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elanor_xEdwin Robinson's "Richard Cory" was one of the few poems studied at my high school English lessons. (*). I didn't especially like it, but fortunately decided to look up his other works in my foray into poetry the previous year. “The Rat” was this rare poem, which magnetism is felt immediately. A poem that doesn't let you go, even if you don't fully understand it on the 1st reading. I put my interpretation after the poem's text and would love to hear your impressions, thoughts and any other info about it.
A short note on the structure: a traditional Italian sonnet with the octave rhyming abbaabba and the sestet – cdcdcd.
Charles Gayley beautifully expressed the idea behind it thus: "The octave bears the burden; a doubt, a problem, a reflection, a query, an historical statement, a cry of indignation or desire, a Vision of the ideal. The sestet eases the load, resolves the problem or doubt, answers the query, solaces the yearning, realizes the vision."
I see the "rat" as a poor man, living on the fringe of society; probably even homeless (“as often as he let himself be seen”, “not always clean”) and unemployed ("always useless"); but most likely "just" shifting from one low paying, temporary job to another. Initially I believed he had a difficult temper ("all that is gold does not glitter" message), but, just as likely, a big part of mean spiritness was "rat's" psychological defense against the ostracism and others' confirmation bias.
For a long time I couldn't understand why public opinion has changed, seeing in "those over there" only the dead and the prohibition against speaking ill of them. Finally, after reading that “with the poetic revival that preceded World War I, Robinson began to play a major role as a poet”, it dawned on me. “Among those” refers to the fallen soldiers "over there", at the front. The word "fiction" in "the fiction of our share" then doesn't simply mean "a part", but "something pretended". The speaker acknowledges that the weight of sacrifice falls on soldiers, while "we" can only perform “the fiction” of sharing it by paying (last) respect(s). Probably the man volunteered to enlist &/or died a hero. Otherwise, others won’t be persuaded to change their view of him, imho.
According to this interpretation, the unknown citizen / soldier got acquainted with 3 kinds of hiding in 3 "holes", going from bad to worse. First come the metaphoric holes, he frequented in the attempt to seek physical & mental refuge from social ostracism. Then he hid in trenches from bullets until one of them sent him to perpetual hiding place where living can’t tread.
Would love to hear your opinions on what you would love to see added in future posts on poetry.
(*) I live in Israel, not US. Btw, do not majoring in literature US students still study it quite extensively?
The Rat
As often as he let himself be seen
We pitied him, or scorned him, or deplored
The inscrutable profusion of the Lord
Who shaped as one of us a thing so mean—
Who made him human when he might have been
A rat, and so been wholly in accord
With any other creature we abhorred
As always useless and not always clean.
Now he is hiding all alone somewhere,
And in a final hole not ready then;
For now he is among those over there
Who are not coming back to us again.
And we who do the fiction of our share
Say less of rats and rather more of men.
As often as he let himself be seen
We pitied him, or scorned him, or deplored
The inscrutable profusion of the Lord
Who shaped as one of us a thing so mean—
Who made him human when he might have been
A rat, and so been wholly in accord
With any other creature we abhorred
As always useless and not always clean.
Now he is hiding all alone somewhere,
And in a final hole not ready then;
For now he is among those over there
Who are not coming back to us again.
And we who do the fiction of our share
Say less of rats and rather more of men.
A short note on the structure: a traditional Italian sonnet with the octave rhyming abbaabba and the sestet – cdcdcd.
Charles Gayley beautifully expressed the idea behind it thus: "The octave bears the burden; a doubt, a problem, a reflection, a query, an historical statement, a cry of indignation or desire, a Vision of the ideal. The sestet eases the load, resolves the problem or doubt, answers the query, solaces the yearning, realizes the vision."
I see the "rat" as a poor man, living on the fringe of society; probably even homeless (“as often as he let himself be seen”, “not always clean”) and unemployed ("always useless"); but most likely "just" shifting from one low paying, temporary job to another. Initially I believed he had a difficult temper ("all that is gold does not glitter" message), but, just as likely, a big part of mean spiritness was "rat's" psychological defense against the ostracism and others' confirmation bias.
For a long time I couldn't understand why public opinion has changed, seeing in "those over there" only the dead and the prohibition against speaking ill of them. Finally, after reading that “with the poetic revival that preceded World War I, Robinson began to play a major role as a poet”, it dawned on me. “Among those” refers to the fallen soldiers "over there", at the front. The word "fiction" in "the fiction of our share" then doesn't simply mean "a part", but "something pretended". The speaker acknowledges that the weight of sacrifice falls on soldiers, while "we" can only perform “the fiction” of sharing it by paying (last) respect(s). Probably the man volunteered to enlist &/or died a hero. Otherwise, others won’t be persuaded to change their view of him, imho.
According to this interpretation, the unknown citizen / soldier got acquainted with 3 kinds of hiding in 3 "holes", going from bad to worse. First come the metaphoric holes, he frequented in the attempt to seek physical & mental refuge from social ostracism. Then he hid in trenches from bullets until one of them sent him to perpetual hiding place where living can’t tread.
Would love to hear your opinions on what you would love to see added in future posts on poetry.
(*) I live in Israel, not US. Btw, do not majoring in literature US students still study it quite extensively?
