Van Jordan’s “How a Person Writes a Poem” Essay

Within the poem “How Does a Man Write a Poem”, A. Van Jordan uses metaphors as an attempt to illustrate the exact nature of the problem he faces in attempting to write a poem right now, at midnight, with his lover lying beside him. Within this poem, he first compares his lover’s body to the light of the moon as it lights up the night in its magical, silvery glow. While it provides the magic, the poet expresses the desire to continue to enjoy it. However, there is a hint, both here and toward the end of the poem, that, like the moon, the lover’s body may not always be as open, available, and illuminating to him, thus the need to take advantage of its light when it’s available.

The poet also compares his lover’s body to a song that bubbles up in his mind whenever “he least expects it.”

This again suggests the need to take advantage of the music when it is available as it might stop at any time.

One more comparison the poet makes with his lover’s body is in his outright statement that she is the poem.

As long as she’s there, he has the poem “curled up next to him in bed”, but she might easily decide to uncurl herself from his side and walk away. In all of these comparisons, the poet indicates that his lover is his muse in every way, but also that her ability to inspire him this way is only a temporary condition in that “she’s never told him she loves him.”

The dilemma facing the poet is attempting to decide whether he should take the time to try to write a poem in the middle of the night that would please her, knowing full well that his distraction of her body may cause him to produce something that would significantly disappoint, or whether he should disappoint by not writing a poem now and instead take the time to enjoy the ‘poem’ of her body as it lies available to him in the nighttime. Either way, he risks disappointing her, and either way, there is a chance for a sublime experience. In the end, the poet “picks up the pen,” which is an ambiguous conclusion as this line could be referring to the literal implement used for writing or an allusion to a ‘certain part of the male body’ most helpful in taking advantage of a woman’s body.

His response is in reaction to his interpretation of what he thinks she will enjoy most at this moment, a poem written just for her as she’s requested or more personal and immediate attention. Given the shape of his thoughts, I believe the poet chose not to write anything on paper at the moment, perhaps distracting her with simple rhymes so as to enjoy the physical pleasures now and have the time necessary to compose a satisfying poem dedicated to her at another time when the absence of her will provide him inspiration.

In D.H. Lawrence’s poem “Piano,” the speaker is listening to a woman sing, which sparks a child-time memory.

This group of memories is of him as a child, warm and safe with his family on cold winter days when they all sang together while his mother played the piano. Throughout the poem, the speaker bounces back and forth between memory and the present day. At the end of the poem, he weeps for the memory of his past. To make the reader see the past as clearly as he does, the poet uses a great deal of strong imagery. For instance, the woman sings to him “in the dusk” (1), suggesting a bodiless voice such as a child might remember. He includes the image of “a child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings” (3), emphasizing the importance of the sound.

The warmth of this image is strengthened further as he provides details of the memory, “with winter outside / And hymns in the cozy parlor” (7-8).

The theme of the poem seems to be the struggle of the grown adult versus the emotional child. The music that the adult man listens to sparks a memory that triggers an emotional response to the child he once was. Now that he’s grown, he struggles not to show his emotional side because this is perceived as weak. However, the memories that are brought so suddenly to the surface surprise him and are so deep he cannot help but be moved by them. His attempts to avoid emotional response by concentrating on the present fail him because this only continues to remind him of the past and he has no choice in the end but to give in to his childish, unmanly emotions.