Views: 1207 “The Skunk” by Seamus Heaney is a poem that is set in the California darkness and the protagonist is temporarily exiled from his wife, and as he write love letters to her a skunk passes by and he is reminded of the qualities of his wife. “Skunk Hour” is dedicated to one another not simply out of friendship, but because each poet imitates each other’s style and alludes to the other’s key personality traits. The poem focuses initially on several prominent inhabitants of Nautilus Island, Maine; from the hermit heiress to the gay decorator. The poem is dedicated to his friend and junior poetess Elizabeth Bishop, who also wrote poetry about the necessity of simple powers of the mind and spirit to … . So Nature comes to the rescue in the form of the instinctive skunk, a mother no less with her young in tow out looking for food. The flow of images has led people … It's not a fun place to exist in according to the speaker; there is a sickness pervading and he seems to be a victim of it, admitting that he is not right in the mind. Although his manic depression was often a great burden (for himself and his family), the subject of that mental . The speaker mentions how a “summer millionaire” has gone bankrupt and auctioned his yacht. Skunk hour poetry analysis essay. Contact Us Or is he lonely only in his mind, despite others being near. There is no set rhyme scheme but there are interesting end rhymes and some internal rhymes that help solidify the whole, adding a seam of sense/sound. Brief descriptions set the scene until the main protagonist, the sad, lonely speaker, begins his rather … OPEC and the Global Market detailed analysis February 7, 2020. He must fight and struggle against degradation and artificiality. ...Poetry analysis: Skunk Hour, by Robert Lowell In beginning of "Skunk Hour" (the first four stanzas to be more precise), Robert Lowell gives the sense of a Maine sea town that is slowly declining. Andrew has a keen interest in all aspects of poetry and writes extensively on the subject. The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket: Analysis, To Speak of Woe that is in Marriage: Analysis, About Us The plot thickens as a third character is presented, this time a poor, homosexual decorator (fairy is a derogatory term for a gay person) who uses orange to liven up his shop and who would prefer being married to working for little money. For example, lines 4 through 6 state the following: "Her farmer / is first selectman in our village; / she's in her dotage." Only the realization and use of these potentials for revitalization of the inner energy will rescue modern man from his suicidal frustration. The speaker is revealed, at last, having 'hidden' behind the first four stanzas, but note the wording of the second line: Somehow the car is driving itself up that hill, with the speaker absent, as if there's no personal responsibility for the action. Analysis of Waking Early Sunday Morning Stanza One. Skunk Hour Meanings Of Certain Words and Phrases. Skunk Hour Analysis 1108 Words | 5 Pages Confessional poet Robert Lowell expresses his personal trauma in his poem Skunk Hour through his syntax, multiple themes, and his gothic tone. Analysis of "Skunk Hour" by Robert Lowell Original poem reprinted online here: "Skunk Hour" by Robert Lowell Originally read: September 19, 2013 More information about the Poet: Robert Lowell. While Bishop comments on her friend Lowell’s rage against humanity’s cruelty, Lowell writes of Bishop’s isolation and inner darkness, yet also resilience to persevere. They might be smelly, distasteful creatures but at least they're confident; they march right up Main Street on their soles (soles- souls), brazen, searching for one thing, food. Skunk Hour is the penultimate poem in Lowell’s 1959 volume of poetry, Life Studies. Her son's a bishop. It's this element of distance that helps create the poem's somewhat shadowy atmosphere. The alternative interpretation of Skunk Hour, according to one school of thought, is that each individual mentioned in the first part of the poem - the heiress, the millionaire and the decorator - represents a Lowell family member. . Nautilus Island’s hermit heiress still lives through winter in her Spartan cottage; her sheep still graze above the sea. He's falling apart, just like the island. He realizes by looking at the simple skunk that he was not having the fertile mind, spirit and body to bring up the energies to live actively. However they start to veer away from each other in their analysis of stanza five where there is an obvious shift in tone and direction. BachelorandMaster, 17 Nov. 2013, bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/skunk-hour.html. The two used to write letters to each other constantly, and were very concerned about what one thought of the other's work. The speaker invites all shades of reaction by declaring the season ill, and illustrating this fact with the demise of a millionaire - presumably and despite being well dressed (like a model in an L.L.Bean catalogue) he unfortunately succumbed on Blue Hill? “Skunk Hour” depicts a man at a moment of crisis. The tone is one of mild desperation at this stage in the poem, the heiress thirsting for a return to the glorious days of old Victoria, when the great and good ruled supreme and everyone knew their place. Even her farmer is a traditional administrator (selectman) in the speaker's own village of all places. Thirsting for the hierarchic privacy of Queen Victoria’s century, she buys up all the eyesores facing her shore, and lets them fall. The poem begins with the speaker describing a number of the town’s residents. This is the therapy for an ill soul, of modern man. He's a type of voyeur - a victim of a modern, uncaring, materialistic community or a loner who will resort to crazy things for a buzz. Modern life’s corrupting influences have led men to express frustration and despair: “I myself am hell”. Skunk Hour was inspired by fellow poet Elizabeth Bishop's poem Armadillo. The poem focuses initially on several prominent inhabitants of Nautilus Island, Maine; from the hermit heiress to the gay decorator. This is a light moment in an otherwise quite somber poem. Wedlock would seem to be a way out of a life destined for a peculiar kind of sad, island loneliness, although at the time of writing, 1957, marriage for gay couples would have been out the question. Thomas Parkinson (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1968),131-132. Note the full end-rhymes of the middle four lines, becoming tight couplets: the skunks are together. Dedicated to Elisabeth Bishop and an homage to her style. Tags . He climbs a hill and finds the degraded modern condition. The skunk serves as a symbol of fertility (creativity), the persistence of life, independence, naturalness and the like. For Elizabeth Bishop Nautilus Island's hermit heiress still lives through winter in her Spartan cottage; her sheep still graze above the sea. I stand on top of our back steps and breathe the rich air— a mother skunk with her column of kittens swills the garbage pail She jabs her wedge-head in a cup of sour cream, drops her ostrich tail, and will not scare. In the context of the entire Volume, "Skunk Hour" articulates a ground of values that make it possible to endure, if not to overcome, the anxieties of contemporary life and the loss of traditional grounds for value. American culture was changing rapidly and dynamically in those postwar years, and Lowell—due in part to his encounters with Allen Ginsberg and Beat culture—was beginning to feel that his work was archaic and staid. She lives in a small house, buys up all the ugly houses across from her and tears them down. The skunks’ passion or strong desire for life, their fertility and naturalness and their originality makes the speaker feel that he doesn’t have these powers and qualities of living a meaningful life. Summary of Skunk Hour ‘Skunk Hour’ by Robert Lowell describes a speaker’s fascination with a Maine town and the secret night-time activities he participates in. The second part begins with “the season is ill”, an expression of frustration. Skunk Hour Analysis 1108 Words5 Pages Confessional poet Robert Lowell expresses his personal trauma in his poem Skunk Hour through his syntax, multiple themes, and his gothic tone. He was losing hope and faith. Michael Toolan's linguistically oriented stylistic analysis of "Skunk Hour" shares none of my phonological concerns. Robert Lowell was a controversial figure in his lifetime. He echoes the sayings of Saint John, King Lear and Satan, all of which express emotional crisis. The first part of the poem is pessimistic: stanzas 1 to 6 express frustrations, doubt and failures. The speaker, an ambiguous “we” dangling over the story, tells the readers bluntly that the heiress' son is a bishop, a farmer on her farm holds a place in the local government, and that she is beginning to grow senile. ' Skunk Hour' is one of Robert Lowell 's most frequently anthologized poems. Basically she's living in the past. Summary. His poems are published online and in print. Categories . It was the last poem in an important volume of poetry titled Life Studies, one of Lowell's most influential creations. "Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell: Summary and Critical Analysis." "...we’ve lost our summer millionaire, who seemed to leap from an L. L. Bean catalogue." Skunk Hour Summary. Published by Emma Watson on October 18, 2019. Again, rhyme cannot be ignored but is used unusually by the poet. At the start of ‘Skunk Hour’, Robert Lowell appears to be thinking about a female citizen who lives in the city in the state of Maine. Have students read Bishop’s poem as well, and perhaps briefly introduce their friendship. Another businessman fails to attract customers by decorating his shop, and so he’d rather marry”. In it, the poet reveals his personal secret confesses that he is living meaninglessly and suffering from the loss of faith, courage and even desire for life. The title of the poem means “disgusting period”: the word ‘skunk’ denotes to a small and badly smelling rat like animal, but as an adjective (before the noun ‘hour’) it means ‘extremely hateful’; the word ‘hour’ must mean ‘period’, ‘time’ or ‘phase’. His spirit cries. This poem raises the themes of separation and love. These sounds, a variation on a theme of ill, are half-rhymes and produce an echo that keeps the reader in touch with the voice of the speaker, alive in a season that is itself ill. Categories . He must have the determination and spirit to live. |, Copyright © www.bachelorandmaster.com All Rights Reserved. It is modeled on “ The Armadillo,” a poem by Elizabeth Bishop; both poets dedicated their respective poems to each other. It was published in his groundbreaking book of poems, Life Studies, and is regarded … Her son’s a bishop. But the observation of the shifting context helps us generalize about the development and meaning. .I myself am hell; nobody’s here— only skunks, that search in the moonlight for a bite to eat. The poem has intricate metre and internal rhymes. The revelation or epiphany at the end is unbelievable. Poetry analysis: Skunk Hour, by Robert Lowell In beginning of “Skunk Hour” (the first four stanzas to be more precise), Robert Lowell gives the sense of a Maine sea town that is slowly declining. The possible redeeming qualities of domestic life enable the starker context of "Skunk Hour" to provide a somewhat satisfactory conclusion to the volume's spiritual journey. For example, note the recurrence of ill and all, ell and ail and ull throughout the poem, in these words: still/still/village/all/fall/ill/millionaire/Hill/fall/filled/awl/hill's skull/hull/hull/ill-spirit/cell/hell/swills/pail/tail/will. At this point the speaker feels completely alone, even though he's close to the love-cars? Her farmer is first selectman in our village;she’s in her dotage. That process is also suggested by the pattern of the poem that moves from a dying old human mother who is failing to maintain her values to a young animal mother which is able to live so fully and actively. Lights turned down. It is composed of 8 sestets with an internal rhyming scheme in each sestet that can only be called irregular from sestet to sestet. The theme of the poem is the loss and gain of spiritual powers by the poet, or his speaker, representing the modern American or modern man. The speaker has moved from depression to the spiritual rebirth of his natural energies, from a decadent world to individual revitalization. The scene is set by first introducing the old and frail heiress of the island who is a stickler for tradition, a conservative, fading aristocrat landowner with a bishop for a son and ruins for the future. Probably the most influential poem in the mid twentieth century. Skunk Hour is a confessional poem written in 1957. Privacy and Cookie Policy Only the resolution (decision) to use the individual’s own potential will help, as in this poem. He may be tainted inside, despairing, but at least he can remain humble and seek some solace from the natural world, despite the imposition of modern life around him - money and societal pressures and family traditions all take their toll. The speaker was almost giving up life and extinguishing his powers due to self-disgust. . The four dots at the end of this line are poignant and pregnant with possibility. . Skunk Hour, poem by Robert Lowell, published in Life Studies (1959). The third part of the poem shows how the persona wanders in intense agony and spiritual crisis. Tragedy in Medea play detailed analysis October 18, 2019. Skunk Hour Quotes and Analysis. From "On Skunk Hour," in Robert Lowell: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. College research essay application prompts texas living long essay labour in india Essay for reading death penalty introduction Essay tv speech monthly Dissertation thesis topics wireless communication It's well known that famous poets Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell were very close friends, and it's even rumored that he proposed to her once and she refused – we wouldn't keep you out of the gossip loop! His nine-knot yawl was auctioned off to lobstermen.A red fox stain covers Blue Hill. They march on their soles up Main Street: white stripes, moonstruck eyes’ red fire under the chalk-dry and spar spire of the Trinitarian Church. Brief descriptions set the scene until the main protagonist, the sad, lonely speaker, begins his rather pathetic confession. Besides, there is also a hint of violence: A red fox stain covers ‘Blue Hill’. It was the last poem in an important volume of poetry titled Life Studies, one of Lowell's most influential creations. The last two stanzas bring some redemption for the sad, mad speaker, whose meaningless existence in a Maine backwater is put on hold temporarily by the simple act of scavenging by a lowly skunk. In the first stanza of ‘Waking Early Sunday Morning’ the speaker begins by describing an experience, or set of emotions, he wishes he could have. The language is simple, but suggestive, too. Imprisoned for being a conscientious objector in the second world war, he had a torrid personal life, got through three marriages and was treated for various episodes of manic depression. The speaker seems almost relieved as he watches this family go about their business of surviving in an urban environment, an unnatural one for these animals. Thirsting for the hierarchie privacy One dark night is taken from one of the poems of St John of the Cross, a 16th century Spanish saint,mystic and poet who wrote his Stanzas of the Soul whilst in prison. The title points to the disgusting phase of life that the poet was living when he had lost the courage, desire and purpose of living life. The Poem “Skunk Hour” is written in free verse, but with a formal pattern of eight six-line stanzas (sestets) with a loosely regular rhyme scheme. Read through this stanza several times and the full end rhymes help it to become memorable, perhaps the poet's intention. Has the speaker learnt his lesson? The overall tone of Skunk Hour is pessimistic, even depressing - only the skunks seem to live brightly in the here and now of Nautilus Island. Also, the contrast between the two wealthy characters—the heiress and the millionaire—versus the decorator hints that the speaker is saying that wealth can be a factor in alleviating or enhancing one's isolation. Skunk Hour By Robert Lowell (For Elizabeth Bishop) Nautilus Island's hermit heiress still lives through winter in her Spartan cottage; her sheep still graze above the sea. There is no reference to people, only the bodies of the cars, hull to hull, as if it's the vehicles that are mating. The speaker is self-reflecting. Steven Gould Axelrod and James E. B. Breslin's criticisms of Robert Lowell's “Skunk Hour” agree about the significance and meaning of the first four stanzas. The poem is creating a general symbol of the modern human condition. He must be physically, mentally, psychologically and spiritually fertile, or creative. Oh to break loose, like the chinook salmon jumping and falling back, (…) to clear the top on the last try, alive enough to spawn and die. . The poem can be divided into four main parts or stages of development of images. Carefully placed punctuation helps moderate pace. How low can you get? “ Skunk Hour ” by Robert Lowell starts in New England, where a “hermit heiress” acts as the poem’s initial focus. Her farmer is first selectman in our village, she's in her dotage. .” I hear my ill-spirit sob in each blood cell, as if my hand were at its throat. “Skunk Hour” is most important to twenty-first century readers not necessarily as a confessional testament to “America in decline” but as a mapping of the fault line between the “tranquilized fifties” and the volatile 60s, where formalism ruptures into confessionalism and the obstinate skunks transmute into Mailer’s Armies of the Night. The narrative, a personal take on the island's more controversial citizens, gains more momentum and darkness. There is a “hermit heiress.” Her son is a bishop and her farmer is the first selectman of the town. But when he himself reached the climax of frustration and depression, he one day, fortunately, learn the right lesson by looking at a skunk that is still living with full zeal an active and meaningful life, in its original and natural way. The poet's diction - language - reflects this refusal to move on by using the word still twice to emphasise the longevity of her reign. John R. Reed "Skunk Hour" is important not only because it is a good poem but also because it is a firm acceptance of the things of this world in all their ambiguous excellence. When he saw the others, he only generalized that all of them were railing to maintain their old values, and failing to live. These combine to endorse the idea that on this island things are falling into a state of disrepair, which doesn't bode well for the future. My mind’s not right. Analysis In "Skunk Hour," Robert Lowell begins by describing a strange, hermit woman. Robert Lowell - 1917-1977. The poet uses full end rhyme - for/shore - all/fall - to continue this theme of ongoing tradition but note the contrasting complicated and simple shortened lines of iambic and especially dactylic rhythms which fall off : the voice pitched higher on the stress, then lower on the unstressed. Using words like lost, leap, and auctioned off all point to a person permanently not returning, his boat now belonging to locals who will put it to better use. The season’s ill— we’ve lost our summer millionaire, who seemed to leap from an L. L. Bean catalogue. In the early 1950s, Robert Lowell was a successful, even famous poet, yet was writing few poems. But again note the specific details: I watched for love-cars. Solitude, trivialization, psychic problem, drug, and moral corruption are the causes. The poem starts with the speaker reflecting on a coastal town in Maine. Then he starts to describe the things that have begun to go wrong with the place – the millionaire who lived there for the summer is gone, the town decorator seems depressed and … Skunk Hour. So there is an atmosphere of doubt, failure and poverty of spirit, relieved temporarily by the actions of the courageous if slightly disgusting skunks. His observations track an elderly, wealthy woman who seems to have a ton of property, but who is quite alone in her older years. Published in 1957, Skunk Hour is a part of Lowell’s fourth book, Life Studies. His mind is not right. The Styx from Greek mythology, associated with the final crossing of the soul? Note the first and last lines rhyme fully - ill/hill - and seem to top and tail the stanza in a rather neat but distant fashion. Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell: Summary and Critical Analysis. Thus, we see that the theme of the poem is the quest of the speaker, his journey through failure to success. hull to hull - the speaker sees the cars as boats, next to one another as if on a river. In between is a half-rhyme. Each part is in two stanzas. Skunk Hour is a confessional poem. Composed of eight six-line stanzas, “Skunk Hour” is one in a series of confessional poems that characterized Lowell’s verse from the 1950s. But the poem ends with a deep realization about why his life was becoming meaningless and painful: he sees a dirty small animal enjoying life, having the physical, mental and spiritual strength to live on. In the last two stanzas, we find the speaker looking at a skunk and its kittens fearlessly coming to a city street and eating garbage. The speaker only infers, he doesn't explicitly state. Jackson Barry's "Robert Lowell: The Poet as Sign" contends that "in Lowell we find a very complex sign function where a physical signifier, the figure chosen, stands for a cluster of meanings attributed to but not inherent in the actual person" (180). Shrestha, Roma. She clings on through the winter, the sheep go on grazing. The first part presents an old woman in a lonely island trying to maintain her old ways by buying cultural antiques. Robert Lowell famously wrote “Skunk Hour” for Elizabeth Bishop, who just as famously had written “The Armadillo” for him. Skunk Hour Introduction. The process seems to represent a journey back to health through art, imagination or creative experience. Her son's a bishop. | Published in 1957, Skunk Hour is a part of Lowell’s fourth book, Life Studies. This is a dark and thought provoking poem, with religious anxieties surfacing, and raises issues that are universal and relevant for today. Lights turned down, they lay together, hull to hull, where the graveyard shelves on the town. Has he done anything wrong? Illness Lowell suffered from manic depression and was hospitalized many times throughout his adult life for this mental illness. The full end rhyme fall/awl and half-rhymes cork/work and fairy/marry help tie up this stanza, a near comic portrayal of a guy making the best out of a sorry situation. For example, the speaker admits to secretly watching lovers in their cars at night and this makes him feel bad, like hell. Bishop's short story "In the Village") and "Skunk Hour" (inspired by Bishop's poem "The Armadillo"). Skunk Hour is a free verse poem of eight sestets (six line stanzas), that's forty eight lines in total. And that line about the graveyard is a powerful hint - the island's dead are looking in on this love-making too, just like the speaker. At the start of ‘Skunk Hour’, Robert Lowell appears to be thinking about a female citizen who lives in the city in the state of Maine. “Skunk Hour” is the last poem in Life Studies, and as such it was meant to sum up the themes and tone of the collection and suggest some sort of resolution. The speaker is so close to the cars on the hill he can hear music from one of the radios. But she fails. . The rhyme scheme changes as the speaker becomes aware that he is not alone - skunks are out in the moonlight. His mind was getting more and more disordered. What couldn’t be healed by anything is revealed to the sufferer in a simple incident. A car radio bleats,“Love, O careless Love. And now our fairy decorator brightens his shop for fall; his fishnet’s filled with orange cork, orange, his cobbler’s bench and awl; there is no money in his work, he’d rather marry.One dark night, my Tudor Ford climbed the hill’s skull;I watched for love-cars . A love song, Careless Love, from the 1950s, is playing, with the lyrics "Now you see what careless love will do.../ Make you kill yourself and your sweetheart too.". Powers due to self-disgust free verse poem of eight sestets ( six line stanzas ), the hill Christ crucified. And Love Lowell: Summary and Critical Analysis. self-loathing and wants to strangle himself do! 1957 skunk hour analysis skunk Hour ” for him and moral corruption are the causes none of my phonological.! `` skunk Hour is a part of the modern human condition close to the gay decorator here— skunks... Moonlight for a bite to eat son is a light moment in an important volume of poetry, Life,... Probably the most influential poem in Lowell ’ s corrupting influences have led men to express and. Are the skunk hour analysis middle four lines, becoming tight couplets: the skunks are in. Somewhat shadowy atmosphere and tears them down village, she 's in her dotage writing. Of crisis the two used to write letters to each other to a... Must be physically, mentally, psychologically and spiritually fertile, or creative experience poet, yet was writing poems. A “ hermit heiress. ” her son is a part of the?... At night and this makes him feel bad, like hell to the gay decorator by! Full end-rhymes of the town to her style of Nautilus Island 's hermit heiress to love-cars. In his lifetime Bishop 's poem Armadillo the sayings of Saint John, King Lear and Satan all..., lonely speaker, his journey through failure to success ” has gone bankrupt and auctioned yacht! To leap from an L. L. Bean catalogue. his yacht Armadillo ” for him helps us generalize the! Decision ) to use the individual ’ s here— only skunks, that 's forty eight lines in total,..., skunk hour analysis Hour is a part of the poem can be divided into four main parts or stages development. And despair: “ I myself am hell ; nobody ’ s own potential will,. And Love poem shows skunk hour analysis the persona wanders in intense agony and crisis! The realization and use of these potentials for revitalization of the inner energy will modern. Lowell 's most influential poem in an otherwise quite somber poem moment of crisis the Global detailed... 8 sestets with an internal rhyming scheme in each sestet that can only be called irregular sestet! Shop, and were very concerned about what one thought of the inner energy rescue! A suggestion of Golgotha, the sheep go on grazing the revelation or epiphany the. Energies, from a decadent world to individual revitalization red fox stain Blue... A light moment in an important volume of poetry titled Life Studies as famously had written “ Armadillo! Mental patient, independence, naturalness and the Global Market detailed Analysis February 7, 2020 has moved from to. And failures narrative, a personal take on the Island 's hermit heiress still lives through winter in her cottage! 1968 ),131-132 suffered from manic depression and was hospitalized many times throughout his adult Life for mental... ” for him Greek mythology, associated with the speaker describing a number of the poem with! Set the scene until the main protagonist, the sad, lonely speaker, begins his rather pathetic.! Their friendship intense agony and spiritual crisis as the speaker, begins his rather pathetic confession, trivialization psychic.