Addie Ramonda
Per. 3
AP Lit
Across the BayBy Donald Davie
A queer thing about those waters: there are no
Birds there, or hardly any.
I did not miss them, I do not remember
Missing them, or thinking it uncanny.
The beach so-called was a blinding splinter of limestone,
A quarry outraged by hulls.
We took pleasure in that: the emptiness, the hardness
Of the light, the silence, and the water’s stillness.
But this was the setting for one of our murderous scenes.
This hurt, and goes on hurting:
The venomous soft jelly, the undersides.
We could stand the world if it were hard all over.
Title: I think that given from the title this poem will be about the water. It will probably have to do with a view by the ocean or some body of water.
Paraphrase: I think that Donald Davie is describing a murderous scene. When reading the second stanza it is an allusion of death when he talks about the "silence and stillness." He talks about the scene being so great but then "hurting" because he is reminded it is a murderous scene. Using a metaphor about jelly fish by saying they look soft and not harmful but when you touch them they sting.
Connotation: Allusions to death are made when he talks of the "silence and stillness." A metaphor is used when talking about the jelly fish and how they don't look harmful they when you touch them they are, just like the scene seems peaceful until you realize what goes on there. "For one of our murderous scenes" is apostrophe, referring to something as though it is human, it makes it seem more real and important. The poem is extremely detailed I think he does this in order to help the reader create the scene and feel as though they are there as well. The theme of the poem is that we can enjoy things to a certain extent and how something may seem so perfect but actually have an awful secret. The title does represent the setting in this poem . There's a shift in the last stanza breaking you from this beautiful view and back to reality when he starts talking about a murderous scene.
Hi Claire. I both love and feel perplexed by this poem for countless years now. I have wondered if it is as simple as the poem having been written from the perspective of a prisoner; across the San Francisco Bay at Alcatrazz?
ReplyDeleteWe could stand the world if it lived by the unrelenting, uncompromising codes of "hard" men as it did in centuries gone by? The "soft" and squishy respectables of the modern world actually carry quite a sting and have immobilized us/limited our lives because they fear us and they are weak? They are poisonous and toxic to human nature and freedom? Our ships never came in, but crashed and were dashed to pieces on this rock because of them.
I realize that this is a rather fanciful interpretation of the poem, but it seems possible that the poet is assuming a persona entirely divergent from his own rather like Michael Ondaatje did in "The Collected Works of Billy the Kid". I am interested in hearing what your response to this idea might be.