On The Grass

This is a poem I analyzed for a student of mine.

Dear God
I read your
Advertisement in the churches
And I should like to have
A catalogue of the virtues that
I might possibly wish to own
And which will finally entitle me
To live with you
In heaven
It is understood that
This will not oblige me in any way
Yours very
Sincerely
The sinner.

I am now living at
The hotel d’evil

Let the catalogue be addressed
Care of the village priest

On Sunday
Two men stood over the body of a dead man
On the grass
He was sick
Said the doctor
He is holding the cross
Said the priest.

By Guillermo E. Castillo

Type: Prose Poetry – Prose poetry is usually considered a form of poetry written in prose that breaks some of the normal rules associated with prose discourse, for heightened imagery or emotional effect, among other purposes. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose_poetry
Imagery: it has religious, spiritual imagery in that the Bible or the teachings of the Christian church are expressed as ‘the catalogue of virtues’, the life of sin and decadence as ‘hotel d’evil’.
The poem used the figure of speech known as apostrophe by addressing God.
Apostrophe (Greek αποστροφη, turning away; the final e being sounded) is an exclamatory rhetorical figure of speech, when a speaker or writer breaks off and directs speech to an imaginary person or abstract quality or idea. In dramatic works and poetry, it is often introduced by the word “O” (not to be confused with the exclamation “oh”).
It is related to personification, although in apostrophe, objects or abstractions are implied to have certain human qualities (such as understanding) by the very fact that the speaker is addressing them as he would a person in his presence.
Apostrophe is often used to convey extreme emotion, as in Claudius’ impassioned speech in Hamlet. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_speech_apostrophe
However, the apostrophe used does not convey any emotion at all except of a somewhat cool attitude and a seeming lack of reverence toward God.
Irony: The sinner expressed ‘sincerity’ (Sincerely), however, from a proactive stance at spiritual virtues, the wishes of the sinner does not strike the reader as sincere at all but rather as a person who seeks the easy way out for spiritual obligations, more so when he stipulated that ‘ This will not oblige me in any way’. One need not talk to God to ask for goodness, being good to one’s neighbor is good enough!
Tone: Tone (literary), the mood or feeling of a literary work. The author’s tone may imply the consumerist, materialist attitude of a person influencing one’s spiritual beliefs, which in this poem, shows how one treats spiritual salvation as a commodity that could be bought or bargained with. The title, which is also where the ‘sinner’ was found dead, may allude to the result of such attitudes, that being lukewarm to spiritual matters would make one morally decayed or dead, as most decaying and dying things are found under or ‘in the grass’. Even if the author did not say whether the ‘sinner’ obtained what that person asked for, such a sorry end may not actually point vividly to salvation. It is left to the reader to contemplate, and probably, reflect on one’s own state of spiritual affairs.
Thus, the poem recasts religious thinking for today’s consumer cultured society. The poem may also serve as a symbolism as the half-hearted effort of some to be overtly religious but are actually spiritually empty. This may well be directed to the affluent who are forgetting gratefulness towards God, as the sinner stayed in the ‘hotel’.
The theme of poem may express the call for reassessing one’s spirituality, belief in God, and one’s moral integrity in a world wherein everything has a price, even justice.
Existentialist leanings: the ending of the poem in the death of its character homes on the importance of being reminded of one’s mortality in order to put meaning in one’s present actions and thinking in reference to the impending end everyone would soon come to.
Heidegger argues that Dasein, thrown into the world, is therefore thrown into its possibilities, including the possibility and inevitability of one’s own mortality. The need for Dasein to assume these possibilities, that is, the need to be responsible for one’s own existence, is the basis of Heidegger’s notions of authenticity and resoluteness http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidegger#Being_and_Time
Reflection
Sometimes, because of one’s preoccupation with worldly goods and pleasures, one has the tendency to view religious matters with a lack of seriousness and respect. As was said in the Good Book, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’” (Matthew 3:16-4:4). The word here may also mean the law, the unspoken codes of conduct, morality, ethics, and the general notions or norms of right and wrong.
Thus it is important to decide very well on where one should stand on spiritual matters and on matters on morality because in human relations, living an exemplary life of being good to one’s family, neighbors, and serving the community should be the primary motivation for an individual, financial and material gains only secondary.

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Filed under: Existentialist Poetry, Poem Analysis, Religious Poetry