I think this very good poem is about someone, possibly the English scarecrow spending time (The Stint, of the title) in a dystopia, which is possibly America or Britian in the not-too-distant future. Many of the poems in the collection refer to dystopias and utopias. There are a few parts of this one that aren't clear to me and I would appreciate any contributions. I could rave about the poem but my questions alone make this long enough. Unfortunately there is no copy already published on the net from the collection 'Tyrannosaurus Rex versus The Corduroy Kid' which is however available on Amazon. There is a lot of really good poetry here and I can recommend it.
A review of the collection, and some notes on the poem can be found here
http://www.stridebooks.co.uk/2006/Ma...n.armitage.htm
There is an interview with the poet here
http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetrya...terviewId=1419
1st stanza: Is 'term' synonymous with 'stint', or does it imply prison, (or even, less plausibly, school?). Someone who read it thought it referred to the spate of tragic school massacres in America, but I can't say I read that.
"What was the use" of what? Being different? Trying to make a difference? Being human? Is fibreglass shatterproof? Why is the carpark attendant "picking a hole in somebody�s work"? Because he can? Because he's an informer? Because even a carpark attendant in this world is on the make / take?
2nd stanza: Are the sharpshooters government men, or are they the lawless in places where state control doesn't reach or doesn't it matter? Strolling across gardens and lawns they seem to be in places where they shouldn't be or that aren't theirs
3rd stanza: "Not that the world / was numb: Static leapt from hand to hand, sparking / the odd response. But nevertheless." So there is mobile phone or technological communication? It's not numb/ inhuman 'sparking the odd response� but it's almost inhuman 'sparking' and it's not a world of small talk and social skills.
4th stanza: 'landmass' is supposed to imply a polluted hinterland beyond the city where this is set? "Uptown, local celebrities/ rinsed their hair in vinegar wine / to leach out the suds". Not to leach out the chemical pollution, or is this implied? Why is it celebrities doing this, not say housewives? Is it just supposed to imply LA / Hollywood?
6th / 7th stanza: It's hard to read these lines without remembering the film The Birds. I never knew whether there was anything else to Hitchcock's film besides a growing sense of menace. Any views?
6th stanza: "that picnic blanket / of freeze dried grass between Washing, College, / Johnson and Dodge�". Does this give anyone a clue to an actual place or are they just typically American names?
7th stanza: 'inverted air' why inverted? Someone said they thought there was something about air being 'inverted' in LA because of pollution. I found this quote online from a book about Environmental Policy and Public Health "half the city's 12000 residents became ill from breathing industrial contaminants trapped under a layer of temperature- inverted air". Does anyone know anything about inverted air?
Actually, I'm going to try to tempt you to buy the collection by quoting the last two stanzas. Someone who read this was then minded to ask if we could recall the collective noun for ravens. It's an 'unkindness'.
And then the birds.
They circled the park - that picnic blanket
of freeze-dried grass between Washington, College,
Johnson and Dodge - a murder of rooks, streaming
from under the hem of the sky,
inverted air offering
effortless flight. Endless unapplauding hands
in black gloves looking for somewhere to land,
and an English scarecrow directly below,
singled out, running for home.
[This message has been edited by Felicity Graham (edited April 06, 2008).]
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