Aleya

Pollack

English-Analysis English- Analysis of poem Bushed by Wreck Beach

6.06.11

This poem, Bushed by Earle Birney, is from the collection Ghost in the Wheels: Selected poems. The poem follows an evolution process, a time sequence and a stream of consciousness. There is a constant run-on-lines in between each stanza. It is a descriptive narrative poem. Poem is written with an observer point of view. This poem analysis will be achieved by an analysis of each stanza. It is composed of six stanzas with a common theme, which is man versus nature. The title of the poem, Bushed has two different meanings. The first one being that the narrator is tiered. The second one could be referring to a bush that can be large areas of wilderness. The narrator being exhausted is lacking of strength and therefore is incapable of using force with force. It could also mean that he got absorbed by the bush, or the wilderness, which for seems to be waiting for him every time he tries something new as the poem follows a time frame and the narrator has an ambiguous ending. The first and second stanzas do not follow the time frame. They are outside of time adaptation. By the end of the second stanza he starts the adaptation process. The first stanza is an ideal of perfection, a dream. The narrator invents a rainbow; he is building his ideal of perfection. The rainbow gives reassurance and hope to his situation of him being alone against the nature around him. His hope is shattered by lightning being a destructive force of nature. Leaving him with something tangible, which is the shattered rainbow. The lake-lap has a material connotation, as lake is qualified as an object on something, the something being the mountain. This leaves the narrator with a shattered dream. In stanza two, he does not try to get away from where he is or escape from where he is, he adapts. He is determined to survive, this is shown with the adverb yet. By adapting he tries to become part of the nature, this is shown by the narrator wearing quills on his hatband. There is a slow rhythm in this stanza given by the sh alliteration, which emphasizes on the calm of the present situation as he has recovered from the past situation and learned how to survive, learned how to roast porcupine belly giving him now the ability to feed himself better. He is starting to evolve. This marks the beginning of his evolution. In stanza three he starts his adaptation and starting from now he will evolve. The narrator saw the mountain as a person, alive. It is shown with the daily routine of the mountain and how the person observing the situation of the narrator evaluates the situation. This lets the reader assume that the narrator is intruding in the routine of the mountain. Whether the day starts with in sunshine or fog, the mountain is alive with messages to remind him that he is weak compared to everything else around him, that he is unwelcomed at the heart of nature. This stanza emphasizes the fact that he will never be a conqueror but a prisoner. It is show in the poem with sent messages [] proclamations, these messages sent

Aleya Pollack

English-Analysis

6.06.11

every morning are constant warnings, with this other quote whether it [] of storm the mountain is telling the narrator that where ever he is and no matter the environment that the narrator is an outsider to the world the mountain is in. the situation can be visualized to the reader with yellowed bright as wood- columbine, there is also two different senses, tactile and auditive which allows the reader to feel as if he/she is living the situation, fuzzed moth in a flannel of storm. The author used in this stanza a personification of the mountain, the mountain was clearly alive. This personification gives out the feeling of power coming from the mountain, that the mountain in its self is powerful. Stanza four is the next step in the evolution process of this poem. the first sentence is what gives it out, when he tried his eyes on the lake, this quote contributes to his adaptation. The narrator is shown to have realized that the lake provides food as well and comparing the ospreys to valkyries, which did not choose the hero but the criminal. The criminal being the fish, choosing the cut- throat method to survive leaving a negative side to the adaptation but giving proof of his survival skills. The adverb then provides a consequence to the stanza. The consequence being that survival is a necessity. The stanza ends with a mythological statement night smoke rose from the boil of the sunset which means sun in water and water boil. This leads to the narrator acquiring a skill, the skill of hunting more precisely fishing. Stanza five is very dark it is qualified with, moon carved unknown totems, which continues the mythological sense of the poem in a nightmarish feel to it. Continuing in the stanza, it gets more and more hostile this is shown by owls in the beardusky woods derided. The mountain is making fun of the narrator proving to him that he is an intruder because with moosehorned cedars [] to the stars shows very well that he is trapped and that he could be attacked at any moment. Moosehorned cedars is a personification of cedars and their antlers up to the stars continues the mythological part of this poem making it feel as if what the narrator is living actually could have happened. Then is used in this stanza as a consequence and the consequence in this stanza is that there is no escape as he is trapped by the moosehorned cedars. Before this stanza ends the author writes he knew though [] to an arrowhead as if nature was preparing war against the narrator and the stanza ends with suspense with a single word poised. The last stanza has shorter sentences than the previous stanzas. It can also refer to the title and is composed of internal rhyming with wait and great. But this stanza leaves the reader with an ambiguous end, for the great flint to come singing in his heart. We are not sure if the narrator surrenders or dies. In this poem, the length of the sentences can transmit the amount of energy the narrator has through out the poem. There is no punctuation, which gives the possibility continuous flowing of events just as a dream. Through out the whole poem there is the same structure the time frame. Through this poem we can assume the mountains actions are parallel to the mans experiences.

Aleya Pollack

English-Analysis

6.06.11