around him and see the world for what it really is Unresting death. She her father is an American veteran. We are also told that the father will strike the mother figure in the near future. Not to be here. But enough rambling go and read it! Like "Threshold" before it, "A Little Closer to the Edge" is a poem that positions the speaker as an observer of the parentsthis time in a more explicitly sexual context. The room takes shape around him and everyone goes about their day, doing what they need to do. Considering the complexity and ambiguity of this past is one thing that gets the speaker thinking about his own ability to act violently and tenderly in the present. On most occasions that Vuong writes city, he is referring to Saigon, his birth place. Their shadows, two wicks. And as a child listening to that, it was so surreal to me. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. I come from a long line of poets. asprig of magnolia expands like a secret heard, The treetops glisten and children listen, the chief of police. And if so, what does that say about the kinds of stories we are conditioned to read and accept? My son, tell them the body is a blade that sharpens by cutting.". WebAubade with Burning City South Vietnam , April 29, #975: Armed Forces Radio played Irving Berlin's" White Christmas " as a code to begin Operation Frequent Wind, the ultimate evacuation of American civilians and Vietnamese refugees by helicopter during the fall of Saigon. I think you should read the poem to yourself over and over, not concentrating on knowing exactly whats happening in every line but trying to let it sink in anyway. . Religion used to do it for some, but nowadays, ancient rituals Created to pretend we never die do nothing. That a bomb crater can bear witness to the kind of generative act represented by sex also introduces an element of cyclicality to the poem, adding to the idea that even a doomed or hurt body can experience pleasure and produce new things. This, however, is not all: Night Sky with Exit Wounds is not just focused on honestly depicting the experience of being gay, but being gay in America. I see someone has linked to a poem, I follow it, read it, its okay I click on, find another poem by another poet, and its better. fill the square like stones fallen from the sky. Web[POEM] Aubade with Burning City - Ocean Vuong South Vietnam, April 29, 1975: Armed Forces Radio played Irving Berlins White Christmas as a code to begin Operation Frequent Wind, the ultimate evacuation of American civilians and Vietnamese refugees by helicopter during the fall of Saigon. WebBorn in Saigon, poet and editor Ocean Vuong was raised in Hartford, Connecticut, and earned a BA at Brooklyn College (CUNY). Dawn arrives in Larkin's "Aubade", but the speaker of Larkin's poem wakes up and watches day break by himself. It can be seen throughout the poem as he creates images that require the reader to use various senses to imagine them. An aubade is a poem that is written to accompany the break of day, most commonly in the context of two lovers parting. ultimate evacuation of American civilians and Vietnamese refugees by helicopter during the fall of Saigon. Ive been busy writing my memoir and publishing essays, and in a week and a daygod willing and the creek dont riseIll be defending my dissertation so you can call me Dr. Hazelwood. Night Sky with Exit Wounds study guide contains a biography of Ocean Vuong, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. Click on image to enlarge. In the future, we all enter into a state of being in which there is no touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with, / Nothing to love or link with. Im haunted by the idea of snow and that white Christmas we say we dream of in the U.S., but in South Vietnam, its different:Snow shredded / with gunfire. For instance, line eight of the first stanza reads: Arid interrogation: yet the dread and line eight of the second stanza: And shall be lost in always. The word god appears among the top 35 most frequent words, which is surprising considering the authors faith in Buddhism. Snow shredded. Snow shredded with gunfire. Its a challenge easily met by Vuong, whose lyricism is nothing short of dazzling. Copyright 1999 - 2023 GradeSaver LLC. This association of the child figure with expulsion, displacement, or tragedy is echoed in the poem that immediately follows "A Little Closer," "Immigrant Haibun. When we immigrated to America, all she had were these songs and poems. He fills a teacup with champagne, brings it to her lips. WebAubade with Burning City starts with an elegant picture of milkflower petals lying on the street that looks like a girls dress. Anne Azzi Davenport. Please continue to help us support the fight against dementia with Alzheimer's Research Charity. Separately, however, the last prose line of the poem suggests that the speaker sees another important aspect of tackling the immigrant experience in writing: Everyone can forget / usas long as you remember. The speaker knows how arduous the experience of immigration was for his parents, and he knows that it led to a less-than-glamorous place (e.g., his fathers abuses, his mother working at a nail salon la The Gift), but he knows that it was for him and his well-being. Hes a whole day nearer to his own death than he was yesterday. In the poem "Aubade with Burning City," I took Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," the lyrics, and wove it through a scene about the collapse of Saigon. He is thinking about what it is like to exist as nothing. Ocean Vuong, from Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press, 2016). In the poem Immigrant Haibun, for example we are able to understand how the experience of immigration was both daunting for the speakers parents but also brought them closer together. As a religious poet, Vuong writes about the body the same way a Buddhist would explore ithe uses the body as a synecdoche for the individual, as a metaphor for all the questions humans are constantly asking and the emotions humans are constantly harboring about themselves. "Aubade by Philip Larkin". Subscribe. Thank you. GradeSaver "Night Sky with Exit Wounds A Little Closer to the Edge Summary and Analysis". resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel. Larkin uses examples of similes and personification in this stanza as he describes the telephones crouch[ing], getting ready to ring and the Postmen who like doctors travel from house to house. In a sense, all Vietnamese farmers were poets, because while they were working, they sang, and the songs helped the rhythm of the harvesting and the seeding of the fields. In Vietnam, there's much dependency on the body. The Vietnam War is rightly considered by many, including the speaker of this collection, to have been a time of unimaginable destruction, death, and violence. Nonetheless, the speakers relationships with many different men do progress, reflecting one of the many paradoxes that finds its solution in the bodydespite knowing what it may cost, the speaker and his lovers choose to love one another because of how it makes them feel or how close it brings them to the peak of life. Death is no different whined at than withstood. something neither of them can hear. He doesnt believe that any argument or state of mind can dispel the solid, inescapable fear thats at his heart and the heart of every other living, sentient thing. The poem follows all of the death, destruction, and All the while, despite our best efforts, death exists. WebSuperSummary's Poem Study Guide for "Aubade With Burning City" by Ocean Vuong provides text-specific content for close reading, engagement, and the development of thought-provoking assignments. Red sky. The form is completed with the fairly consistent use of iambic pentameter. Throughout this poem, Larkins speaker takes the For Vuong, the body serves as an ultimate vessel carrying all degrees of emotions across the spectrum, the ultimate canvas for Vuong to practice his meditation the way he paints his poetic masterpieces. For example, that which exists between lines six and seven of the first stanza and between lines three and four of the third stanza. Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc. Mayall your Christmases be white as the traffic guard unstraps his holster. May your days be merry and bright. His poetry, thus, has a unique stream of religious consciousnesshe alternates between the Buddhist and the Christian voice seamlessly in from one poem to another, or even from one line to another in the same poem. Outside, a soldier spits out his cigarette as footsteps fill the square like stones fallen from the sky. Another intriguing implication behind the body image in Vuongs poetry is that he is channeling the influence of Walt Whitman into his writings. When the dust rises, a black dog, On the bed stand. Click on image to enlarge. Diction trend demonstrates a mixture of family and self-discovery themes: father, man, boy, mouth, body, tongue, hands, and Ocean are reiterated in multiple contexts. Things are in motion. Snow shredded. Red sky. Such a happy song, full of longing for love and Christmas trees and eggnog, is the one the U.S. used as a code for evacuation. Divided into three untitled sections, Night Sky with Exit Wounds showcases a linear thematic progression that more or less mirrors Vuongs life history and his self-perception development from childhood until present day. Audio recordings of classic and contemporary poems read by poets and actors, delivered every day. The second section of Night Sky with Exit Wounds has 11 poems written in 2,538 words. Finally, the apples in the final stanza are evocative of the forbidden fruit which led to Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and their thundering on the earth "with red hooves" evokes not only the intensity of the speaker's desired passions but also the animalistic nature of these passions. was a word. I cant reproduce it here because to do so would rob it of its movement, its dance across the page, and his use of enjambment is so stunning, and adds so much texture to the piece, that I just cant bring myself to do that. And she made it her goal to teach me how to write. The truth of the matter is there is so much great poetry out there, its a wonder were not stumbling over it more often than we are. Web Aubade by Philip Larkin is a beautifully dark poem about the inescapable nature of death and humankinds moments of despair. Because the butterflys yellow wing. In Aubade With a Burning City, he contrasts a scene of two lovers with one of bombing and destruction while Irving Berlins White Christmas plays in the background. When my grandmother would tell me about the collapse of Saigon, she would say, "Saigon, this sounds very strange, but I remember it fell during the snow song." Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape. Night Sky with Exit Wounds study guide contains a biography of Ocean Vuong, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. We have a habit of thinking things will be more difficult than they are, and when it comes to finding excellent poetry, I feel this is especially true. The speaker also notes how its in these moments, when there is so drink or friendly faces as distractions, that the reality of death sets in. In this archival edition of the podcast, the editors discuss two poems by Ocean Vuong. Theres nothing Larkins speaker can do to make death less real. Nevertheless, the invasion of Christianity in Vuongs literary schema is not entirely an inscrutable phenomenon. Both sides are important. It is a small unfocused blur that one cant quite see but also cant ignore. Anne Azzi Davenport is the Senior Coordinating Producer of CANVAS at PBS NewsHour. I could write a lot more about all of the other haunting lines, but Im out of practice. Finally, it is not just the personal and mythical that are interweaved in "Aubade"; rather, the poem is also centrally sustained by a discussion of the ways in which the sacred and profane interact. Correspondence concerning this project should be addressed to: letm@lafayette.edu, The Religious Fusion of Buddhism and Christianity, Interlacing the Family and the Individual Self, The Hypothetical Father Figure: Mythology Makes Up for What Reality Lacks. Viet-Thanh Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer-winning novel The Sympathizer calls Vuong the Walt Whitman of Vietnamese-American literature. Snow crackling against the window. Its presence in the poem, nonetheless, is evocative of both the stubbornness of love and passioneven against the backdrops of war and violenceas well as the fragility of love and its ability to be torn apart at any second by something like war. Accessed 1 March 2023. Murky and dreamlike narratives in the first section constitutes a sharp contrast against the second section, where Vuong moves away from the family theme to discuss coming of sexuality, love, and his American life. Audio recordings of classic and contemporary poems read by poets and actors, delivered every day. Its a good poem and you know I like poems about the body (and its functions, particularly the sexual ones). Christianity is a quintessential feature of the American identity, the identity which Vuong has internalized as a part of his own and projected back into his writings. Words such as face, eyes, hand, and body all show up in the most common words in the Whitman poetry corpus. The line is also significantly shorter than the others around it. Hes not so worried about the love not given or the time unused. Anne Azzi Davenport document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Our work is created by a team of talented poetry experts, to provide an in-depth look into poetry, like no other. Moving on, the speaker says that the fear of death is special. Milkflower petals on a black dog. Tonight, Ocean Vuong, recently chosen for the prestigious Whiting Award. Another Edenic moment in the poem comes when the speakera very unclear figure but one who nonetheless, as in past poems, resembles Ocean Vuong himselfask his father to "show [him] how ruin makes a home / out of hip bones." Though much is sacrificed in Night Sky with Exit Wounds in service of the American Dream or American ideal, we are provided with ample evidence throughout the collection that such an ideal is merely fictive. Red sky. In a poem under the same title, he refers to Telemachus, the son of Odysseus in Greek mythology who travels far and wide to trace news of his father, as a metaphor for his own efforts in constructing a father figure from imagination through writing. Their shadows, two wicks. This is the reason that the speaker most likely wants to learn "how to hold a man the way thirst / holds water": only in doing this himself will the speaker also be able to redeem his body, turning it into something loved, respected, and with agencydespite the hardships of the past and present. Snow on the tanks rolling over the city walls. He compares it to a type of anaesthesia that takes over everything and no one wakes up from. WebAnalysis: Aubade with Burning City. "A bicycle hurled through a store window. We respond to all comments too, giving you the answers you need. Appearances of "god" in Night Sky with Exit Wounds. Other narratives that ripple across the first section include the Vietnam War, the boat migration, and the family displacement that ensues it. The tenderness associated with both the speakers grandparents and parents in Vietnam makes it all the more heartbreaking that they were displaced from the country, but the speaker himself never forgets his own roots in violent events. What Ill say is weve been busy. Aubade with Burning City Ocean Vuong Milkflower petals on the street like pieces of a girls dress. Vuong grew up having had no patriarchal figure in his vicinity. With every mentioning of the body, Vuong instills a new meaning into the subject. But there are other equally impressive poems that also address death. Aubade with Burning City from Night Sky with Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong, Copyright 2016. Its Thursday (in America), and Im back to talk poetry. And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true. Click on image to enlarge. Click on image to enlarge. The Question and Answer section for Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a great Please check your inbox to confirm. This complex sense of erasure experienced by the speaker sheds a great deal of light on why he finds salvation in the body, which unifies the various identities that lead to his societal rejection. "A Little Closer to the Edge" Summary and Analysis. The anaesthetic from which none come round. Besides this deployment of the aubade in the poem, however, there are many other figurative and thematic elements that warrant further analysis. Open, he says. The idea of his death is not unusual for him. / Yikes. The fact that, even amidst a backdrop of war and destruction, there is tenderness and love that is so personal and significant for the speaker is a central theme that runs throughout the collection insofar as it ties in with the collections larger project of exploring duality. Think of the legacy weve left behind. This is importantly linked to the speakers interrogation of the body as a unifying force, one that connects the struggles of real people to the struggles that are lauded, told, and retold as part of the Western literary tradition. In addition to a close relationship with Buddhism, Night Sky with Exit Wounds also contains abundant biblical allusions and Christian references. Aubade with Burning City Related Authors Ocean Vuong Audio Poem of the Day. Used with permission of Similes, unlike metaphors, use like or as to compare one thing to another. My mother was also illiterate. What I really like about this poem is its juxtaposition of happy American lives who listen to Irving BerlinsWhite Christmas withthe first shell flashes as Americans pulled out of South Vietnam. In Newport I Watch My Father Lay His Cheek to a Beached Dolphins Wet Back, Untitled (Blue, Green and Brown): Oil on canvas : Mark Rothko : 1952, Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus, Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines. Aubade by Philip Larkin is a five-stanza poem that is separated into sets of ten lines. Postmen like doctors go from house to house. My grandmother, she was a rice farmer. He pieces together his past based on the stories told by his grandmother and mother, but intermingles it with myths borrowed from the Western literature canon. And in the end, after the song was broadcast and the U.S. evacuated the embassies and its people, the people of Saigon are left like the black dog wholies panting in the road. Urban Exploration in the February 2014 Poetry. Consisting of 3,372 words, the first section of the collection is made up of 12 poems. Rather than using his standard iambic pentameter, Larkin uses two dactylic feet. Central to the speakers undertaking of both of these tasks is his choice to foreground and center the body as a site where opposites are unified. The city burns in Telemachus, Trojan, Aubade with Burning City, and Immigrant Haibun, burying underneath its sidewalks bones of the death in Self-Portrait as Exit Wounds. 'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Copyright 2012. His fingers running the hemof her white dress. Its hind legs / crushed into the shine / of a white Christmas. This really happened (the song as a code name for the evacuation). And it's interesting how poems are carried from one culture to another. This idea, that pleasure and union with another person might serve as a type of bodily salvation, is also mirrored formally here since the poem is grouped into couplets. In an interview with The Guardians Claire Armitstead, Vuong himself addressed this engagement nicely: "Western mythology is so charged with the father [] Personally, Im always asking whos my father. This horse image is recurrent from poems like "Threshold" and will be repeated two poems later in "Always and Forever," a poem in which the horse transforms into a gun (using the heteronym "colt"). At times, the speaker attempts to show the various ways in which common struggles or occurrences can take on the significance of myth: for example, he sees himself at times as an isolated or banished lover like Eurydice (Eurydice), and other times he maps the experience of immigration to the travels undergone in the Odyssey. He knows and has always known that hed eventually die, but the idea of being dead comes upon him to hold and horrify. His literary space retracts in scale, his stories take place behind closed doors, and his thematic emphasis takes on a darker tone with terms like black and dies. The major thematic shift in the mid-section of Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a natural outgrowth of Vuongs coming of age. Its hard to comprehend as human beings what it will be like to Not be here or be anywhere. Word links visualization shows that action verbs like chasing and drag are often used in the vicinity of father, evoking a sense of pursuit. On the side of the sacred or religious, there are each of the poem's connotations of otherworldly whiteness or purity, as well as the nun's immolation at the end of the poem. Structure and Style is a poetry blog by two writers who love poems. 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