A comparison between two poems
Eclogue in Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay
Okay, but now imagine someone,
one of fifty, say, in the queue, fiftieth first
and advancing little, somewhere within
the seventy-two-hour window of efficacy
for post-exposure prophylaxis, and, later,
in the screening room watching The Clock
with the few dozen others in rows behind and ahead
who had waited too. He knows he has to
but he hasn’t yet. We pick it up there.
It is two thousand eleven a few more days.
The movie tells what time it is.
In poetry too we all face forward.
from “A Several World” 2014
the words have come and gone,
I sit ill.
the phone rings, the cats sleep.
Linda vacuums.
I am waiting to live,
waiting to die.
I wish I could ring in some bravery.
it's a lousy fix
but the tree outside doesn't know:
I watch it moving with the wind
in the late afternoon sun.
there's nothing to declare here,
just a waiting.
each faces it alone.
Oh, I was once young,
Oh, I was once unbelievably
young!
from “Transit Magazine” 1994
Time, waiting, death and life
It’s for sure that as the time goes on, the world and everything in it changes, but there are things in human nature that stay constant. We all share the same feelings, see the same colors, hear the same sounds and know the inevitable end we have to face. Being aware of time we assign our purposes, take steps to move forward and don’t think of the end yet we also get stuck, fall in despair, lose our absence of hope and so on. In this essay, I’ll be comparing the two poems which are about “time, waiting, life and death”. They are “Eclogue in Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay” by Brian Blanchfield and “So Now” by Charles Bukowski.
In ”Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay” Brian Blanchfield talks about how we all are looking at the same clock and witnessing the same time. It’s a permanent loop in which some go and others take their places. He talks about how we all are at some point aggravated.
the seventy-two-hour window of efficacy
for post-exposure prophylaxis” which touches upon our hassles in life after our different experiences. He says “one of fifty” intending to remind us that even though we have different experiences, we all are experiencing the same time, maybe the same feelings just in different levels.
In “So Now”, Charles Bukowski talks about his stranded feelings in which he is really close to death because he is getting older and the time is passing by, but he also has his reasons to live as he mentions these little small and ordinary details about life from his moment.
“the words have come and gone,
I sit ill.
the phone rings, the cats sleep.
Linda vacuums.
I am waiting to live,
waiting to die. “
It’s really interesting to put these two poems together because as Brian Blanchfield talks about “time, waiting, life and death” by pointing a finger on many, Bukowski becomes “one of many” who makes a speech, and expresses what is said in “Eclogue in Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay”
In “Eclogue in Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay” it goes as;
in the screening room watching The Clock
with the few dozen others in rows behind and ahead
who had waited too.” and then Bukowski speaks out in “So now”; -just a waiting. each faces it alone.
One could relate how they are talking about the same thing in different ways. While the poet in “Eclogue in Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay” acts as an observer, Bukowski acts as the one who experiences it. When the subject is “time”, it’s not very surprising to see these two poets writing in such harmony. Even though the feelings, the experiences and the perspectives of these two guys are different, how they connect in these two poems fortifies their claims on the subject. It is, in all forms of art, essential to have this kind of harmoniousness rather if it’s collaborative or not.
Today, the common perception of culture depends on not nationality but class and social structures based on that. The connection between the poems and the poets’ life experiences are more than what it might look like. Brian Blanchfield is an American who has taught creative writing in various colleges like The Pratt Institute, Otis College of Art and Design, Cal Arts, University of Montana, University of Arizona which means that he comes from a place where he had an opportunity to be educated. He was born in 1973 which means that he was a teenager in the late 80s when USA was a lot better than it used to be in the 30s which is when Charles Bukowski who came to the US at the age of 2 and he was born in 1920 which means that he was a teenager and a young adult while the the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world known as the “The Great Depression” was taking place. “So now” was written and published in 1994 which is the year that Bukowski died. Considering that he comes from the depravity of urban life in American society , it is not shocking to see him write as the one who experiences “time, waiting, death and life” while one can tell why “Eclogue in Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay” was written with the words of an observer.
Basically, “So Now” is a poem which was written by a guy who had death at his door who didn’t feel ready to face death yet he had to wait. Yet he wanted to live, so he mentions all these little things about his moment; he mentions the sound of the vacuum cleaner, he mentions “Linda”, he talks about the afternoon sun and his little experience with the tree which he sees through his window.
“I wish I could ring in some bravery.
it's a lousy fix”
but the tree outside doesn't know:
I watch it moving with the wind”
As he chooses to use simple expressions, he actually admires life. And then he mentions that he was young “Oh, I was once young,
Oh, I was once unbelievably
young!”
On the other hand “Eclogue in Line to View The Clock by Christian Marclay” was written in a more of an intellectual manner, expressing things in a more observed and sophisticated way. Instead of simple choice of sentences and words, he prefers to use them in a more complex way which at some point leaves the reader in the dark. Unlike Bukowski, he uses a way of latent symbolism with his choice of words and sentence structures. Despite the whole structure of his poem where he writes as an observer, he also refers to someone as “he” where he says “He knows he has to
but he hasn’t yet.” which might actually be the only part of the poem where he is referring to himself about” the time, waiting, death and life” at a personal level. He is not straight up like Bukowski but that’s their only actual difference.
This essay means to show that age, experience, social privileges, cultural differences do not change how an individual might feel towards matters such as “Time, waiting, death and life.” In these two poems, written under very different circumstances, the way of expression is the only thing that differs. The two different poets who lived in very different eras and with very different edges of society show us that all our perceptions about these subjects meet at the same point in the end.
http://brianblanchfield.com/
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Bukowski
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charles-bukowski
https://www.history.com/topics/great-depression
https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/so-now/
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57934/eclogue-in-line-to-view-the-clock-by-christian-marclay
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