The Cage

Note: I was confused about how short this poem was, since it's only 2 stanzas in the copy of the poems that I downloaded, so I looked it up on Google. It's actually a lot longer, so I'm just going to give the full length I found the benefit of the doubt and base this post on it.

In a literal sense, John Montague's "The Cage" tells the story of a boy and his father living in Brooklyn. The father works underground and is said to be a notoriously unhappy man, drinking by the fire and reminiscing about Ireland. The parts of the work I found to be the most striking, however, are more subtle, dividing not only the father and son but Ireland and the United States.

With its quietly synpathetic yet distanced tone, the poem describes the relationship between the narrator and his father. It's clear that the narrator understands his father's pain and feels sympathetic, pointing out his "pallor" appearance and "ghostly forehead". He also recognizes that he's clearly unhappy, longing by the fire for life in Ireland before these "lost years in Brooklyn". He also shows an understanding of how chilling of a place Brooklyn is, commenting on how the subway "shudder[s] the earth". Even with this sympathy, however, a disconnection between the two is shown later in the poem. Even though they walk together in Ireland, for instance, the two don't smile together because they recognize it's only a dream. This suggests that like the walk in Ireland, a full connection between the two is actually an idealization. The ending scene also shows the narrator's distance despite his sympathy towards his father's situation. Sure, he notices how "ghostly" his father looks while descending into the subway, but the two are standing on different side of the booth's bars. He's an outsider looking into the pain of his father, not actually there to console or share it.

The divide between the United States and Ireland, too, is illustrated by the poem. Through his use of imagery, for instance, Montague suggests that Brooklyn is a cage, trapping the narrator's father as a solemn, hopeless prisoner. This is first evident when the father is described as having a look of "pallor" from working underground. He's pale and sickly from being confined in a dark, gloomy area, away from other people and daylight. The last stanza also solidifies this idea, as the narrator comments on seeing his father's head behind bars of the subway booth. The top of his bald head is scarred by a car accident, showing how vulnerable and damaged he is by the industrialization. Brooklyn seems to be holding him captive, locking him up in its dirty urbanization.

Ireland is characterized by the poem as well, but in a free and beautiful light. Though this is just a flashback, the narrator describes the open fields and plants in the town, his father even smiling at villages while walking by. Since this image follows the one of Brooklyn's sallow underground tunnels, the freedom and beauty of the green fields is obvious. The fact that he's traveling on a road also suggests freedom. Here, he can take control of the road and walk where he pleases; the Brooklyn subway, moving passengers according to its own route and confining them underground, controls the father. Since the father is "locked" in the Broolyn cage, though, his only escape to Ireland is through alcohol and his dreams.

Living the American Dream inside "The Cage"

Firstly, this poem deals with an Irish immigrant who came to America to work, but he is obviously in horrible working conditions; the author writes "My Father the least happy man I known". I think this sort of resembles the George Moore story. Though America is thought of to be this wonderful, beautiful place, there is always this sort of paradox of the American Dream in Irish writing. think this is the Irish writers saying be content with your own Country. This poem deals with that image greatly, especially when he refers to it as "the lost years". Because the poet reveals to us this image, we understand that the lost years are something important. Possibly, it could be the years spent in America or the years spent working such a horrible job.

Another important thing that I notice was the tone, in particular the father-son relationship. The son seems to be angry or at least not pleased with his father's choices. The tone suggest that maybe the two weren't close and evidence for this is the fact that the language seems to separate the father and the sun. For this poem to be about family, pronouns 'we' or 'us' are not used, but it is always 'he'. Another thing to look at is what the author titles the poem: The Cage. For a poem to be about his father, and to name it the cage, it is suggesting animal-like behavior, or at least an animalistic environment. In the authors simple description of his father, he chooses to describe his father as an pale, underground worker, which I believe hints at the animalistic environment, or even the culture.

This poem deals with stereotypes as well. The author refers to his father as a traditional Irishmen, and in turn is saying that traditional Irish people drink and are drunks. With this, I do not believe that he is being 'honest'. Obviously, the author does not like America, which means that he has to like Ireland. Therefore, I think the author is now dealing with his father's drinking habit, but he isn't comfortable talking about it, so he is stereotyping and being sarcastic as a way to bring it up.

The Geography Lesson

This poem is about people, or in this case, animals and resources, emigrating to new lands. "...small and wild/ Against a map of the known world" gives this image of insignificant people compared to the world at large. A group of guys, who cannot read or write, stand in front of a map. It may be inferred that they may not even be able to identify with it, let alone read it.  "internal exiles at the age of thirteen or fourteen" tells us that these boys graduating in the class of '61 were away from home at a young age, or have had the idea that they needed to get away. 

The ladybirds are caught from Lefty Lynch just as they  "touch down from africa." The banana's that were not ready in color, still green, were picked and shipped over in crates, and when they arrived, they were golden. 

Muldoon talks about these people, animals, and fruits as emigrants to a new place, at a relative young, and premature age. The boys are unable to read and write, yet (i think....) they leave their home, or at least want to leave their home at the young age of thirteen or fourteen. The bananas are packed and shipped when they aren't even ready to be eaten, and a ladybird is caught just as she touches down from Africa. 

This poem talks about the journey of of people, animals and resources, whether it be "as some explorer", in a box ripening on it's way, or taken into captivity just as it arrives.  

This could be completely out of left field, but i've just spent an hour trying to think what graduating young men, ladybirds in a match box, and bananas have in common... and i am still not sure about the title of the poem. Geography lesson, perhaps depicting how and where certain things come from that we see everyday, like people walking the street, ladybugs in the bushes, and bananas in the supermarket. 

Fond Memory

Though the word "Fond" in the title of the poem "Fond Memory" suggests the writer is going to address a memory very dear to the young boy, the poem seems solemn and in a way sad. The boy talks about school as having a sense of sameness. He describes the children as a group, rather than as individuals, also placing himself into this group when he states "I dressed in wool as well, ate rationed food, played English games and learned how wise the Magna Carta was....". I think the fact that he brings in outside cultural issues and relates them to children is also interesting as normally we don't associate children as crying when someone of importance, like for example the King, dies.

After his day at school, when he travels home, he describes the more minute details of his father playing the piano in the corner, " trying not to weep at the cigarette smoke stinging up from between his fingers ". However, here I do not think he actually means crying from sadness, as cigarette smoking often burns the eyes and makes them water. Home, though solemn, seems to be a safe place for the boy.

The song appears to remind him of his country, however, it is a different country than England. He's referring to the country of his birth, and seemingly longing to go back there. It is possibly a song his father plays about his country. When he says "this upward-straining song made to be
our safe inventory of pain" it makes me think that this song is a way in which they can go back to a feeling or place of safety, in a world that they aren't familiar with.

"When Poverty Comes Through The Door, Love Flies Up The Chimney."

John Montague's poem The Locket tells the heartbreaking story of his (or the speaker's) relationship with his mother. It starts off with "Sing a last song/for the lady who has gone," so we are aware right away that this "lady" has died. After the first three lines, I thought perhaps it was going to be about a relationship with his lover, who died during child birth. Instead, it's about this very complicated relationship with his mother, Molly. We find out she had always wanted a girl and instead had a boy, and she never forgave him for both being "the wrong sex" and coming out "the wrong way around." 

The tone of this poem is very melancholy and bleak, and I think the setting of Brooklyn has something to do with that. Although the place is never explicitly described in detail, we know that they are living in poverty, and as a result, Molly gives her son away.  There seems to be this distinction again from the home land of Ireland, where everything revolves around family, and once they have to settle in Brooklyn, there's a sense of helplessness, and the need for money is more powerful than the strength of love. The quote that defines Molly's character, and this story, is that "When poverty comes through the door, love flies up the chimney." I love that Montague gave us that glimpse into Molly's thoughts--it's a harsh and cold thought, but it's a reaction to a hopeless situation, and while some subscribe to the logic of "love conquers everything," Montague confronts us, though Molly, with the counter-argument: what if it can't? 

The second half of the poem talks about how he seeks out his mother so that she would know him, despite her desire not to. He uses the simile of "courting you like a young man, teasingly untying your apron," which shows a son trying to reconnect with her, despite her neglect of him. He finds out about her "wild young days" and I assumed she grew up in Ireland. He referred to her as "the belle of your small town," which for me represents the power and contentment she felt at home. I see her home and Brooklyn as disparate worlds. We see words like "cocoon of pain" and "constant rain" which I think apply to her current life, and the misery she feels in such poor conditions with such little money, and a son who both added to the expenses and wasn't what she wanted. 

I love how Montague again uses dialogue to show how she tells her son to not come around, because "I start to get fond of you and then you are gone." He describes her voice as "rough," and yet when he says she is "resigned to being alone," I think all readers feel a twinge of sympathy for her. We don't know the specifics of what happened in her past and why she had to leave her home and live in Brooklyn, but we know she has made the choice to be alone becaus she has no other choice.

The last stanza is heartbreaking, and so subtle. He calls her a "Mysterious blessing," I think the fact that the poem is using 2nd person and therefore referring directly to her is even more powerful. Somehow a reader is able to feel even more impacted by the words than if it were in third person, and it read "I never knew until she was gone that always around her neck she wore an oval locket..." The poem being addressed to his mother directly strengthens the deep sense of emotion and longing attached to it. I think one of the most beautiful parts of the poem is that last stanza, and specifically the last 3 lines, that, even without much specific description or detail, I still finish the poem with a distinct visual of exactly what that locket looks like. I finish the poem and in my head I see a half open oval locket, where I can peek in and see a grainy black and white photo of a young child. I think I use the term 'peeking in' because that's what most of this poem is. It's a small glimpse into a life that is so much more complex than seven stanzas could express, and yet even through a small glimpse, I as a reader feel all kinds of different emotions for Molly and her neglected but always loved, son. 

Passion of Ireland

In Eavan Bogland's "Fond Memory," a young Irish boy writes of his experience of going to school in England and his longing to be back in Ireland. His words are passionate, as he says "I stood there trying not to weep at the cigarette smoke from between his fingers." Crying and weeping occur twice in the poem, and he also mentions pain and an "upward-straining song." Essentially the poem is about how much the boy misses Ireland, when he says, "I thought this is my country, was, will be again, t his upward-straining song made to be our safe inventory of pain. And I was wrong." 

 To me, California is kind of like my own country, because the US is so big that the states do differ a lot from each other. Sometimes I feel like crying just like the boy does, because where we come from really does in a way shape us. I do miss California, and sometimes I do feel alienated when I am away from it, just like the boy does when all the students cry over the death of the King and he feels no remorse. I dont know if his passion is strictly because he is from Ireland, or if he writes of simply what we consider "home" in general.

Blog Post Three

Read through the poems on the Ctools site (Poems of Emigration). Choose at least one and write about it. What images strike you? What's the tone? What is happening literally in the poem, and then progress to the more abstract or figurative happenings.