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READ THIS
"On the move" is one of Thom Gunn's earliest published pieces, exploring modern man's sense of
alienation in the world and his lack of purpose.
A motorbike gang becomes the metaphor to explore this concept, for the bikers are a marginalised group
within society -- perhaps even feared -- and ride their motorbikes with no defined purpose or goal.
They seldom know their destination. To be on the move is enough of a goal for them.
A NOTE ON THE POET
Thomson William Gunn was born in Kent (England) in August 1929, the son of a London journalist / editor
and a mother -- whom he adored -- who was a left-wing socialite and an ex-journalist.
His parents would later divorce, whereupon his mother committed suicide when Gunn was just 15 years
of age. The impact of this event would leave an indelible mark on the young man's mind and this would
affect some of his later works.
He attended Trinity College in Cambridge, graduating with a B.A. in 1953. He recognised, however, that
he was gay and so, believing he would be ostracised in England, he and his partner moved to San
Francisco where homosexuality was more accepted.
He proceeded to Stanford University where he taught for a while, and graduated with an M.A. in 1958.
He would then earn his primary income from teaching at the University of California at Berkeley.
This, however, was mostly on a part-time basis. Although he was a charismatic lecturer, he nevertheless
resisted the temptations of pursuing a purely academic career.
Gunn is recognised as a major poet from the generation that included Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath.
Indeed, many regard him as the finest of them all. He was also in love with the modern city, its speed and
its anonymity -- and this too is reflected in his poetry.
He lacked a national identity. Although he was British, he lived in the United States and learned from
modern American poetry but was never recognised as an American poet as such.
He had a relaxed manner and a raucous sense of humour. His love of vulgarity is said to have kept him
youthful. He was also said to have been outstandingly handsome, something that women noticed but to
their regret.
During the 1960s and 1970s Gunn, along with the hippies or bohemians of the age, explored the use of
drugs -- especially LSD. Indeed, he appears to have thoroughly enjoyed the bohemian lifestyle which
gave him the freedom to use drugs, practise homosexuality and, as a poet, to experiment with poetic form.
He died in April 2004 while still living in San Francisco. He was then almost 75 years of age.
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:
"It is part solution, after all.
One is not necessarily discord
On Earth; or damned because, half animal,
One lacks direct instinct, because one wakes
Afloat on movement that divides and breaks.
One joins the movement in a valueless world,
Crossing it, till, both hurler and the hurled,
One moves as well, always toward, toward."
- What, according to the poet, is the difference between man and the animals? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet has already mentioned this in Stanza 1. Animals have instinct and this gives them a purpose
in life.
Man, on the other hand, is only half-animal. We have no "direct instinct". We float in this world,
always searching, always moving -- "always toward, toward".
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- What does the poet mean when he says that you are "not necessarily discord on
Earth"? (4)
[Need help?]
This was the focus of hippie philosophy, the groups with whom the poet shared his existence. We are not
necessarily in discord with life but can deliberately choose peace. "Make love, not war" was their
primary motto.
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- Write the following in your own words,"One is not necessarily . . . damned because, half animal,
one lacks direct instinct". (4)
[Need help?]
"We are not condemned for not knowing our destination in life because, not being fully animal, we don't
have a natural instinct."
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"A minute holds them, who have come to go."
- The poet defines the purpose of the motorbike. What is it? (2)
[Need help?]
The purpose of the motorbike is movement: they exist that they may go. And, when they go, they take
us with them.
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"The towns they travel through
Are home for neither birds nor holiness,
For birds and saints complete their purposes."
- Does the poet despise the town or urban areas? (2)
[Need help?]
Many poets of Gunn's era did indeed despise the towns but Gunn actually loved the modern city, its speed
and its anonymity.
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- What does the poet mean when he says that the towns are home "for neither birds nor
holiness"? (4)
[Need help?]
Towns by nature are NOT the natural home for either birds (nature) or for holiness. This fact, however,
does not condemn the towns. Indeed, says the poet, birds and holy men complete the town's purpose
when they move into them.
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- What then is the purpose of the towns? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet doesn't say. It is the great enigma that he is exploring: everything seems to have a purpose and
we search for that purpose. Priests and birds, he says, complete the town's purpose -- but he fails to
hint at what that purpose is.
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- Is the purpose of the bikers good or is it bad? (4)
[Need help?]
Again the poet gives us no answer. There is a purpose, he says: to be on the move. On the other hand,
it is not an absolute purpose but rather a fleeting one.
Somehow, however, it would seem that, as long as one is on the move, one is getting closer to that
purpose -- and that is something which is good.
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GENERAL QUESTIONS:
- One prescribed poetry anthology states that the poet uses the bikers to represent people in general.
Is this correct? (4)
[Need help?]
There is a problem with this interpretation. Bikers are in fact a fringe group within society. Not only that,
but they are / were despised by most people within that society. Is it possible then to use such a fringe
group as a metaphor for all people?
Is not the poet making statements about the groups within which he was socialising: the hippies or the
bohemians? These groups were the one's seeking the ultimate meaning of life but not finding it.
And yet, says the poet, this ultimate meaning is very fleeting, intangible. On the other hand, the very
search itself -- just like the biker gang -- is better than not seeking at all.
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- Does the poet identify with the bikers? (4)
[Need help?]
Most people say he doesn't. And yet, in many ways, he does. He himself, as a gay, found himself
marginalised in the same way as the bikers. He too was a member of a fringe group.
The bikers were therefore a group with whom he could identify, and who could therefore be the legitimate
metaphor for his thoughts about the purpose of life.
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