Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"His Hands Have Five Knives Each" by Alan Dugan is a darkly vivid poem that melds the urban landscape with themes of creation, fear, and existential angst. Through intense imagery and metaphorical language, Dugan explores the raw, sometimes savage nature of existence as it is manifested in both the physical and psychological realms.

The poem opens with the dramatic "birth of Seventh Avenue from Varick Street at night," described as emerging "out of surf, all moonshine as it breaks along the curb." This personification of the avenue as being born like a wave imbues the cityscape with a sense of primal, natural force, suggesting that the urban environment is not merely a human creation but a dynamic, almost living entity. The imagery of moonshine breaking along the curb evokes a sense of something both beautiful and eerie, setting the tone for the poem's exploration of the darker sides of existence.

Dugan describes the city's physicality with the phrase "matter's savagery extrudes a civic fault," which suggests that the inherent brutality of raw matter (the physical substance of the universe) reveals flaws within the civic space, or society. This line paints a picture of an urban environment that is not just a backdrop for human activity but an active participant in the drama of life, shaping and being shaped by the people within it.

The figure of a man "wading in moonlight blocks away, hunchbacked in the shape of things before my birth, beyond my death, and now, panicked by night alive" adds a layer of timeless, existential dread to the scene. This man, distorted and almost mythical in his appearance, represents the continuity of human fears and struggles that transcend individual lifetimes. His panic in the night speaks to a universal human fear of the unknown and the uncontrollable forces that govern our existence.

Dugan's reference to "the animal embrace of Venus' negative half-creature of the universe" introduces a mythological element, suggesting that the forces at play are not only urban or civic but cosmic. Venus, traditionally associated with love and beauty, here has a "negative half-creature" that embodies the wild, untamed aspects of the universe. This duality points to the complexity of existence, where beauty and savagery are intertwined.

The line "whose wildness, let in out of love, must be the genius of this place" captures the poem's central tension between fear and acceptance. The "genius of this place" — its defining spirit — is described as a wildness that is embraced out of love, suggesting that there is a form of affection or acceptance for even the most brutal aspects of life. This acceptance does not mitigate the fear but rather points to a deep-seated acknowledgment of the inextricable link between creation and destruction, love and fear.

Overall, Dugan's poem is a profound meditation on the human condition, viewed through the lens of a nocturnal cityscape that reflects the broader, often terrifying aspects of the cosmos. It challenges the reader to confront the savagery and beauty of existence, suggesting that our fear and awe are fundamentally connected to our love and admiration for the raw forces that shape our lives.

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