Tuesday, January 24, 2012
"Venus and the Ark" Question III
I believe that Sexton calls her poem a "spoof" because of the light it sheds on human nature. It is in its core, a satire. The fact that Sexton is alluding to the bible story 'Noah and the Ark' is a satire in and of itself. In the Bible, God sees how bad the world has gotten and decides to wipe out humanity and save his faithful follower. In "Venus and the Ark," the Earth has gotten to a point where the tension and evil has gotten to an extreme height. The threat of nuclear annihilation was a major issue during Sexton's lifetime. The Cold War paranoia of that time was enough to make people doubt humanity's sense of right and wrong. In that tension, Sexton describes an expedition to Venus. However, that exciting advancement was minor news. They celebrated for 15 minutes and "even shortened their weather forecast." The jealousy that sprouted out of that achievement belonging to one nation was enough to tip the other nations into launching full on nuclear warfare. She was commenting on the fact that this paranoia and the hatred of other nations caused the destruction of the world. It was only after the death of the world that a new one could be born.
“Venus and the Ark” – Question #3
A recurring aspect in Sexton’s
poem “Venus and the Ark” is her use of exaggerated ideas and concepts. From the
meticulous detail shown in the selection of creatures, to the overblown
response exhibited by the rival nations, an overarching theme of excess is
present. One can attribute the tone to several concepts Sexton may have been
attempting to identify or parody in her time period, for example the amplified
effects that events such as the Cold War and the Space Race had upon US
culture. Additionally one could consider the mental state Anne Sexton was in,
as she suffered from mental illness and depression for much of her later life.
The cynical and subtlety critical tone Sexton levels in her work may have been
manifestations of her slow decline, and her dim outlook on life as her
illnesses progressed.
Venus and the Ark - Question 3
Sexton calls her poem, “Venus and the
Ark”, a spoof because it is not only a recreation (of sorts) of the
Old Testament story, Noah's Ark, but it is also very critical of
human nature. The main difference between Sexton's poem and Noah's
Ark is that instead of life being destroyed by one man (God),
humanity destroys it self through nuclear war. Even when the two
Doctors send back news that Venus can support life, a discovery that
should have been one of the most important in history, the world is
too caught up with war and violence that they completely disregard
this monumental announcement and proceed to kill themselves. Sexton
has a very negative view on human behavior when she writes that
humanity could not put aside it's differences and destroyed itself.
It prompts the disconcerting question as to whether or not we would
really destroy life through nuclear warfare.
Venus and the Ark: Question 1
Like I mentioned in my earlier blog post for Group C, I disagree with Randal's description of her tone towards the word "Venus". I didn't really see anything cheerful about her tone, let alone the poem, and instead noticed that she seemed to caress it. This would make sense if we apply the idea that the Venus formed by the two Ph.D's became a new land of prosperity: Sexton's own version of Eden. Again we can look into Sexton's background. It is possible that her experiences with her illness drove her to search for peace and tranquility, thus placing a larger personal significance on the meaning of "Venus".
"Venus and the Ark" Question 3 Response
Anne Sexton refers to her poem as "kind of a spoof" because she means for it to exaggerate and really personify modern human life - and it's inevitable reboot.
Her voice truly illustrates this idea of her poem being a spoof. In the first stanza, she reads the specific and simple facts with a dry, autonomous, almost machine-like tone. "Two male Ph.D.'s... one hundred/carefully counted insects... exactly fifty fish creatures... twenty bars of food... fourteen white rats... etc." The audience can really feel the mechanization Sexton's put in this stanza. There are no elaborate, beautiful, vibrant descriptions. It's all short, to-the-point, simple facts.
In the next stanza, Sexton moves away from this mechanization to a more sarcastic and descriptive voice. You can here this change when she says "VENUS IS GREEN." Her voice rises and sounds almost optimistic. Then, as human civilization enters the scene, her voice turns sarcastic and almost cunning. "[T]he loud earth tellers spent/all fifteen minutes on it,/even shortened their weather forecast."
Later we see Sexton's voice change to back to mechanization. Yet even with such a dry voice, her descriptions are vibrant. She describes the animals, not by their number or condition, but rather by their actions, their emotions, their very life. We can see "the happy rats spe[e]d\speed through integrated forests." We can watch the "bees swarm the air\letting a warm pollen slide\from their wings." Sexton gives more life to the animals than the entire human race.
Sarcasm and exaggeration are at the center of spoofs. They both poke fun at reality. Through both her voice and her diction, Sexton created dystopian spoof of sorts. Where humanity has become machine, devoid of any true appreciation for life, and the machine has turned on itself, leaving a small speck of life on another planet.
Her voice truly illustrates this idea of her poem being a spoof. In the first stanza, she reads the specific and simple facts with a dry, autonomous, almost machine-like tone. "Two male Ph.D.'s... one hundred/carefully counted insects... exactly fifty fish creatures... twenty bars of food... fourteen white rats... etc." The audience can really feel the mechanization Sexton's put in this stanza. There are no elaborate, beautiful, vibrant descriptions. It's all short, to-the-point, simple facts.
In the next stanza, Sexton moves away from this mechanization to a more sarcastic and descriptive voice. You can here this change when she says "VENUS IS GREEN." Her voice rises and sounds almost optimistic. Then, as human civilization enters the scene, her voice turns sarcastic and almost cunning. "[T]he loud earth tellers spent/all fifteen minutes on it,/even shortened their weather forecast."
Later we see Sexton's voice change to back to mechanization. Yet even with such a dry voice, her descriptions are vibrant. She describes the animals, not by their number or condition, but rather by their actions, their emotions, their very life. We can see "the happy rats spe[e]d\speed through integrated forests." We can watch the "bees swarm the air\letting a warm pollen slide\from their wings." Sexton gives more life to the animals than the entire human race.
Sarcasm and exaggeration are at the center of spoofs. They both poke fun at reality. Through both her voice and her diction, Sexton created dystopian spoof of sorts. Where humanity has become machine, devoid of any true appreciation for life, and the machine has turned on itself, leaving a small speck of life on another planet.
"Venus and the Ark" - Group C
You're absolutely right about the first stanza Nellie. The way Sexton reads those lines further illustrates how she feels that modern society has in a way lost its passion for life. Her voice is very (quite literally actually) "matter-of-fact." She introduces and reads the beginning of the poem as if it isn't even worth much.
As far as the poem being "confessional," maybe. The way she read it seemed like she didn't really care for it, but that could also just have been to prove the point she was making: that human society has become autonomous and bland. It might be confessional in that sense. She views all this advancement in technology and lack of appreciation for nature as our path to a sort of race "reboot."
Group C: Venus and the Ark
Wow you guys did a pretty good breakdown of the poem already!
The religious symbolism is very prevalent in this poem and I don't see anything else worth mentioning that hasn't been caught by y'all yet. Sexton's emphasis on "VENUS IS GREEN" shows that she portrayed Venus to be her Eden and the poem really revolves around this concept. I agree that Sexton did use a different tone in voice when describing the life on Venus, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was cheerful. It was more of a caressing tone toward something she saw as a rebirth from someplace horrible rather than something to be cheerful or chipper about.
Y'all had mentioned the level of imagery in the poem and I have to agree that the descriptions of the land and the animals are significantly rich. But what about the two Ph.D's or the exact number of each item boarded onto the missile as described in the first paragraph? For me, I feel like Sexton was addressing the fact that our advancement in technology is the real reason to the dismal state of mind in society. The definite quantities of the supplies, like "exactly fifty fish creatures" and "three almost new snakes", seems to bash the idea that society is so preoccupied with standardized methods that they can't appreciate any real advancement in life. Thus, when the two Ph.D's find Venus and notify the people back home about it, no one on Earth cares. They are so focused on the problems within them that they are blinded to this newly found Eden.
I read into the biography of Anne Sexton (it was the tab called "About this poem" in the same window as the poem) and found out that she had been suffering from mental illnesses and wrote many of her poems about it. They were mainly autobiographical and focused on her personal feelings, such as anguish. Also, the biography mentioned that Sexton was a "confessional poet" in that she emphasized personal information about her own life that were sometimes intimate and dark. Do y'all think this is a confessional poem? How so?
The religious symbolism is very prevalent in this poem and I don't see anything else worth mentioning that hasn't been caught by y'all yet. Sexton's emphasis on "VENUS IS GREEN" shows that she portrayed Venus to be her Eden and the poem really revolves around this concept. I agree that Sexton did use a different tone in voice when describing the life on Venus, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was cheerful. It was more of a caressing tone toward something she saw as a rebirth from someplace horrible rather than something to be cheerful or chipper about.
Y'all had mentioned the level of imagery in the poem and I have to agree that the descriptions of the land and the animals are significantly rich. But what about the two Ph.D's or the exact number of each item boarded onto the missile as described in the first paragraph? For me, I feel like Sexton was addressing the fact that our advancement in technology is the real reason to the dismal state of mind in society. The definite quantities of the supplies, like "exactly fifty fish creatures" and "three almost new snakes", seems to bash the idea that society is so preoccupied with standardized methods that they can't appreciate any real advancement in life. Thus, when the two Ph.D's find Venus and notify the people back home about it, no one on Earth cares. They are so focused on the problems within them that they are blinded to this newly found Eden.
I read into the biography of Anne Sexton (it was the tab called "About this poem" in the same window as the poem) and found out that she had been suffering from mental illnesses and wrote many of her poems about it. They were mainly autobiographical and focused on her personal feelings, such as anguish. Also, the biography mentioned that Sexton was a "confessional poet" in that she emphasized personal information about her own life that were sometimes intimate and dark. Do y'all think this is a confessional poem? How so?
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