This was the most confusing and crazy poem I have ever read. I dont understand it much and to my understanding I believe everyone that reads this peom will have a different view on it. It starts off some what with a quiet tone then it gets a little scary and the end it unknown. I dont know if its just me but I read this many times and each time I read it the question that lingered in my head was "what is going on? So I am going to do my best to break each verse down.
The first verse describe how "they" came and where "they were possibly from"
The second verse describes how "they" came, and I got the sence of them being innocent becuase it describes their eyes soft as they opened.
The third verse, I got the sence that they could be strong becuase it says that they outdid waht was required.
The Fourth verse was it talkes about blood and how they hunted.????
the fifth verse " they " seemed more dangerous because it says that they were "more deadly than they can believe".
The las verse was confuding it was like" their" purpose was to hunt and kill and that was ok...
I chose this poem because when I read the title it looked as if it were going to be easy because of the title but Im not to shure if the title has anything to do with the poem itself. Just my opinion..... :)
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I also had a hard time understanding all these poems. I interpreted this poem a little differently (which is probably completely wrong anyway.) I related this poem to slavery. I agree that the first verse talks about where they came from and where they were from. But to me, this verse only relates to the animals. I'm not sure how it would relate to slaves.
The second verse reminded me of the whites views of slaves. "Having no souls, they have come/ Anyway , beyond their knowing." The slaves didn't choose to be in slavery, they were forced into it "beyond their knowing" and will.
I agree that the third verse describes their strength. "Outdoing what is required" represents the slaves struggle to stay alive. They had to go beyond what was expected of them in order to stay alive.
I think the fourth verse relates to the masters mistreating the slaves. And the fifth verse talks about the slaves freedom in heaven.
I chose this poem because it was the only one that actually seemed to have an underlying meaning to it. But I'm sure that my interpretation is far off of what Dickey actually intended.
It talks about the animals hunting the other animals. For example,"These hunt, as they have done, but with claws and teeth grown perfect."
I think that not only this poem, but the entire collection of poems were very confusing and hard to grasp.
I think that you made a good attempt at breaking down each verse. I agree with the second verse that it is describing something innocent.
I would really suggest reading shannon's blog for this week. I just read it and I don't know if it is right or not, but it seems like it is at least on the right track (and if not, it is still a really interesting perspective). Her blog really helped me grasp an understanding on this poem from a different perspective.
If you want, I think it would be a really good idea to read her blog.
At first I also had a hard time reading this poem. I read it at least 5 times before I saw the meaning. After I realized what it ment, or at least my view on what it ment, I really liked it. I thought it was about animal heaven. A place where animals went when they died. It described Animal heaven a plave where all animals can be in their natural environments, free from human contact and abuse.
This poem I took as being about animals in the wood and took from the point of view of a hunter. Dickey seems like a hunter to me considering the theme of his book The Deliverance which is about man vs. nature.
I too interpretated the subject of this poem to be the slaves. The slaves were taken from the life they knew and everything that was familiar to them. By saying that they have "no souls," they are being dehumanized. Saying they aren't the same as white men, they were lesser. The land needs them and is flourishing with their work but this is not said so that you think the white men appreciate the work of their slaves. The land is who wants the slaves. The slaves are waiting to have power and rights and the reward that is mentioned would be freedom. At the end it is stated that the slaves live in fear but at the same time there is that little bit of respect because no matter how many times they are knocked down they keep getting back up.
I think that this poem is related to slavery. I felt as though it described the slaves outlook on life and their future hopes of an afterlife. The afterlife would be the reward for enduring the conditions that they are dealing with on a daily basis. It seems as though the main point of this was that the slaves felt as though they were currently live life in compliance with their masters so that they were not beaten and that they could look forward to their future in heaven.
Taysha, i think that i really don't understand poems and their hidden meanings. This poem i liked but i didn't understand the meaning. I really had to read it over and over to realize what was kind of going on but i still found it difficult. After reading most of the blogs i have to say the idea of slavery is what makes sense in this poem. But i don't want to say exactly but i think that this is what it is about. I like how you broke down each verse i too did that as i was reading it.
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