Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

FIRST BOOK OF ODES: 8, by BASIL BUNTING Poet Analysis Poet's Biography

"First Book of Odes: 8" by Basil Bunting is a lyrical exploration of the intrusion of the external world into personal and sacred spaces. Through vivid imagery and a tone of admonition, Bunting contrasts the natural, eternal elements of the landscape with the cacophony and demands of human society.

The poem begins with "Loud intolerant bells," an image that immediately invokes the idea of an external force disrupting the tranquility of the night. The "shrinking nightflower" that "closes tenderly round its stars" is a beautiful metaphor for the natural world's attempt to protect its purity and beauty from the invasive noise of human activity. The bells' "hectoring" is not just a call to wakefulness but a symbol of societal demands that seek to impose structure and conformity on the individual spirit.

Bunting paints a serene picture of the landscape with "deaf hills where the olive stirs and dozes in easeless age," suggesting a timeless, almost eternal quality to the natural world, untouched and unbothered by the "farce of man's fashioning." This sets up a stark contrast between the enduring, cyclical nature of the earth and the fleeting, often absurd endeavors of humanity.

The imperative "Shepherds away!" serves as a warning to those who seek solitude and authenticity in their lives. Bunting suggests that the clamor of society, with its "inquisitive harangue," threatens to dismantle the individual's inner life, to "disembody shames and delights, all private features of your mood." The metaphorical violence of being flayed, sieved, and frayed by societal scrutiny highlights the poem's concern with the loss of personal integrity and the pressure to conform.

In the final lines, Bunting invokes "The distant gods enorbed in bright indifference," portraying deities or spiritual entities as detached from human affairs. This detachment underscores the poem's theme of the sacred versus the profane, suggesting that the divine or spiritual aspects of existence are beyond the reach of human folly. The gods, whether literal or metaphorical representations of the natural world or human psyche, are "unadored, absorbed into the incoherence" of life, leaving behind only "desiccated names: rabbits sucked by a ferret." This haunting image serves as a metaphor for the draining effect of societal demands on the individual spirit and the natural world.

"First Book of Odes: 8" is a poignant meditation on the tension between the individual's need for solitude and authenticity and the invasive demands of society. Through his masterful use of imagery and metaphor, Bunting crafts a lyrical ode that resonates with themes of loss, resistance, and the search for meaning in a world that often seems indifferent to the deepest needs of the human spirit.

POEM TEXT:

Loud intolerant bells (the shrinking nightflower closes

tenderly round its stars to baulk their hectoring)

orate to deaf hills where the olive stirs and dozes

in easeless age, dim to farce of man's fashioning.

Shepherds away! They toll throngs to your solitude

and their inquisitive harangue will disembody

shames and delights, all private features of your mood,

flay out your latencies, sieve your hopes, fray your shoddy.

The distant gods enorbed in bright indifference

whom we confess creatures or abstracts of our spirit,

unadored, absorbed into the incoherence,