Sure, this is a little late, but aren't the blogs for contemplated reactions? After discussing Beachy Head for the second day in a row, I can honestly say that I gathered little more than nothing from the discussion. Towards the end of our near 70 minute run though of the over 600 line blank verse poem, my main grasp it was that in order to understand where I am in the present, I must completely understand my history and that the minor details are what create the beautiful major picture. My first reading of the poem left me overwhelmed; there was so much detail and time-travel between lines that I was often left wondering where I was and how I got there. Prior to reading Beachy Head, I thought my history only included as far back as I could remember and perhaps the months before my birth. I thought more about this and considered adding how my parents got to together, some mention of my siblings and a few references to my extended family. If I leave out my Beau, he wouldn't be happy and of course, my grandparents and their story is important. My personal story now has some extra padding. I can't, however, leave out the recent events, such as the death of my mother and my dad's remarriage to my step mother, that have shaped the way I think about relationships and love. With the mention of my step mother, I find that I cannot leave her out and must add her to my story. The fact that some details from our (my stepmother's and my own) backgrounds are similar is something that cannot be ignored and I add them. My story has become a kind of gumbo and like gumbo, leaving out seemingly minor things can change the entire pot. Once, my grandma left the okra out of her famous gumbo and it looked like a thin soup. It tasted good, but something was missing. We can all share the basic parts of our history, from birth to present, and the story will make some sense. To achieve the effect BH has, however, there are certain things to keep in mind. Using Smith's Beachy Head as the example, I've found that details, no matter how minor or major, should not be left out. These pieces are what make the story, well, taste good.
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As a history major, I cannot express how important the role of history is to the individual and society in general. For this reason, Smith’s “Beach Head” is my favorite poem we have read thus far. You said that you learned that “to understand the present, [you] must understand [your] history.” I think that this poem was able to achieve this aim because it bridged Romantic thought with the Enlightenment’s facts through the footnotes (i.e. “Terns. Sterna hirundo, or Sea Swallow. Gulls…” and actual events). It expressed the change that was and the change that is occurring. Everything is interconnected; “the past makes known the present.”
ReplyDeleteI also liked your allegorical interpretation of gumbo and your history.
I agree with Amy that history is crucial! and while reading your post I am reminded of all the crazy thoughts that were going in and out and through my head while reading Beachy Head, and that I never really came to any conclusion about any sort of meaning, or any thread or even a linear progression, though it seems that way. I got none of that. I was simply reminded of the small details that make up who we are, influence us, and how each of those fragments is the whole. The whole of my being, or any being, whether it be a person or a cliff in the sea can only ever be slightly comprehended through its details.
ReplyDeleteSo perhaps like in the poem, we are constantly taking a both a highly myopic view and the perspective of eternity to understand or comprehend anything. Like thinking how one little cell in your body is important to all the millions of cells, or how one drop of the ocean is part of a huge and immensely vast ocean.
And if we are awake at all, we have to oscillate between these two seemingly diverse perspectives, when really they are the same, just from a different angle. The fragment is the whole.