The poem begins with the lovers drinking champagne, and ends with the burning nun running "silently toward her god," both of which use the same language of opening. In fact, the lyrics are followed by what is happening in the situation. A bicycle hurled through a store window. But there are other equally impressive poems that also address death. WebSummary. Viet-Thanh Nguyen, author of the Pulitzer-winning novel The Sympathizer calls Vuong the Walt Whitman of Vietnamese-American literature. Nevertheless, the invasion of Christianity in Vuongs literary schema is not entirely an inscrutable phenomenon. I come from a long line of poets. Im sure you come here for poems, not personal stuff. It is the poem that haunted me over Christmaseven though it is set in Apriland it is the poem that wouldnt let me quit writing about poems for Structure and Style. Finally, the apples in the final stanza are evocative of the forbidden fruit which led to Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and their thundering on the earth "with red hooves" evokes not only the intensity of the speaker's desired passions but also the animalistic nature of these passions. And I love, too, how quickly I was able to find it. For example, Death and the Moon by Carol Ann Duffy, Death is Nothing At All by Henry Scott Holland, and Death, be not Proud by John Donne. Click on image to enlarge. A military truck speeds through the intersection, children shrieking inside. Religion tried, but its useless in the face of whats to come. The city in Vuongs poetry is an eternal battlefield, a site of war rife with helicopter[s] in April 1975 that forced his family out of their home country. Word links visualization shows that action verbs like chasing and drag are often used in the vicinity of father, evoking a sense of pursuit. Words used in close vicinity with "city." . The unreal father figure disappears almost completely from the mid-section of the book. All Rights Reserved. Night Sky with Exit Wounds study guide contains a biography of Ocean Vuong, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. In the concluding section, however, father tops the chart of word frequency again. the Walt Whitman of Vietnamese-American literature. Best summary PDF, themes, and quotes. Red sky. At the same time, the body is both violence (a blade that sharpens by cutting) in Headfirst and safe haven (made soft/to keep us/from loneliness) in Into the Breach. His fingers running the hemof her white dress. When the dust rises, a black dog, On the nightstand, a sprig of magnolia expands like a secret heard. When the dust rises, a black dog lies panting in the road, its hind legs crushed into the shine of a white Christmas.". Its a poem Ill be reading again and again for years to come, and if you read it, too, Im confident youll say the same. Reconstructing integral parts of his identity which he was too young to be aware of in real-timea father figure and memory of the traumatic displacement that changed his life forever, Vuong falls back on mythology to compensate for what he lacks. In this stanza, the speaker notes how that fear lives just on the edge of vision. Indeed, the body is also a motif that echoes through Whitmans poetry. So I gathered fistfuls. Ocean Vuong, from Night Sky with Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon Press, 2016). Apart from the Buddhist identity that Vuong inherits from his Vietnamese background, his autographical self was enriched by his Christian experience in America. When my grandmother would tell me about the collapse of Saigon, she would say, "Saigon, this sounds very strange, but I remember it fell during the snow song." Audio recordings of classic and contemporary poems read by poets and actors, delivered every day. The hotel rocks, Dont worry,he says, as the first shell flashes, theirfaces,my brothers have won the war, from Night Sky With Exit Wounds (Copper Canyon, 2016/Cape 2017), copyright Ocean Vuong 2016, used by permission of the author and the publishers. Here, while the body is explored as an object of sexual desire, it is also showcased as something that can be victimized, as well as something that can be respected and loved as a forerunner or ancestor. When the dust rises, a black dog, On the bed stand. But I digress. Subscribe. Poems from Nance Van Winckel, Ocean Vuong, and a soundscape from Matthea Harvey. Consisting of 3,372 words, the first section of the collection is made up of 12 poems. . And, of course, the oral tradition doesn't offer a page. The last stanzas have established that death is this overwhelming, all-encompassing thing that no one can escape. Aubade with Burning City Lyrics South Vietnam, April 29, 1975: Armed Forces Radio played Irving Berlins White Christmas as a code to begin Operation Like "Threshold" before it, "A Little Closer to the Edge" is a poem that positions the speaker as an observer of the parentsthis time in a more explicitly sexual context. In Newport I Watch My Father Lay His Cheek to a Beached Dolphins Wet Back, Untitled (Blue, Green and Brown): Oil on canvas : Mark Rothko : 1952, Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus, Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines. Another Edenic moment in the poem comes when the speakera very unclear figure but one who nonetheless, as in past poems, resembles Ocean Vuong himselfask his father to "show [him] how ruin makes a home / out of hip bones." This is importantly linked to the speakers interrogation of the body as a unifying force, one that connects the struggles of real people to the struggles that are lauded, told, and retold as part of the Western literary tradition. Snow crackling against the window. Aubade by Philip Larkin is a poem about the unifying qualities of death and the human experience. In a 2013 interview with Edward J. Rathke, Vuong discussed the relationship between South Vietnam, April 29, 1975: Armed Forces Radio played Irving Berlins White Christmas as a code to begin Operation Frequent Wind, the ultimate evacuation of American civilians and Vietnamese refugees by helicopter during the fall of Saigon. Born in Saigon, poet and editor Ocean Vuong was raised in Hartford, Connecticut, and earned a BA at Brooklyn College (CUNY). Claiming to be a devout Buddhist in a 2013 interview, Vuong frames the religious identity in his poetry with his spiritual life. Readers should make sure to take note of line nine of this stanza. Hello again! He fills a teacup with champagne, brings it to her lips. South Vietnam, 29 April 1975: Armed Forces Radio played IrvingBerlins White Christmasas a code to begin Operation Frequent Wind,theultimate evacuation of American civilians and Vietnamese refugees by helicopter during the fall of Saigon. This deepens our understanding of the relationship between the speakers parents and what kinds of stress it was under. It is a different way of being afraid than anything human beings experience in any other part of their life. The regrets that he might have in the future dont bother him. In Night Sky with Exit Wounds, the idea of the American Dream is thus presented as just thata dream with little substance. On the side of the sacred or religious, there are each of the poem's connotations of otherworldly whiteness or purity, as well as the nun's immolation at the end of the poem. Anne Azzi Davenport. Not to hype it too much or anything, but I absolutely love it. Christianity is a quintessential feature of the American identity, the identity which Vuong has internalized as a part of his own and projected back into his writings. The postmen ring with them letters from friends and loved ones, maintaining a link, the human connection. She is saying, somethingneither of them can hear. And if I were to turn around and walk down this memorial and find my grandfather's name, I wouldn't be alive if his name was there. WebNaturally Aristocratic Singapore 11 subscribers Interpretations of Ocean Vuong's poems "Aubade with Burning City" & "Torso of Air" in the collection "Night Sky with Exit / Thus I exist. South Vietnam, 29 April 1975: Armed Forces Radio played Irving. I check that poets bibliography, find a title that jumps out at me, and bam, read one of the best poems Ive read all year. Death is one of the most common themes in the world of poetry, as well as in the broader literary world. . Were always adding to the Poetry Archive so sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with the latest archive news, events and releases. GradeSaver "Night Sky with Exit Wounds A Little Closer to the Edge Summary and Analysis". The Question and Answer section for Night Sky with Exit Wounds is a great WebThe poem deals with the speaker's struggle to confront traumatic wartime memories while looking at his reflection in the memorial's shiny surface and staring at the names of fallen soldiers. Think of the poem, as Matthew Zapruder writes in the introduction to Why Poetry, as operating indream logic:its interest in the slipperiness and material qualities of language, its associative daydreaming movementis not some deliberate obfuscation, or an obstacle to communication, but essential to the very way poetry makes meaning. Think of the way the images expose the vast imperial machine that is America. "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas. Milkflower petals on a black dog. hiscigarette as footsteps fill the square like stones. He draws on Thanksgiving and real-life American events like 9/11 (Untitled (Blue, Green, and Brown): oil on canvas: Mark Rothko: 1952) or the immolation of two gay men (Seventh Circle of Earth) for inspiration. Tonight, Ocean Vuong, recently chosen for the prestigious Whiting Award. Red sky. Such a happy song, full of longing for love and Christmas trees and eggnog, is the one the U.S. used as a code for evacuation. Larkins speaker also makes sure to mention how the fear of death moves from being a tiny blur in ones eye to a furnace-fear. Following the passing of his grandmother in 2008, Vuong wrote this poem partially as a method of preserving the memory of his grandmother and her words describing the scene of Saigon falling. 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