School of the Arts: Poems

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dnh6u, December 4, 2006 (view all comments by dnh6u)
I found Mark Doty?s book, School of the Arts, to be the most satisfying read I have encountered thus far in class. His straightforward style makes his poetry easy to grasp, while his language and imagery still remain poetic. A strong sense of cohesion is present throughout the book, made evident through ongoing themes, the repetition of images, and similar titles. Images of birds in flight, colors, masks and skins, animals, and planes all appear numerous times. The theme of heaven in its many forms plays a prominent part in the book, as well as death, blackness, and some great unknown. References to art and literature are rampant, with multiple poems addressed to specific artists, and epitaphs present frequently. These add dimension to Doty?s poetry, giving it a flair it would not otherwise possess.
Not only is the overall collection good, but individual poems are exceptional as well. This trend shows itself early, starting with the first poem of the book, ?Heaven for Helen,? one of many ?Heaven for?? poems. These poems observe the ideal vision or idea of heaven for different people or animals. Three focus on humans (?Heaven for Helen,? ?Heaven for Stanley,? ?Heaven for Paul?), while two focus on the poet?s dogs (?Heaven for Beau,? ?Heaven for Arden?). They range widely in experience. ?Heaven for Helen? speaks of a physical union with the surrounding environment. In this union, all things are included, from
the respiration of the grass,
or ionized agitation
just above the break of a wave (lines 4-6)
to
shiny pink egg catons
and the thick treads of burst tires
along the highways in Pennsylvania (lines 18-20).
Meanwhile, ?Heaven for Beau? is about an individual joining with a community:
And he said---I could hear
his thinking, in the dream---
I want to go with them! (lines 45-47).
There are many more poems in School of the Arts worth noting. One of these is ?Late Flight.? It is an examination of the unknown, one of the major themes of the book. The poem focuses on the experiences of the passengers of a small plane taking off in the dark (another major theme). It is narrative, and yet introspective at the same time. Throughout the poem, there is an emphasis on what can not be seen or known: ?the dim marshland? (line 10), ?holes in black paper? (line 20), ?the huge, physical dark? (line 33). However, safety is eventually found in this unknown, as is the self. The poem concludes
?The self isn?t made of language;
the self is made of night.? (lines 40-41),
making the unknown knowable, while at the same time rendering the self unknown.
Another noteworthy poem is ?To Garcia Lorca.? Garcia Lorca was a Spanish poet and playwright. He was killed at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, at the young age of thirty-eight, by Nationalist partisans. Of further importance, and perhaps a reason Doty chose him as a muse, he was gay. The poem, however, does not even mention Lorca directly. It simply uses the idea of the Spanish revolutionary as a jumping-off point. It chooses instead to examine the image of sunflowers in a tub at a city flower market, in turn comparing them to the working Hispanic immigrants also present in the city. The poem starts with the radiant imagery of the sunflower: ?yellow exhalation; stiff stalk and copper blaze? (line 2) which is immediately contrasted with its container, ?a square rusting tub casually set / on the linoleum? (lines 5-6). In several stanzas, the poem turns subtly toward a more serious nature, still using ambiguous imagery. At first, one supposes
these foot soldiers of summer---flown
from a Mexican field, boxed north
from Alabama (lines 25-27)
to still be a description of the sunflowers, but it is soon evident that this language pertains to actual people, Hispanic immigrants, as the poem continues to describe them as
carrying our sacks
of coffee prepared
as we have requested it (lines 35-37).
A few stanzas later, the poem makes the comparison of flower and man concrete, moving beyond ambiguous images to declare
we are already flowers, already carry
shoulder to shoulder that diffident power,
stand even now stalk to stripped stalk
in the killing tub (lines 53-56).
Doty makes the comparison between man dying in his current surroundings and life to a cut flower?s finite longevity obvious in this cynic statement.
Doty?s latest book is surely something to be treasured. He has mastered what a true art form poetry can be in his narrative poems that still retain lyrical imagery and rhythm.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9780060752460

Author:

Doty, Mark

Publisher:

Harper Perennial

Author:

by Mark Doty

Location:

New York

Subject:

American - General

Subject:

General Poetry

Subject:

Poetry-A to Z

Copyright:

2006

Edition Number:

1st ed.

Edition Description:

Trade PB

Series Volume:

C2KBR-34

Publication Date:

20060331

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Grade Level:

General/trade

Language:

English

Pages:

128

Dimensions:

8.00x5.28x.32 in. .23 lbs.