The Figure a Poem Makes

Poetry has been one of man's earliest form of art and entertainment, recited by the Ancient Chinese, the Greeks, and William Shakespeare. Enticed by its beauty and elegance, man has always been attracted to poetry. In The Figure a Poem Makes, Robert Frost makes the connection between poetry and the many aspects of life. Frost, a highly regarded American poet, dedicated his life to poetry, for he believed that poetry could be explained as life itself.

This essay he wrote was the preface of his collection of poems, and it is understandable why he writes this as his preface. He wants his audience to experience poetry different from others. He explains poetry as a figure, a rise and fall, "The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom" (177). He connects poetry to love, it starts out in happiness and pure ecstasy, and when it ends, it provides wisdom.

Every poem is different, not because of the type of rhetorical devices it uses, or the style it is written in, but because of the meaning and the message it delivers, the end product it gives the reader. Frost states, "like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting" (178) The poem is not brought into the world entirely by the poet, all the poet does is spark it, and then the poet follows the poem in its creation. These metaphors that Frost uses allows the audience to mentally picture the figure of a poem. Something that seamlessly flows and always has a feel of originality. "Originality and initiative are what I ask for my country" (178). What Frost wants is his country to maintain the same figure as poetry. As said before, to Frost, poetry can be compared to life itself, and he wishes his readers to live life as a poem: from rise to fall, from ice on a hot stove to water, from delight to wisdom. "Read it a hundred times: it will forever keep its freshness as a metal keeps its fragrance" (178). These beautiful metaphors that Frost utilizes allows the reader to imagine poetry. He wants his readers to live life as a poem, read it a hundred times but it will forever keep its freshness; therefore, we should live life like we are living it hundred times and since we live life like a poem, we will never get tired of it.


"Like a piece of ice on a hot stove the poem must ride on its own melting."--Robert Frost

The Future is Now

Ever since man was born, technology has continued to evolve. In 1945, the whole world believed that man had reached it's fullest technological potential with the explosion of the two atomic bombs in Japan. People were devastated by the destructive power of the two bombs and asked, "what has this world come to?" Has man's technology evolved so much that we can no longer control the power we created? Katherine Anne Porter addresses this issue in the short essay "The Future is Now".

Porter, a Pulitzer Prize winning American journalist, wrote this essay in 1950, five years after the first atomic bomb, at the age of 60. She was born in a time when the industrial revolution was beginning to take off; technology was not something new to her. She lived through two world wars and understood the death toll, the chaos, and the terror war can create, providing herself with an incredible ethos. She realized that war was what caused massive jumps in technology, "bows and arrows, stone cannon balls, gunpowder, flintlocks, pistols, the dumdum bullet, the Maxim silencer, the machine gun, poison gas, armored tanks, and on and on to the grand climax- if it should prove to be - of the experiment on Hiroshima" (197).

Society was beginning to believe that it has come too far. Technology has been created that shouldn't have been, and it is too far into the future. Yet, Porter quotes what one of her apprentice authors said, "the future is now" (195). She states that, "the future does arrive every day and it is all we have, from one second to the next" (195). People were angry and disturbed at the fact that a single bomb was able to kill millions instantly, but Porter argues, "I fail to see why it is more criminal to kill a few thousand persons in one instant than it is to kill the same number slowly over a given stretch of time" (198)

Throughout time, man has been killing people by the millions using the weapons he created. The only thing that changed is that the killing has become quicker and more efficient. She wishes that people do not start to curse the technology that they created, for technology will evolve as long as man commands it. She points out that the human race is better off evolving its technology than eating raw meat and living like cavemen.  Undoubtedly, killing is never justifiable, but as Porter says, "what we have is a world not on the verge of flying apart, but an uncreated one" (198). In an growing and evolving world, mistakes are bound to be made in the form of war, death, and destruction. Society and technology has not yet been perfected, but it is bound to be, in the future, which is now.

Uncontrollable technology at its finest

Sex Ex Machina

As technology advances, machines are becoming a part of everyone's daily life. There is no escape from the ever present machinery that powers society. However, there are many people that are afraid of machines, be it fear, doubt, or trauma. In "Sex Ex Machina", James Thurber, a renown American cartoonist and humorist, interestingly connects the parallels betweens machines and sex.

He mentions that many "attribute the whole menace of the machine to sex" (153). This essay was written for the The New Yorker, a magazine company, in 1937, a time of great technological evolution. This essay probably was a great illustrator of the time period he was living in. Machines were becoming more larger, stronger, and more efficient. This sudden change probably frightened many people that weren't used to it; thus, prompting Thurber to address this issue.

 Thurber's audience is most likely people that are apprehensive about machinery, those who still don't quite understand how machines work. Thurber's purpose is to inform his audience that this fear that they have of machines is natural, and he achieves it quite well. He gives interesting anecdotes about his own personal life and of his friends and their experiences with machines. He himself is somewhat scared of all these new machines for he, "discerned only a natural caution in a world made up of gadgets that whir and whine and whiz and shriek and sometimes explode" (157). He also mentioned a friend that, "developed a fear of automobiles, trains, and every other kind of vehicle that was not pulled by a horse" (158) because he fell off of a motor boat once and had a traumatic experience. Thurber states that, "I do not regard that as neurotic, either, but only sensible" (158). He understands that machines intimidate many people, just as sex intimidates many people.

Thurber has a great literary voice that has a mix of calmness and irony that allows understanding the purpose easier and makes his writing much more enjoyable. His purpose can also reach out to people today. In his time period, the machines that frightened people were large, clamorous automobiles; however, in this time period, the machines that people tend to fear are smartphones and computers. I know of many people who have difficulties navigating their computers and doing simple computer operations, and in the end, they just quit saying that technology isn't their thing. What's amazing is that Thurber's topic and purpose transcends time and shows the basis of human nature.

The Fear of Machines