Thursday, October 13, 2011

10/13/2011 09:49:00 PM - , No comments

Magic of Words - Keeping Things Whole

SUMMARY

Mark strand is a surrealist. Therefore the image that he creates in his work seems alien or uncommon to us. However he always writes on common theme. Through the present poem also he wants to appeal for universal brotherhood a kind of wholeness against all the usual fragmentation that appears in our life.

The poet tells when he is in a field he finds himself absent there. It happens because he allows his own individual entity to submerge into a bigger entity in the field. By doing so he does not lose anything rather he is recognized as a greater body. According to him it is always the same case with him. Wherever he goes he finds himself absent there.

However, it is the human tendency to make things apart rather than keeping it whole, such attempts can never succeed because the universe is one. He has given an example to prove his point when h walks in a field his body parts the air as it moves forward. But immediately after he moves forward vacuum created by his body is filled with air. Thus he is not able to part things at last. Rather he joins at his back too.

According to the poet everybody has some projects or goals in his life. His mission is to keep things whole.
OUTLINES
Mark Strand is a Canadian-born poet, educated in the US. He has taught at various universities. His poems of alienation treating darkness and doubleness in man, are minimalist in style and affected by surrealism. “Keeping Things Whole,” taken from his Selected Poems (1980), pleads for wholeness against the usual fragmentation6 that goes on in life.

* The poet here in the poem elaborates the various objects to make things whole.

* To keep things whole is to keep something absolute and complete from the possibility of division and fragmentation.

* Fragmentation is necessary to keep something whole. Wholeness is formed due to the unification of fragmentation.

* The poet here claims that fragmentation and movement are interrelated to create the absolute object.

* The poet in the poem moves despite the fragmentation in his life to maintain the journey of life and keep things whole.

* When the poet is in the field, he considers that he is absence of the field. On the other hand, the presence of the poet marks some space on the field and that is missing. But as the poet walks on the field, his bodily movement divides the air and then the air again fill the space to make things whole (here air is whole) that is made by the body of the poet. The poet says that every one has the reason to move, and he has the reason to move to keep things whole.

* As we move the particular space is in the process of being fragmented and whole.

* To keep things whole, the three major things happen. Movement, fragmentation and unification for wholeness.

* The poet walks in field moving so as to make the field and fragmented air whole, thus the entire backdrop will be whole.

Interpretation and the and central idea of the poem.
The poem, “Keeping Things Whole” talks about the wholeness against the usual fragmentation which goes on in life. The course of actions; incidents and happenings of our life are often fragmented. Nothing is absolute in fragmentation and division. So the poet stresses on wholeness. The poet claims that movement in the course of action is the key to keeping things whole or undivided. The poet gives example of field, he says if one presents or stays in the field; he takes some of the space of field, thus the field is fragmented. But as he moves from there, the filed will be whole. Movement is thus necessary to keep things whole. The poet has a distinguished (remarkable, eminent, notable) notion regarding the term “wholeness” and it is essential, according to the poet, to think about the perception of wholeness.

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