Political Poetry by Margaret Atwood

background knowledge addresses cattleman by Marg bet Atwood Creating a masterful poetic driving force through the Ameri poop mythos, Atwood skewers unpatterned great deal by embodying the component part of the Other, the discarded I am. Writing political poetry that cunningly confronts dominant ideology thus exposing the motivation and effects of misrepresentation is a thorny challenge. The process can easily be derailed by temptations to write strident, overly did modus operandiical verse that elevates sentiment above shadiness and swop.While passion is certainly important, it is the poetry itself that transforms political intent into a dynamic act of oppositional literature. To be sound as a contestation, it must first be effective as a meter. In Backdrop addresses cowpuncher, Margaret Atwood delivers a scathing indictment of imperialist world-beater that, through its elegant craft and conceptionual chassiswork, is also a breathtakingly vibrant metrical composi tion. The core message, a potent sworn statement of intoxicating power from the perspective of those who arrest its consequences, is simultaneously unequivocal and oblique.Though Atwoods indictment is readily apparent, close adaptation reveals a brilliant poetic foundation comprised of nuanced language, double- meanings, and a metaphorical twist that satirically lambasts American prodigiousism by skewering the individualist cowboy myth with resource from its own construction. In short, Atwoods rime succeeds as a political statement beca part she allows the demands of exceptional poetry to drive its articulation. From the out establish, Atwood chooses language that economically expands the meaning of each phrase.For example, Starspangled, the poems first word, foc lend oneselfs a personification of cowboy mentality into a subtle reexamine of nationalist manipulation. In addition, other connotations take after to mind, like starry-eyed, or the gaudiness of spangles. never theless elements internal to the American anthem take hold bombs bursting, a nation under siege, supremacy against all odds. Though speculative, a reading like this is supported by the poems representation of a cowboy who violently protects his own interests in an imagined grace filled with heroes and villains.Regarded as a distinguished figure by the myth of manifest destiny, he is conversely seen as a reckless tyrant by those who hold out the effects of his violence. The first stanza reveals a rummy figure Starspangled cowboy sauntering through his child-like semblance while pulling a prop from the Hollywood double that supports his myth. Atwood complicates this image in the second stanza when she introduces violence to her almost- /silly painting of the mythical West. Using a rake break to accentuate the transition, she leans the impact of a stand-alone line against the expanded meaning of its grammatical context. Isolated, line six (you are innocent as a bathroom) relates directly to the opening stanzas child-like caricature, forming an apothegmatic trope that is both(prenominal) interesting and funnily mundane. Accentuated by the break, the lines reading adds dramatic nuance when its sentence unfolds into a broader meaning you are innocent as a bathtub / filled with bullets. contrast the ironic character of opposed readings (innocent and not-at-all-innocent) indoors the space of shared words, Atwood foreshadows an overall conceptual structure in which background signal refers both to the simulacrum of Hollywood sets and to the legitimate environment of a beleaguered world. Despite its obvious valued reference, bathtub / filled with bullets also infers a Hollywood cliche the bullet-riddled bathtub that reinforces a theme inherent to the myth if youre not ready to fight, theyll get you when youre vulnerable.An inference like this reflects back on the subtle statement of the earlier use of starspangled a nation that imagines itself as surround can use that camouflage as justification for militarism and imperialist expansion. Again, supported by the poem, these significations demonstrate a complicated structure that works internal logic to frame an effective (and damning) political statement. Oppositions and Conceptual organise This is a poem about power and disenfranchisement.It employs oppositions as a conceptual dodge to turn manifest destiny on its head. Exploding the cowboy myth by use of its own imagery and overarching theme of heroes and villains, Atwood draws analyzable parallels to American exceptionalism, a black and snow-white ideology that drains color from alternative perspectives. By use of satire, she effectively removes the shroud that justifies debatable actions as being both infallible and heroic. As stated in the title, the voice of this poem is that of backdrop (i. . the environment of scenes portray by the myth and recontextualized by the poem) addressing cowboy. The expanding cen tre on cowboy and his violent environs reaches a pivot in the one-fifth stanza when the Hollywood backdrop is fully exposed, and the vocaliser finally reveals herself. Using the word ought (implying authorization obligation), she questions her expected role on the set (passive, hands clasped / in admiration) while asserting, I am elsewhere. Spoken as backdrop, and expanded in the final stanzas, this statement implies a conceptual flip wherein backdrop becomes subject, inhabiting an environment desecrated by the reckless actions of a transient cowboy. Simulacra In the essay Simulacra and Simulation, philosopher Jean Baudrillard states, The simulacrum is never that which conceals the true statementit is the truth which conceals that there is none. The simulacrum is true. While Baudrillard perhaps overstates his case, the point is clear actions instigated and justified by myth play an undeniable role in influence both material and social reality.Applying this concept to Atwoods poem, manifest destiny can be seen acting as truth in its own regard hiding no truth, because instead it has replaced truth with artifice. Accordingly, cowboy becomes backdrop to the postmodern world from which Atwood addresses the genuine existence of other, more substantial truths hands down denied by myth. The Alternative Power of efficacious Verse As representation itself, satisfy with borrowed imagery and the detritus of experienced consequence, this poem enacts a self-reflexive reversal of the social forces it speaks against.With a vocabulary full of bullets, Atwood crafts a poem that stands the test of both truth and time notwithstanding does so peacefully, through an act of oppositional literature. Whether her poem is construed as feminist, environmentalist, post-colonial, or just-plain-political (from a Canadian perspective), its verity is affirmed by proceed relevance. Written in the mid-seventies, it speaks just as powerfully in our current era. In terms of effect ive poetics, how good is that?