Chaplinesque (1)
We make our meek adjustments,
Contented with such random consolations (2)
As the wind deposits
In slithered and too ample pockets. (3)
For (4) we can still love the world, who find
A famished kitten on the step, and know
Recesses for it from the fury of the street,
Or warm torn elbow coverts. (5)
We will sidestep (6) , and to the final smirk (7)
Dally (8) the doom of that inevitable thumb
That slowly chafes (9) its puckered index toward us, (10)
Facing the dull squint (11) with what innocence
And what surprise! (12)
And yet these fine collapses (13) are not lies
More than the pirouettes (14) of any pliant (15) cane; (16)
Our obsequies (17) are, in a way, no enterprise. (18)
We can evade you, and all else but the heart:
What blame to us if the heart live on. (19)
The game enforces smirks; but we have seen
The moon in lonely alleys make
A grail of laughter of an empty ash can, (20)
And through all sound of gaiety and quest (21)
Have heard a kitten in the wilderness. (22)
(1) According to John Norton Smith, the title “Chaplinesque” has been suggested
by, or modeled on, "Humoresque," "a capricious musical composition." It is also
worth saying that this poem is a sympathetic reaction to Charles Chaplin’s movie
“The Kid”.
(2) The persona asserts that they (most probably the tramp and the foundling kid
in Chaplin’s movie) are satisfied with their adjustment to the environment (most
probably a modern and industrialized metropolis) through a submissive and mild
manner while being dependent on the casual supports they receive. (Notice the
ambiguous meaning of the word “meek” which means both submissive and
mild.)
(3) The persona goes further by likening his dependency on these random
consolations or casual supports to the glidingly wrinkled (slithered) and large
empty (too ample) pockets which are open to the wind.
(4) For: because
(5) They are contended with those aforesaid consolations since they can still find
the world loveable, a world wherein they are still capable of giving shelter to a
kitten, taking it away to a calm and remote place (recesses) or hiding it within
their elbows covered with the torn but warm cloths (warm torn elbow coverts).
(6) They will both move aside and avoid (regarding the double sense of the word
“sidestep”) something or someone explained later in the line after.
(7) What they do cause that final insolent smile (smirk)
(8) Dally: to toy with something.
(9) Chafe: to rub
(10) They are going to avoid both the disastrous destiny and the threatening hand
gesture (rubbing his wrinkled index and thumb to one another) which is most
probably performed by an official figure representing the law of a metropolis,
someone like a police officer. (It is of great importance to remind that doom has
got a multiple-significance indicating the bitter destiny, the Last Judgment, and
an official or legal judgment made upon someone.)
(11) A condition in which the eyes are not aligned in parallel, causing a cross-
eyed appearance.
(12) The exclamation mark at the end of this stanza connotes their pretentiously
innocent behavior whenever facing such insipid (dull) representative of law.
(13) “Fine collapses” should be taken into consideration with its ambiguous
meaning according to the fact that, on one hand, it means the unpleasant end or
failure (reminding of the doom), and on the other, it hints at the well-known act
of Chaplin which was falling down with pretentious naïveté.
(14) Fast complete spin of the body, especially one performed on the tip of the toe
or the ball of one foot in ballet.
(15) Pliant: Easily bending.
(16) The persona says that these fallings or collapses are as just real as the
rhythmic movements of a body (another hint at Chaplin’s famous pantomimic
acting) relying on an elastic cane.
(17) As stated by the footnotes of Norton Anthology of American Literature, this
word signifies both “funeral rites” and “obsequiousness” which means being
eager to obey.
(18) Since the word “obsequies” plays a double role, two separate interpretations
can be read from this line; either the speaker believes that their death (funeral
rites) in such society is of little or no importance (enterprise), or he says that there
is no creativity and energetic effort in their submissiveness which reminds of the
expression “meek adjustment” mentioned at the very beginning of the poem.
(19) They can avoid everyone and anything but the heart or, in other words,
emotion. A rhetorical question meaning that there is no reason to blame the
speaker if the heart keeps playing it role.
(20) What happens in the movie, or in the life of such people beating against the
poverty in a populated modern town, enforces smirk on the faces of the
audiences, but their life has got its own beautiful moments. From among such
moments is when the moon makes the ash can (garbage can) eager to laugh.
(21) Probably the gaiety and the adventure of dallying the doom.
(22) Calling the place wherein the kitten is heard “wilderness” is a rather
paradoxical utterance, since the “wilderness”, as mentioned before, is used for the
environment which more resembles to a modern metropolis, concerning the
expression “the fury of the street”.
Analysis
With reference to the fact that this poem is written on the basis of Crane’s
vicarious correspondence with Charles Chaplin’s movie “The Kid” (1), one can
find many extra-textual references to that movie mostly rendered by means of
imagery, speaker’s tone, and metonymic expressions, mainly with symbol-
representative relation, which resemble to that of Chaplin’s famous pantomimic
gestures. (And yet these fine collapses are not lies / More than the pirouettes of
any pliant cane). Consequently, to understand the atmosphere and
characterization of the poem better, one should mind the movie as well. Even
though the poem, in this analysis, will be discussed through the principals of
deconstructionism (a mode of interpretation which denies any dependency on
extra-textual references); a summary of the movie is given as follows:
The Kid is a motion picture about a tramp who finds an abandoned child.
Released in 1921, this silent film was written and directed by Charlie Chaplin. An
unwed mother (played by Edna Purviance) leaves her baby in the back seat of an
expensive car in hopes of a better life for him. However, the car gets stolen and
the thieves leave the baby in an alley rather than face kidnapping charges. Along
comes Chaplin’s famous character, the Tramp, who picks up the child and
attempts to find him a home. Failing at that, the Tramp adopts him. When the boy
is a bit older (played by Jackie Coogan), they develop a scheme where he throws
rocks at windows and the Tramp arrives later with a window-repair service.
Eventually the child’s mother and the police catch up with them, resulting in
heartbreak and eventual reconciliation. (2)
According to Paul de Man - the leading figure of American deconstructive
criticism, two sets of conflicting forces are involved in a text, grammatical
aspects which are referential, logically ordered, and determinate, and, in contrast,
rhetorical aspects which are non-referential and function in a way that provide the
text with an assortment of illogical possibilities. (3) As a result of such conflict,
the text is to be understood through different or even opposing interpretations, in
other words, any given piece of writing, a poem, in our case, if being closely
read, appears to be deconstructed by itself or self-deconstructing.
According to what has been mentioned above, and the principles and strategies of
deconstructionism itself, this analysis does not pursue the task of interpreting the
poem in a concretely verifiable manner, quite the opposite, its primary focus is on
discovering those conflicting areas in which rhetorical aspects of the text distort
the seemingly logical order of the grammatical aspects of the assertions.
If we were to analyze the poem through a structuralist approach, the poem could
have been divided into two sets of elements or entities opposing each other, and
the mode and characteristic of this systematic opposition could have been defined
through a central sentence assumed to hold the dominating idea of the poem
and govern the internal relations of its entities. In Chaplinesque, it is probable to
discern the following lines of the fourth stanza as the central or foundational
sentences of the poem:
We can evade you, and all else but the heart:
What blame to us if the heart live on.
Having discerned these lines to be the central sentences of the poem, the rest of
the elements and entities can become classified in two opposing categories. And
their relations can be justified through the undeniable and dominating role of
“heart” - notice that in these lines heart is not to be evaded) which represents or
connotes emotionality and affection (4). For instance, in the second stanza:
For we can still love the world, who find
A famished kitten on the step, and know
Recesses for it from the fury of the street,
Or warm torn elbow coverts.
“We” and “famished kitten” are in conflict with “the fury of the street”. That
undeniable presence of this outlasting “heart” leads the “we” of this stanza to
“know recesses” for that “famished kitten” and shelter it within “warm torn
elbows”. What can be logically interpreted is that this world is still loveable
because there is no escape from “the heart”.
Another instance is to be found in the third stanza:
We will sidestep, and to the final smirk
Dally the doom of that inevitable thumb
That slowly chafes its puckered index toward us,
Facing the dull squint with what innocence
And what surprise!
This “we” stands against “the doom”, and “dull squint” (metonymic expressions
that probably indicate a figure implying a representative of law, namely a police
officer). And their opposing relation is governed by the role that “the heart”
plays. Consequently, what lets this “we” to “dally” the “doom” and brings about
that “final smirk”, or what gives this “we” the chance of “facing” that “dull
squint” with pretentious (notice the exclamation mark – and the rhetorical irony
(5) underlying this expression) “surprise” and “innocence”, is the fact that the
“heart” is not to be evaded, and, in fact, this is the strong presence of “the heart”
which capacitates and heartens this “we” to circumvent the “ doom of that
inevitable thumb that slowly chafes its puckered index toward” it. In other words,
this “we” is capable of evading everything but “the heart”, even that threatening
judgment. In short, such categorization of elements and the internal relations of
them can be explained on the basis of this central sentence.
Finally, in the last stanza:
The game enforces smirks; but we have seen
The moon in lonely alleys make
A grail of laughter of an empty ash can,
And through all sound of gaiety and quest
Have heard a kitten in the wilderness.
The “game” which this “we” of the poem plays, probably in a clownish manner,
does really “enforce” a “smirk “, most probably on the face of that “you” who
was previously addressed in an apostrophe in line 17. In this poem, “we”, the
personified “moon” (representing lucidity of the nature), and “the kitten” oppose
the category of the “empty ash can”, and “the wilderness”, both of which remind
us of “the fury of the street” or trend of a modern city. Again, that undeniably
outlasting “heart” and its emotional significance leads the “moon” to “make a
grail of laughter of an empty ash can”, and makes the “we” of the poem to hear “a
kitten in the wilderness”.
It is plausible to draw the conclusion that the undeniable presence of “the eart”
empowers the entities of the first category such as “we” and “the moon” to
dominate the entities of the second one, like “the fury of the street”, “the ash
can”, “the dull squint”, and ‘the doom of that inevitable thumb”. Notice these
underline verbs in the following excerpts each of which attributed to the entities
of the first category and their dominating effect on the entities of the second
category:
1. Dally the doom of that inevitable thumb
2. The game enforces smirks;
3. The moon in lonely alleys make / A grail of laughter of an empty ash can,
But, on the contrary, a deconstructive reading of the poem, defies the
determinacy of such governing system. As it was mentioned before, the
rhetorical aspects of the text function as the counter-forces to that of the
logically ordered grammatical ones. From among these rhetorical aspects
especially those ones dealing with plurisignation (a term used to indicate that a
word, a passage, or a whole work can hold different levels of meaning) (6) such
as: equivocation (sentences which are open to two or more interpretation),
polysemy (words having multiple meanings), ambiguity etc.
Now, it is better to reconsider the poem and the mode of the dominance in the
internal relations of its two categories of entities.
In the first stanza:
We make our meek adjustments,
Contented with such random consolations
As the wind deposits
In slithered and too ample pockets.
Even though there is no direct reference to the entities of the second category – in
the first line, the word “adjustments” which literally means “the act of adjusting
to something or someone” brings forth the presence of an entity from the second
category, probably related to “the fury of the street”.
So it can be concluded that, in this line, a trace of opposition between these two
categories is given. Moreover, the word “meek” is supposed to describe the mode
of this opposition, and explain which side of this opposition is dominating.
“Meek” has got quite an equivocal meaning: On one hand, it connotes the
mildness and quietness of the nature of something or someone, and on the other
hand, it signifies submissiveness and lack of will. Thus this word functions
ambiguously in the poem. Assuming that one interprets this line on the basis of
the second meaning of this term, the opening line will reverse the previously
mentioned mode of dominance between the opposing categories.
The “we” makes its “meek adjustments” in an unwilling and submissive manner.
In other words, the “we” of the poem, standing for the first category beside other
entities like the “moon” and “kitten”, is rather passive and obedient. Therefore, it
can be concluded that “we” is rather influenced and governed by that
unmentioned but vaguely present entity of the second category which is most
probably related to “the fury of the street”. Such condition contradicts that
seemingly positive role of “the heart” through giving the dominating mode to the
second category and reversing the opposition.
Another example is to be found in the fourth stanza, when the speaker says:
Our obsequies are, in a way, no enterprise.
The word “obsequies” literally means “funeral rites”. So it can be interpreted that,
in this sentence, the “death” which is another entity of the second category – is
replaced with one of its symbols: “obsequies”. And provided that “the heart”
interferes in between the opposition of these two categories in favor of the
entities of the fist category, mainly “we”, one can draw the conclusion that even
“death” is “no enterprise” or something involved with extreme significance. In
simpler terms, the strong presence of “the heart” makes “we” to overcome death.
What contradicts the determinacy of this interpretation, is the rhetorical device
behind the word “obsequies” - i.e. equivocation. The term “obsequies” also
connotes “obsequiousness” which means being submissive. With regard to the
second meaning of this word, one can interpret the line as follows:
Our submissiveness is not similar to any great effort or venture.
The second interpretation sets forth the similar condition to that of the previous
example. Consequently, the domination of the entities of the first category and
the role of “the heart” are both contradicted, and their determinacy is proved
wrong.
Although there are more instances to show how the logically ordered assertions of
the grammar of the text and the determinacy of the logical interpretations with
which they confirm, are contradicted by the rhetorical aspects of that text, these
two given examples would suffice.
Finally, it is important to reconsider Derrida’s technique (7) in reversing the
connotations of the words of a text which are presumed to represent a
metaphysical duality or opposition (e.g. femininity/masculinity, culture-nature,
spirit/body, form/content etc.):
In this poem, “the heart” (referring to emotion, affection, instincts etc.) and “the
fury of the street” (referring to culture, civilization etc.) are those keywords
which lead one to draw the scheme of an opposition which is organized within
the structure of the poem: nature/culture
But it is interesting that in the finale of the poem, the “famished kitten” which was
initially placed “on a step” somewhere in the street , in the second stanza, is heard
“in the wilderness”. The act of attributing wilderness to the street is, in fact,
removing the presupposed boundaries between those words of the text which
were used to settle the aforesaid opposition. And it indicates the possibility of
reversing the opposition of culture/nature in favor of either side, or, it’s better to
say in favor of none.
________________________________________
Notes:
1. Crane wrote in letters of seeing Charlie Chaplin’s film The Kid (1921) and said
that he aimed to “put in word some of the Chaplin pantomime, so beautiful, and
so full of eloquence, and so modern. “The film” made me feel myself, as a poet,
as being “in the same boat, with him,” Crane wrote. (This excerpt is taken from
Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Sixth Edition, p. 2101)
2. Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft
Corporation.
3. See A Glossary of Literary Terms, A. H. Abrahams, p. 225-30
4. Chaplin has called this poem “a love letter to the world” in a discussion he had
with Hart Crane.
5. Rhetorical irony is a form of irony in which the attitude and the tone of the
speaker or writer is the exact opposite of what is expressed. (J. A. Cuddon, A
Dictionary of Literary Terms)
6. ibid
7. See the chapter on post-structuralism in Practicing Theory and Reading
Literature by Raman Selden.
Ali Sobati