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Charles Simic's poem describes the 'false, cruel, and beautiful" modern world, focusing on the immigrant experience in America. His poem from the collection the World Doesn't End, describes a Chinese laundryman who waits for his daughter late at night. The narrator watches him with absolute curiosity, even joy. Fascinated by how close and yet so far away the laundryman seems, the narrator comments on the various cultural elements that at once separate and unite the two individuals. The poet uses symbolism to convey the theme of human interconnectedness. The most notable symbol of the poem is that of the spider and its web.
Language is also a key motif in the poem, and serves both a symbolic and literal purpose. Literally, language is a barrier between the narrator and the Chinese laundryman, and a barrier between the Chinese laundryman and the English-speaking society in which he now lives. For example, the narrator states, "I watched the Chinese laundryman, / Who doesn't read or write in our language, turn the pages of a book left behind by a customer." The narrator romanticizes and fantasizes the what he sees, for he notes that he "wanted it to be a dreambook, or a volume of foolishly sentimental verses." Dreams and sentimental verses, or poetry, tend to be universal languages that can transcend cultural barriers. Therefore, the narrator is more concerned with what unites cultures than what separates them.
The laundryman's daughter is of the younger generation, and probably already speaks English. She "wears short skirts and walks with long strides," two characteristics that denote her break with traditional Chinese gender norms. The narrator notices that the father stopped his ironing and "watches the street" with concern for his daughter, a universal gesture of parental love that also transcends culture.
Finally, the narrator also tries to link himself with the laundryman. He concludes the poem by stating, "If not for the two of us, there'd be only spiders handing their webs between the street lights and the dark trees." Even though the two men might have different words for items like "street lights" and "dark trees," those elements exist in both of their worlds. Thus, spiders and their webs link two objects together, literally and figuratively. A web is a visual reminder of human interconnectedness.
I pulled over and called out to him, while being very conscious how ludicrous I sounded, did he by any chance know of a church where there was to be a poetry reading tonight?" The man did indeed tell Simic where the church was, indicating that poetry can serve as a means to uplift and communicate the universality of human experience. Social alienation and isolation that accompanies the immigrant
Simic Charles Simic's poem "My Mother Was a Braid of Black Smoke" appears in New and Selected Poems, 1962-2012. The poem is the story of the poet's genesis, and it is difficult for the reader to distinguish between what is actual memory and what is the impression or imagination of the speaker. The first stanza starts, "My mother was a braid of black smoke." The imagery in this stanza, with his
Nabokov's father studied criminal law at St. Petersburg University, but then channeled his legal background into political activism. He was against capital punishment, pogroms, and many tsarist practices. Nabokov explains how his father's "antidespotic" writings have gotten him into trouble (175). In "Old World," Charles Simic celebrates a moment of contemplating eternity as he gazes on the ruins of an ancient temple in Sicily. The first line of the poem
Upstairs analysis "to the One Upstairs:" God as Boss In "To the One Upstairs," Charles Simic personifies God by comparing the deity to a boss at an office or workplace. While Simic's references and analogy may be considered to be somewhat unorthodox, and possibly heretical and blasphemous. There are several aspects of the poem that help to make it unique and discriminate it from other literary works. Some elements that allow
In the second stanza, the narrator states, "Let all be simple. Let all stand still / Without final direction." A broader metaphysical and existential statement is made, too, as the narrator notes "that which brings you into the world / to take you away at death / Is one and the same." The natural universe, including snails and the grass they feed on, is a setting rich with meaning
The statement "Maybe that room was his home, his room and everything what left from it is a wall and a fly" made me think about how an intelligent young child must feel when something senseless like bombing changes their life. After reading your essay, I searched for more of Simic's poetry to read because you found a way to make his words make sense. The same is true for