MICHIKO NOGAMI (1946 – 1982)Michiko is Gilbert's dead wife, and The Great Fires is dedicated to her; in addition, she is the eponymous subject of several other poems in the book.
Is she more apparent because she is not
anymore forever? Is her whiteness more white
because she was the color of pale honey?
A smokestack making the sky more visible.
A dead woman filling the whole world. Michiko
said, “The roses you gave me kept me awake
with the sound of their petals falling.”
With that being said, I cannot think of a possible sense in which this could be considered a bad poem. Nietzsche probably would have hated it; as far as I can tell, there is nothing technically wrong with it, but I think that he would have disliked the tone and despised the subject-matter. From Thus Spake Zarathustra:
"I am not to be a herdsman, I am not to be a grave-digger. Not any more will I discourse onto the people, for the last time have I spoken onto the dead" (11).
Nietzsche is fed-up with the dead. He's lived his life in the shadow of greater movements—movements that beckon to a higher world (Plato) or a greater purpose (Hegel), in which the individual is a mere instantiation or tool of some greater spiritual or historical power. Nietzsche sees Death as a greater power, but more importantly, he sees Death as an enemy.
"Ye shall only have enemies to be hated, but not enemies to be despised. Ye must be proud of your enemies; then, the successes of your enemies are also your successes" (29).
For Nietzsche, Death is the end. For him, there is no higher world. For him, there is no greater purpose other than to overcome. This is why Nietzsche is so moved by the story of Achilles—the man who gives up everything in a fit of passion, simply because he recognizes that the only purpose in life is passion. Death is to be hated, but never despised, for Death is merely the end of passion. For Nietzsche, a relationship with Death would be the ultimate source of pride. For Nietzsche, lamenting the presence of Death would be the slowest sort of poison.
"A little poison now and then: that maketh pleasant dreams. And much poison at last for a pleasant death" (7).
Is that what art is? Is that what sorrow is? A sort of slow poison enticing us to sleep? So why is it, then, that this poem makes me feel so alive? Not manic, or energetic, or passionate, perhaps; but alive in a way that only throbbing pain can bring. Nietzsche held tragedy in such high esteem, but it always seemed to me that he was more in love with the madness of it all—the Dionysian—than he was with the tragedy itself.
"If one would have a friend, then must one also be willing to wage war on him: and in order to wage war, one must be capable of being an enemy" (35).
Perhaps there's a sense in which Gilbert is waging war on Michiko through his poems. Perhaps he's waging a war on her memory, thinking that the feelings in his mind will be less painful once transcribed through the limitations of verse. Perhaps he's waging a war on Death; perhaps he's an enemy of Death. And I think Nietzsche would like that.
But I don't think Gilbert is the enemy of Death. I think he's the victim of Death.
"So live you life of obedience and of war! What matter about long life! What warrior wisheth to be spared!" (29).
I don't know if Gilbert wanted to have been spared. Perhaps Nietzsche was right that the short, passionate life of a warrior is the most satisfying. But why, then, has Michiko become “a smokestack making the sky more visible?” Why, then, does she fill “the whole world?” Is that not greatness? Is that not passion? Is that not rather like Achilles?
Leo Tolstoy (What is Art):
The activity of art is based on the fact that a man receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another man’s expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man to express it … and it is on this capacity of man to receive another man’s expression of feeling, and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based.Every time I read this passage, I read it differently. But I think about Nietzsche, I sense his response, and in my mind, it's always the same:
"Flee, my friend, into thy solitude" (33).
Pretty much all I want to say is kudos for using a Jack Gilbert poem. He has one called "Finding Something" that is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteWell now that I'm already writing a comment I should probably say something more insightful than just that. So. You talk about Gilbert possibly waging war on Death, but then talk about him as the victim of Death. I think I agree more with him as fighting with it. In writing about his wife, he's doing the only thing he can to keep her alive: immortalizing her in written word. Obviously, what he did worked because we're still talking about her. In immortalizing her, isn't Gilbert in some way "overcoming Death," and couldn't that be considered his passion? I think your right in that the smokestack and filling the whole world are reflective of the kind of glory of Achilles. And, if Nietzsche really hated the past and death, he never should have mentioned a dead Greek warrior anyways. But still, I imagine you're correct and Nietzsche would not have approved of Gilbert regardless of his obvious passion, but I suppose that Gilbert probably wouldn't have cared much for what Nietzsche had to say in this instance anyway.
Bridger,
ReplyDeleteThis is actually quite moving. And, the mixing of Gilbert and Neitzsche does make some theoretical sense. Gilbert is an Am romantic, too.
I love Gilbert and I love this.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to bring up another aspect of a Nietzchean critique, however. By Nietzsche's standard that art "constantly confuses the cells and the classifications of concepts by setting up new translations, metaphors, metonymies; it constantly manifests the desire to shape the given world of the waking human being in ways which are just as multiform, irregular, inconsequential, incoherent, charming and ever-new, as things are in the world of dream" (772). We can at least justify Gilbert's use of language through the defamiliarization that takes place in the poem due to metaphors such as the smokestack that makes the sky more visible. We associate smoke with obscuring vision. For this reason, he uses language effectively.
As far as content is concerned, I think it is also important to think about Prometheus, our ideal hero. As a man of great boldness and passion, a true creator who must suffer for his creation, Prometheus' punishment is suffering with no death while having his liver pecked out daily. As a living, feeling artist, Gilbert is similarly daily faced with the pain of death an loss without experiencing it.
While Gilbert is certainly experiencing tragedy, however, it seems that Nietzsche's ideal tragedy deals with a hero who does wrong, committing a masculine, active wrong against the world and through that, changing it for the better. Gilbert does not seem to be interested in that aspect of art.