My favorite James Dickey poem in the packet was tittled, The Heaven of Animals. I especially liked this poem because I myself, am an animal lover. The title of this poem is what first caught my attention because I love to read anything about animals. After I finished reading it, which I had to read a few times to make sense of some of the verses, I realized that Dickey was describing what a paradise for animals would look like. This poem takes a look into the paradise and afterlife awaiting all animals.
Once an animal dies, it goes into animal heaven. In animal heaven, there are no humans controlling and abusing animals, and there is plenty of food and water. In the beginning of the poem Dickey writes, "If they have lived in a wood, It is a wood, If they have lived on plains, It is grass rolling under their feet forever." Here, Dickey is describing the perfect habitat of each animal. If it were a tiger it would be free to roam the plains, and if it were a squirrel it would be free to run around the woods in the animal heaven. Each animal would be free in it's appropriate environment.
Dickey also writes, "The landscape flowers, outdoing, desperately, outdoing what is required: The richest wood, the deepest field. For some of these, It could not be the place it is without blood, These hunt, as they have done, But with claws and teeth grown perfect." This means that the environments in which the animals will live in will be perfect, which is why I call it a paradise for animals. Even though it is a paradise for animals in heaven, hunting is still present because some animals like lions and tigers need to hunt to survive, it is in their nature. Their perfect paradise would be hunting other animals. When I first read that part I was a little surprised because if animals were hunted, how is it a paradise for them? Animal heaven was supposed to be a paradise for all animals. Then I read, "And those that are hunted, Know this as their life, Their reward: to walk. I loved that part. To me, it sounded like Dickey was saying that when an animal was hunted and killed in animal heaven, they are reincarnated into a human.
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4 comments:
I also picked this poem to blog about, and it took a while to understand. It's interesting to see the different perspectives that everyone has when they read these poems.
I thought this poem was a metaphor for slaves. But then again I could be way off. Although we have different ideas about the subject matter, I agree that Dickey is trying to portray some sort of afterlife for all animals and human beings. But my idea, was that even though slaves were mistreated on earth, they would be free in the afterlife.
The line "These hunt, as they have done/ But with claws and teeth grown perfect.." refers to a fair chance everyone receives in the afterlife. Although slaves were at the mercy of their masters on Earth, they will be given the same fighting chance as everyone else in the the afterlife.
However, I had a different notion of the line "And those that are hunted/ Know this as their life/ Their reward: to walk." To me, this line represented the slaves freedom when they got to heaven. This reminded me of a prisoner's situation. When a prisoner is found innocent they are free "to walk." The same could go for slaves. In heaven, they will be free from their life on Earth.
Dickey’s initial depiction of the animals’ Heaven reminded me of shows or movies we’ve all seen that depict dogs in Heaven running on green grass and playing all day. I agree with what you said that Dickey made it seem as though each animal has its own version of Heaven, depending on what type of creature it is and what type of lifestyle it would enjoy.
I too was perturbed by hunting still occurring in Heaven, but it is in some animals’ nature. I do not think though that Dickey means that the animals that are hunted will become human but that their consolation is that they will be brought to life again, hence the “cycle,” and that they know their death will not be painful. I thought that this was still a very unfair Heaven for these animals. The predatory animals, as you mention, acquire teeth and claws sharpened to perfection so that they have no shortcomings, but the prey still get attacked and eaten. That does not sound like Heaven to me, and thus I think that Dickey must ultimately not be talking literally about animals but instead is using them as a metaphor for humans, as Shannon was suggesting. As I mentioned in my response to Roger, I think that the hunting animals are whites and the prey represents blacks. Even in Heaven, the African Americans are getting the short end of the stick, which I think indicates that Dickey thought treatment of African Americans needed to change.
I liked your interpretation of this poem, mainly because it is really optomistic and pleasent, which is deaply contrasted to Dicky's style of writing it seems. I like the way he described the afterlife, saying that it was open to everyone it was non judging. Also, It was a place that was, for them a paradise, not only was the atmosphere they resided in improved but also, they themselves were improved. this can be seen in the lines about the perfect teeth and perfect ladscape for whatever habitat they prefer/ belong to. this poem in the end had a strong sense of freedom and equality that was nice.
I see where you are coming from with your ideas and perspective about the poem. I can see where you get them and the ideas behind it. Although i thought more like Shannon about it being about slaves and their life on earth versus the afterlife.I think that there is a nice connection about how the slaves get the same opportunity as everyone else once they enter into heaven. They are free to walk. They get their own chance unlike on earth sometimes. I guess we'll see what the poems really mean when we go over them in class.
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