What intrigues me about a poem’s meaning is to read it within the context of the poet’s life. In Spender’s case, he suffered from two things which profoundly affected his childhood: a speech impediment, and a club foot – expression halted by speech, and locomotion and liberty halted by a dysfunctional foot.
So imagine the freedom that Spender as a child longed for – to speak flawlessly, flowing, and to run without a care, to...
What intrigues me about a poem’s meaning is to read it within the context of the poet’s life. In Spender’s case, he suffered from two things which profoundly affected his childhood: a speech impediment, and a club foot – expression halted by speech, and locomotion and liberty halted by a dysfunctional foot.
So imagine the freedom that Spender as a child longed for – to speak flawlessly, flowing, and to run without a care, to be like the other children. Place that lens over what you read in the poem. He vacillates, doesn’t he? He plays in his mind with what is known and expresses this in the last two lines. If he pulled it in, reeled in a word, much like one would a caught fish, then it would be under his control, predictable, and caught. Now here’s the dilemma: You can choose the right word, and catch the meaning of what you are trying to express, in which case the motion of pulling it in would be appropriate. And perhaps you need that word to rhyme with a dish, which in itself is an arresting image.
On the other hand, if you throw a word back (much like a fish you don’t want to hurt, or perhaps you want to see if you can catch a larger fish, or maybe the fish that lives in the particular body of water you’re fishing in has a legend attached to it) – trying to find the right word, or placing it with other words to see how it reacts – is always risky.
That very vivid “where thoughts lash tail and fin” phrase shows a fear that he might not want to subject himself to—exchanging a “word” for another “word.” But isn’t this the challenge with communication? To find the word or words that express the deeper feelings that move the hidden currents within us?
Much of Spender’s poetry is full of vacillation, a sense of debate with himself that creates tension. His points of view are worth considering, for in that vacillation, much like trying many pieces of clothing, you keep trying it on until it motivates movement, until something satisfying is accomplished, until you feel you have said what you need to say, what needed to be said, and you find the right fit. But that is arrived at with trial and error – sometimes you pull in the word and it is effortless; sometimes you throw the word back and wait to see what the ocean of thoughts brings to the surface for you.
It’s worth nothing that Spender was an English poet – the only non-U.S. citizen to be named to Poet Laureate (1965-1966). He transmuted the tensions he felt, his vacillations with how he viewed the world and his place in it, into questions for his readers to consider, and reach their own conclusions. This is alchemy of a high order.