Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Keeping Things Whole" is a poem by Mark Strand, an American poet born on April 11, 1934. It was first published in his collection "Sleeping with One Eye Open" in 1964.

Explanation:

The poem is a meditation on the idea of wholeness and fragmentation. The speaker of the poem describes himself as a "stranger" who walks through a field, leaving a path behind him. He notes that he is "keeping things whole" by not deviating from his path, even as he divides the field into two parts.

Poetic Elements:

• Form: Free verse
• Theme: Wholeness vs fragmentation
• Imagery: The speaker walking through a field and dividing it into two parts
• Tone: Meditative, contemplative
• Sound: Alliteration in "field" and "fragmentation," as well as internal rhyme in "keeping" and "thing"
• Language: Simple and straightforward, with occasional poetic flourishes like "I am a presence" and "I am not a composite of smaller units"
• Figurative Language: Metaphor in "keeping things whole"
• Structure: Three stanzas of four lines each, with a consistent use of enjambment
• Symbolism: The field can be seen as a symbol for the world, with the speaker's path representing a human life and the division of the field representing the way we carve up the world with our choices and actions
• Emotion: The poem evokes a sense of peacefulness and acceptance of the way things are.

Conclusion:

"Keeping Things Whole" is a deceptively simple poem that offers a profound meditation on the nature of existence. By describing a simple act of walking through a field, Strand explores deep questions about the human experience and our relationship to the world around us.

Poem Snippet:

In a field

I am the absence

of field.

This is

always the case.