Poème Original：
The states when they black out and lie there rolling??? when they turn
To something transcontinental??? move by??? drawing moonlight out of the great
One-sided stone hung off the starboard wingtip??? some sleeper next to
An engine is groaning for coffee??? and there is faintly coming in
Somewhere the vast beast-whistle of space. In the galley with its racks
Of trays??? she rummages for a blanket??? and moves in her slim tailored
Uniform to pin it over the cry at the top of the door. As though she blew
The door down with a silent blast from her lungs??? frozen??? she is black
Out finding herself??? with the plane nowhere and her body taken by the throat
The undying cry of the void??? falling??? living??? beginning to be something
That no one has ever been and lived through??? screaming without enough air
Still neat??? lipsticked??? stockinged??? girdled by regulation??? her hat
Still on??? her arms and legs in no world??? and yet spaced also strangely
With utter placid rightness on thin air??? taking her time??? she holds it
In many places??? and now, still thousands of feet from her death she seems
To slow??? she develops interest??? she turns in her maneuverable body
To watch it. She is hung high up in the overwhelming middle of things in her
Self??? in low body-whistling wrapped intensely??? in all her dark dance-weight
Coming down from a marvellous leap??? with the delaying, dumfounding ease
Of a dream of being drawn??? like endless moonlight to the harvest soil
Of a central state of one’s country??? with a great gradual warmth coming
Over her??? floating??? finding more and more breath in what she has been using
For breath??? as the levels become more human??? seeing clouds placed honestly
Below her left and right??? riding slowly toward them??? she clasps it all
To her and can hang her hands and feet in it in peculiar ways??? and
Her eyes opened wide by wind, can open her mouth as wide??? wider and suck
All the heat from the cornfields??? can go down on her back with a feeling
Of stupendous pillows stacked under her??? and can turn??? turn as to someone
In bed??? smile, understood in darkness??? can go away??? slant??? slide
Off tumbling??? into the emblem of a bird with its wings half-spread
Or whirl madly on herself??? in endless gymnastics in the growing warmth
Of wheatfields rising toward the harvest moon.??? There is time to live
In superhuman health??? seeing mortal unreachable lights far down seeing
An ultimate highway with one late priceless car probing it??? arriving
In a square town??? and off her starboard arm the glitter of water catches
The moon by its one shaken side??? scaled, roaming silver??? My God it is good
And evil??? lying in one after another of all the positions for love
Making??? dancing??? sleeping??? and now cloud wisps at her no
Raincoat??? no matter??? all small towns brokenly brighter from inside
Cloud??? she walks over them like rain??? bursts out to behold a Greyhound
Bus shooting light through its sides??? it is the signal to go straight
Down like a glorious diver??? then feet first??? her skirt stripped beautifully
Up??? her face in fear-scented cloths??? her legs deliriously bare??? then
Arms out??? she slow-rolls over??? steadies out??? waits for something great
To take control of her??? trembles near feathers??? planes head-down
The quick movements of bird-necks turning her head??? gold eyes the insight-
eyesight of owls blazing into the hencoops??? a taste for chicken overwhelming
Her??? the long-range vision of hawks enlarging all human lights of cars
Freight trains??? looped bridges??? enlarging the moon racing slowly
Through all the curves of a river??? all the darks of the midwest blazing
From above. A rabbit in a bush turns white??? the smothering chickens
Huddle??? for over them there is still time for something to live
With the streaming half-idea of a long stoop??? a hurtling??? a fall
That is controlled??? that plummets as it wills??? turns gravity
Into a new condition, showing its other side like a moon??? shining
New Powers??? there is still time to live on a breath made of nothing
But the whole night??? time for her to remember to arrange her skirt
Like a diagram of a bat??? tightly it guides her??? she has this flying-skin
Made of garments??? and there are also those sky-divers on
tv
sailing
In sunlight??? smiling under their goggles??? swapping batons back and forth
And He who jumped without a chute and was handed one by a diving
Buddy. She looks for her grinning companion??? white teeth??? nowhere
She is screaming??? singing hymns??? her thin human wings spread out
From her neat shoulders??? the air beast-crooning to her??? warbling
And she can no longer behold the huge partial form of the world??? now
She is watching her country lose its evoked master shape??? watching it lose
And gain??? get back its houses and peoples??? watching it bring up
Its local lights??? single homes??? lamps on barn roofs??? if she fell
Into water she might live??? like a diver??? cleaving??? perfect??? plunge
Into another??? heavy silver??? unbreathable??? slowing??? saving
Element: there is water??? there is time to perfect all the fine
Points of diving??? feet together??? toes pointed??? hands shaped right
To insert her into water like a needle??? to come out healthily dripping
And be handed a Coca-Cola??? there they are??? there are the waters
Of life??? the moon packed and coiled in a reservoir??? so let me begin
To plane across the night air of Kansas??? opening my eyes superhumanly
Bright??? to the damned moon??? opening the natural wings of my jacket
By Don Loper??? moving like a hunting owl toward the glitter of water
One cannot
just
fall??? just tumble screaming all that time??? one must
use
It
she is now through with all??? through all??? clouds??? damp??? hair
Straightened??? the last wisp of fog pulled apart on her face like wool revealing
New darks??? new progressions of headlights along dirt roads from chaos
And night??? a gradual warming??? a new-made, inevitable world of one’s own
Country??? a great stone of light in its waiting waters??? hold??? hold out
For water: who knows when what correct young woman must take up her body
And fly??? and head for the moon-crazed inner eye of midwest imprisoned
Water??? stored up for her for years??? the arms of her jacket slipping
Air up her sleeves to go??? all over her? What final things can be said
Of one who starts her sheerly in her body in the high middle of night
Air??? to track down water like a rabbit where it lies like life itself
Off to the right in Kansas? She goes toward??? the blazing-bare lake
Her skirts neat??? her hands and face warmed more and more by the air
Rising from pastures of beans??? and under her??? under chenille bedspreads
The farm girls are feeling the goddess in them struggle and rise brooding
On the scratch-shining posts of the bed??? dreaming of female signs
Of the moon??? male blood like iron??? of what is really said by the moan
Of airliners passing over them at dead of midwest midnight??? passing
Over brush fires??? burning out in silence on little hills??? and will wake
To see the woman they should be??? struggling on the rooftree to become
Stars: for her the ground is closer??? water is nearer??? she passes
It??? then banks??? turns??? her sleeves fluttering differently as she rolls
Out to face the east, where the sun shall come up from wheatfields she must
Do something with water??? fly to it??? fall in it??? drink it??? rise
From it??? but there is none left upon earth??? the clouds have drunk it back
The plants have sucked it down??? there are standing toward her only
The common fields of death??? she comes back from flying to falling
Returns to a powerful cry??? the silent scream with which she blew down
The coupled door of the airliner??? nearly??? nearly losing hold
Of what she has done??? remembers??? remembers the shape at the heart
Of cloud??? fashionably swirling??? remembers she still has time to die
Beyond explanation. Let her now take off her hat in summer air the contour
Of cornfields??? and have enough time to kick off her one remaining
Shoe with the toes??? of the other foot??? to unhook her stockings
With calm fingers, noting how fatally easy it is to undress in midair
Near death??? when the body will assume without effort any position
Except the one that will sustain it??? enable it to rise??? live
Not die??? nine farms hover close??? widen??? eight of them separate, leaving
One in the middle??? then the fields of that farm do the same??? there is no
Way to back off??? from her chosen ground??? but she sheds the jacket
With its silver sad impotent wings??? sheds the bat’s guiding tailpiece
Of her skirt??? the lightning-charged clinging of her blouse??? the intimate
Inner flying-garment of her slip in which she rides like the holy ghost
Of a virgin??? sheds the long windsocks of her stockings??? absurd
Brassiere??? then feels the girdle required by regulations squirming
Off her: no longer monobuttocked??? she feels the girdle flutter??? shake
In her hand??? and float??? upward??? her clothes rising off her ascending
Into cloud??? and fights away from her head the last sharp dangerous shoe
Like a dumb bird??? and now will drop in
soon
now will drop
In like this??? the greatest thing that ever came to Kansas??? down from all
Heights??? all levels of American breath??? layered in the lungs from the frail
Chill of space to the loam where extinction slumbers in corn tassels thickly
And breathes like rich farmers counting: will come along them after
Her last superhuman act??? the last slow careful passing of her hands
All over her unharmed body??? desired by every sleeper in his dream:
Boys finding for the first time their loins filled with heart’s blood
Widowed farmers whose hands float under light covers to find themselves
Arisen at sunrise??? the splendid position of blood unearthly drawn
Toward clouds??? all feel something??? pass over them as she passes
Her palms over
her
long legs
her
small breasts??? and deeply between
Her thighs??? her hair shot loose from all pins??? streaming in the wind
Of her body??? let her come openly??? trying at the last second to land
On her back??? This is it
this
All those who find her impressed
In the soft loam??? gone down??? driven well into the image of her body
The furrows for miles flowing in upon her where she lies very deep
In her mortal outline??? in the earth as it is in cloud??? can tell nothing
But that she is there??? inexplicable??? unquestionable??? and remember
That something broke in them as well??? and began to live and die more
When they walked for no reason into their fields to where the whole earth
Caught her??? interrupted her maiden flight??? told her how to lie she cannot
Turn??? go away??? cannot move??? cannot slide off it and assume another
Position??? no sky-diver with any grin could save her??? hold her in his arms
Plummet with her??? unfold above her his wedding silks??? she can no longer
Mark the rain with whirling women that take the place of a dead wife
Or the goddess in Norwegian farm girls??? or all the back-breaking whores
Of Wichita. All the known air above her is not giving up quite one
Breath??? it is all gone??? and yet not dead??? not anywhere else
Quite??? lying still in the field on her back??? sensing the smells
Of incessant growth try to lift her??? a little sight left in the corner
Of one eye??? fading??? seeing something wave??? lies believing
That she could have made it??? at the best part of her brief goddess
State??? to water??? gone in headfirst??? come out smiling??? invulnerable
Girl in a bathing-suit ad??? but she is lying like a sunbather at the last
Of moonlight??? half-buried in her impact on the earth??? not far
From a railroad trestle??? a water tank??? she could see if she could
Raise her head from her modest hole??? with her clothes beginning
To come down all over Kansas??? into bushes??? on the dewy sixth green
Of a golf course??? one shoe??? her girdle coming down fantastically
On a clothesline, where it belongs??? her blouse on a lightning rod:
Lies in the fields??? in
this
field??? on her broken back as though on
A cloud she cannot drop through??? while farmers sleepwalk without
Their women from houses??? a walk like falling toward the far waters
Of life??? in moonlight??? toward the dreamed eternal meaning of their farms
Toward the flowering of the harvest in their hands??? that tragic cost
Feels herself go??? go toward??? go outward??? breathes at last fully
Not??? and tries??? less??? once??? tries??? tries
ah, god—
Analyse et Interprétation du Poème
Ce poème présente un voyage vivant et surréaliste à travers l'expérience d'une femme, probablement hôtesse de l'air ou parachutiste, alors qu'elle navigue dans un moment profond suspendu entre la vie et la mort. L'imagerie est riche et complexe, mêlant des éléments de vol, d'espace, de nature et d'émotion humaine. Le poème explore les thèmes de la transcendance, de la mortalité et de la connexion intime entre le corps humain et l'immensité du monde.
L'expérience de la narratrice se déroule dans un état onirique, où elle tombe physiquement et s'élève spirituellement. Le poème capture la tension entre la fragilité de la vie et la force de l'esprit humain. L'uniforme de la femme et ses vêtements réglementés symbolisent les contraintes sociétales, qu'elle abandonne progressivement à mesure qu'elle se rapproche d'un état d'être pur. Le ton du poème passe de la tension et de la peur à une acceptation sereine et à l'émerveillement face à l'existence.
L'imagerie de la lumière de la lune, des nuages et des vastes paysages évoque un sens de l'échelle cosmique, tandis que les descriptions détaillées des vêtements et des sensations physiques ancrent le poème fermement dans l'expérience humaine. Le poème contraste également le monde mécanique des avions avec le monde organique des fermes et de la nature, suggérant une réconciliation entre la technologie et la nature.
Contexte et Présentation de l'Auteur
Bien que le poème lui-même ne nomme pas explicitement l'auteur, son style et ses préoccupations thématiques suggèrent une influence des poètes américains du milieu du XXe siècle qui ont exploré des thèmes modernistes de vol, d'espace et d'expérience existentielle. Les références au veste de Don Loper et au cadre du Midwest laissent entrevoir un contexte culturel et géographique ancré dans la vie américaine.
L'auteur a probablement voulu capturer les émotions complexes d'une femme prise entre deux mondes—le terrestre et l'éthéré, le mortel et l'immortel. Ce poème peut être vu comme une méditation sur la condition humaine, surtout face à l'avancement technologique et à l'immensité inconnue de l'espace et de la nature.
Réflexions et Réponse Personnelle
Lire ce poème évoque une réponse émotionnelle puissante. L'imagerie vive et le voyage physique et spirituel intense invitent les lecteurs à réfléchir à leurs propres expériences de peur, de liberté et de transformation. La représentation d'une femme embrassant à la fois vulnérabilité et force est inspirante et poignante.
Le sentiment de tomber tout en volant, de perdre le contrôle tout en gagnant en perspicacité, résonne profondément comme une métaphore des défis de la vie et des moments de changement profond. Le poème encourage les lecteurs à trouver la beauté et le sens même dans les moments d'incertitude et de désespoir.
Valeur Éducative et Points d'Apprentissage pour les Étudiants
Ce poème offre un riche matériel pour que les étudiants explorent plusieurs leçons littéraires et de vie clés :
- Imagerie et Symbolisme : Les étudiants peuvent apprendre comment les poètes utilisent des images et des symboles vifs (lumière de la lune, vol, vêtements) pour transmettre des émotions et des idées complexes.
- Thèmes de la Vie et de la Mort : Le poème fournit un moyen de discuter des thèmes existentiels dans un contexte poétique.
- Structure et Style : Le style fluide et presque en flux de conscience peut aider les étudiants à apprécier les techniques de la poésie moderniste.
- Expression Émotionnelle : Le poème montre comment la poésie peut capturer des expériences émotionnelles et spirituelles intenses.
En termes pratiques, les étudiants peuvent appliquer ces leçons en écrivant leurs propres poèmes descriptifs ou réflexifs, apprenant à exprimer des idées abstraites à travers des images concrètes.
Cas d'Utilisation dans la Vie et l'Apprentissage
- Écriture Créative : Inspire les étudiants à écrire sur la transformation personnelle ou des moments de crise.
- Études Littéraires : Aide les étudiants à analyser des formes poétiques complexes et des thèmes.
- Conscience Émotionnelle : Encourage les discussions sur la peur, le courage et l'acceptation.
- Compréhension Culturelle : Offre des aperçus sur les paysages américains et les symboles culturels.
Exercices de Compréhension de Lecture
-
Quel est le cadre principal du poème ?
a) Une rue de la ville
b) Un avion et le ciel au-dessus du Midwest
c) Une ferme au lever du soleil
d) Une station spatiale -
Que symbolise la femme dans le poème ?
a) Une voyageuse perdue
b) L'esprit humain face à la mortalité
c) Une danseuse sur scène
d) La femme d'un fermier -
Lequel des éléments suivants décrit le mieux le ton du poème ?
a) Joyeux et insouciant
b) Tendu et craintif tout au long
c) Onirique et contemplatif
d) En colère et rebelle -
Que se passe-t-il avec les vêtements de la femme alors qu'elle tombe ?
a) Ils restent parfaitement en place
b) Elle les abandonne pièce par pièce
c) Ils se transforment en ailes
d) Ils deviennent mouillés et lourds -
Quelle est la signification de la lumière de la lune dans le poème ?
a) Elle représente le danger
b) Elle symbolise la guidance et la transformation
c) C'est une source de peur
d) C'est un symbole du passé
Réponses :
- b) Un avion et le ciel au-dessus du Midwest
- b) L'esprit humain face à la mortalité
- c) Onirique et contemplatif
- b) Elle les abandonne pièce par pièce
- b) Elle symbolise la guidance et la transformation
Conclusion
Ce poème est une exploration profonde de l'expérience humaine à la limite de la vie et de la mort, mêlant une riche imagerie à une profonde perspicacité émotionnelle. Il offre des leçons précieuses en analyse littéraire, expression émotionnelle et réflexion culturelle. Pour les étudiants, il fournit un texte stimulant mais gratifiant qui encourage à la fois la croissance intellectuelle et personnelle. En étudiant ce poème, les apprenants peuvent développer une plus grande appréciation du pouvoir de la poésie à capturer les complexités de l'existence et à inspirer une réflexion significative.
