Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"Bull Song" by Margaret Atwood is a poignant and evocative exploration of suffering, exploitation, and the inherent brutality of the spectacle surrounding bullfighting. This poem gives voice to the bull, presenting a narrative from the perspective of the animal as it confronts its final moments in the arena. Through this perspective, Atwood delves into themes of violence, the commodification of living beings, and the indifference of spectators to the suffering before them. The poem challenges readers to confront the ethical implications of human entertainment built on animal suffering, while also reflecting on broader themes of power, vulnerability, and the disposability of life in the face of cultural tradition.

The opening lines immediately immerse the reader in the sensory and emotional turmoil experienced by the bull: "For me there was no audience no brass music either, only wet dust, the cheers buzzing at me like flies, like flies roaring." This introduction sets the tone for the poem, emphasizing the isolation and confusion of the bull amidst the spectacle. The absence of an audience for the bull underscores a profound disconnection between the animal's suffering and the crowd's entertainment, highlighting the bull's solipsistic agony in contrast to the collective excitement of the spectators.

As the poem progresses, the imagery of "wet dust," "buzzing...like flies," and "blood falling from the gouged shoulder" starkly conveys the physical reality of the bull's pain and disorientation. The rhetorical question "Who brought me here / to fight against walls and blankets and the gods with sinews of red and silver who flutter and evade?" suggests a critique of the forces that orchestrate such violence for sport—humans who play god, deciding the fate of other beings for their own amusement.

The bull's lamentation, "I should have remained grass," speaks to a longing for an unattainable innocence and freedom, a life unmarred by the violence imposed upon it. This line also reflects a profound existential regret, a wish to have existed in a form that would not have led to such a brutal end. The transformation from grass to "a bale of lump flesh" symbolizes the reduction of life to commodity, a transition from being to object, underscored by the final indignity of being "dragged" away.

Atwood's choice to endow the bull with the awareness of its own exploitation and the theatricality of its death—"For them this finish, / this death of mine is a game" —indicts not only the specific practice of bullfighting but also broader societal tendencies to objectify and commodify life for entertainment. The bull recognizes that its death is not valued as an "act" but as an aesthetic, "the grace with which they disguise it," revealing the bullfighters' and audience's detachment from the reality of the suffering inflicted.

The concluding lines, "not the fact or act / but the grace with which they disguise it justifies them," encapsulate the poem's critique of how society often justifies or ignores violence and suffering if it is aesthetically pleasing or culturally significant. This reveals a disturbing aspect of human nature: the capacity to find beauty or entertainment in the suffering of others, so long as it is presented in a way that appeals to our sensibilities or traditions.

In "Bull Song," Margaret Atwood masterfully uses the perspective of the bull to challenge the reader to reconsider the ethics of animal exploitation and the moral disengagement that allows such practices to continue. The poem serves as a powerful commentary on the value of life, the nature of suffering, and the ease with which society can become complicit in cruelty when it is masked by tradition or spectacle. Through its vivid imagery, emotional depth, and critical perspective, "Bull Song" prompts a reflection on the costs of human entertainment and the dignity of the beings subjected to it.

Copyright (c) 2024 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...