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READ THIS
This clever little poem looks at the poet and his art, comparing him to an acrobat in the circus who
performs all his amazing tricks to amuse and dazzle his audience.
ABOUT THE POET
Lawrence Ferlinghetti was born in New York in March 1919 but was soon sent to a relative in France
because of his mother's being committed to a mental asylum. He would return to America at the age of
five.
Although he began to write poetry at an early age, his teenage years saw him mixed up with street-gangs
and soon under arrest for theft. He nevertheless completed high school and proceeded to the University
of North Carolina where he obtained a degree.
During the war years he joined the United States navy, serving as an officer. On his discharge in 1945,
he studied for a Master's Degree at Columbia University and then proceeded to the Sorbonne in Paris
where he graduated with a Doctorate in Literature.
By 1952 he was back in America. He and a friend opened a bookstore in San Francisco, which they
named City Lights, the title of a famous Charlie Chaplin movie. The bookstore became the centre
for a movement of writers and artists known as the "Beat" group.
Ferlinghetti also established a publishing house which specialised in poetry. He quickly became known
as one of the most influential of American poets and, in 1998, he was named as Poet Laureate for San
Francisco.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
What do you notice about the structure of this poem? (5)
[Need help?]
If you are reading the poem in a printed book and not on a website, you should notice that each line is of
different length, and each is differently indented. Why do you think this is so?
Is it perhaps to give a pictorial impression of the poet as a tightrope walker, his steps methodical but
careful, swaying on the high wire with his bar to balance him?
Or is the poet speaking about a pair of acrobats who swing from side to side, catching each other as each
does death-defying leaps from the swing?
You should have noticed that the poem contains no punctuation, and few upper-case letters. And yet,
despite this, the poem is easy to read because it contains natural breaks, and the run-on lines are also
fairly natural.
There are only three lines which begin with the upper-case, and this tends to divide the poem into three
natural segments. And the word "Beauty" has an upper-case "B". Why is this?
Is there anything else you can see?
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"paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrachats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be"
- What is meant by "entrachats"? (2)
[Need help?]
"Entrachats" is defined as a leap in ballet, with one or more crossings of the legs while in the air.
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- Why does the poet speak of "sleight-of-foot tricks" rather than
"sleight-of-hand tricks"? (4)
[Need help?]
This is a good example of the poet using his expertise in playing with words. At the same time, it
reinforces the metaphor of the poet as an acrobat who is relying on the positioning of his feet to give him
balance. Can you think of any other reason?
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- Explain why it is that the poet may not mistake anything "for what it may not
be". (4)
[Need help?]
The poet's art is to present truth and beauty, and to present it as it is. It is not the poet's
task to falsify the world around him but only to present us with a new and different way of looking at it, to
help us to understand the world better.
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"For he's the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap"
- Comment on the poetic use of the words "taut truth". (4)
[Need help?]
First, you should have noticed the use of alliteration.
The alliterated "t's" give the impression of speaking with clenched teeth, in imitation of the high-wire
performer who would perhaps be performing his acts of courage and daring with clenched teeth as he
defies death.
The word "taut" describes the high-wire which has to be taut or else the acrobat cannot perform
on it. If the wire were slack, he would fall.
In the same way, the poet's words need to be taut -- exact -- or else the truth he is describing would be
hazy and his poetry poor. Both the acrobat and the poet would fall if their vehicle of performance is not
taut.
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- Why is "Beauty" said to stand on "that still higher perch"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet here is echoing the great philosophers and poets -- like Plato -- who see Beauty as the highest
attainment of the mind. Beauty is a Goddess who sits on the highest throne alongside the Creator God.
She is the Creator God's closest companion. It is therefore the highest form of art and spirituality to attain
to Beauty.
Have you noticed that the poet has used the upper-case "B" when speaking of "Beauty"?
This, of course, personifies Beauty, making a Goddess of her.
Notice too how the poet still keeps within the ambit of his sustained metaphor. Beauty is on the highest
perch, and the poet has to imitate the acrobat by climbing to the very top to attain her.
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- Comment on the play on words in "stands and waits with gravity". (4)
[Need help?]
The word "gravity" is, of course a pun.
Gravity is that force which will pull Beauty downwards in her death-defying leap.
Gravity also means seriousness. Beauty is very serious. Indeed, there is nothing insincere about
the goddess Beauty.
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"And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence"
- Why is "charleychaplin" written as one word? (2)
[Need help?]
The poet is creating an adjective out of the proper noun "Charlie Chaplin". He does not,
however, wish us to imagine the actor Charlie Chaplin, but rather the way this actor portrays his character
of the "Little Tramp".
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- Why does the Ferlinghetti refer to the poet as "a little charleychaplin man"? (4)
[Need help?]
Charlie Chaplin was one of the early cinema comedians, an artist who constantly took risks.
His alter ego, the "Little Tramp", was indeed very risky at a time when the theatre-going
population was mostly an audience which probably despised the working class and down-and-outs like
tramps.
Ferlinghetti obviously admired Charlie Chaplin so much that he called his bookship City Lights,
named after Chaplin's greatest movie.
He believes the poet is much like Charlie Chaplin, taking massive risks which could fail. Yet without those
risks, the poet will seldom be successful.
The "Little Tramp" was also a clumsy performer who always did his best. Does Ferlinghetti wish
to portray the poet too as a clumsy performer but who strives to capture Beauty in his words?
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- Why may the "little charleychaplin man" not "catch her fair eternal form spreadeagled in the
empty air"? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is, of course, speaking of Beauty. The acrobats swing from side to side and, when Beauty leaps,
it is the duty of her partner to catch her or else she falls to her death.
When Beauty leaps, for a moment she flies spreadeagled through the air before she is neatly pulled to
safety by her partner.
If you remember the Charlie Chaplin movies, however, you will recall that the "Little Tramp" was
alway clumsy. Can he really succeed in plucking Beauty out of the air?
Can the clumsy poet actually succeed in capturing Beauty in his words for all his readers to see?
But, if he fails, then Beauty falls to her death -- and the poet's career is in tatters!
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