"Constantly Risking Absurdity" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a poet, painter, and activist. He was born in Bronxville, New York in 1919 and is currently 95 years old. He co-founded the business City Lights Booksellers and Publishers. 

 

"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 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

 

This poem shows the perspective of a poet and how society views him. The writer uses a simile to compare a poet to an acrobat in the sense that both attract the attention of an audience: the poet with his musings and the acrobat with his tricks. The poet becomes the center of attention with his "theatrics," in other words, analysis or thoughts on subjects wherein he dares to decrypt the underlying truth of the matter at hand while society looks on. His thinking must be in line with society's "all without mistaking/ anything/ for what it may not be." He "constantly risks absurdity" in his thoughts as his messages may make him seem like a fool, leaving him to be mocked, or a genius, worthy of respect, in the eyes of his onlookers, culminating in his "death-defying leap" as he attempts to drive his point across.The poem is structured to make it seem like he is swaying on the tightrope of truth, with any wrong move leaving him to tumble down into the depths of idiocy. The way the text is divided also makes it seem like he is taking each movement cautiously and carefully, so as not to disrupt his audience, giving a stuttering type of rhythm to the poem. Parallels are drawn between the poet and the acrobat as he "balance[s] on eyebeams/ above a sea of faces," and "perform[s] entrechats/ and sleight-of-foot tricks" showing how people look up to him to witness his acts. The work as a whole portrays poets as harbingers of society, in their pursuit to communicate the truth to the public.

Labels: simile, structure, rhythm