Harding 1

Tess Harding

Laura Darrow

Eng 102

18 June 2010

The True Meaning

When one reads a poem, the meaning of the poem might not leap of the page. It takes more

than reading the lines to figure out the meaning of some poems. Luckily there are some

things that can help the meaning become clearer: rhetorical appeals, meter, rhyme, and tone

help us analyze the text. In the poem Song of Napalm by Bruce Weigl, the meaning is

somewhat fuzzy, but context clues and things like meter help the reader to understand the

meaning. By using these clues the meaning of the poem Song of Napalm is much easier to

interpret.

The positions of speaker and audience are important to identify when analyzing a poem.

Identifying the speaker will help the reader visualize and feel the mood of the poem. In

Weigls poem the speaker seems to be a man. We get this first clue form a dedication for

my wife (Weigl). This could be Weigl himself writing the poem specifically for his wife, or

this could be another, figurative, man or person who is addressing another person. The

dedication might be the only place where Weigl is actually the speaker; the rest of the poem

could be told by the other speaker whose purpose might be only to tell the story. Identifying

who the speaker is talking to, the audience, can help with finding the meaning also. In Song

of Napalm Weigl uses the words we, you, and us in many sentences. We stood in

the doorway watching horses So I can stay her beside you (Weigl). The speaker might

not be talking directly to the person or audience but communication is happening through

the act of reading the poem. There are many lines that lead the reader to believe that the
 Harding 2

speaker is expressing things to his wife; the for my wife. The line not your good love

(Weigl) indicates that they are possibly in a relationship. The speaker tells about how they

tried to comfort him out of flashback images of barbed wire saying but you said they were

only branches (Weigl). Just figuring out who the speaker and audience are draws the reader

closer to uncovering the meaning.

Meter and pattern are also important to aid in interpreting a poem. Poems can be read in a

multitude of ways: like pros; no stopping for line breaks, stopping at the end of each line, or

a combination. The author has consciously chosen to end one line and start another for some

reason. A part from Weigls poem that could be interpreted differently could be the last two

lines of the second to last stanza and the first line of the last stanza.

Muscles draw her up into that final position

Burning bodies so perfectly assume. (Weigl)

These lines can be read pausing at the end of each line or all the way through without pausing.

Pausing at the end of each line puts more emphasis on the line burning bodies so perfectly

assume, making it almost its own sentence. If the lines are read together without pausing there

is less emphasis on the last line, but it fits in with the other line describing the final position.

There might not be a rigid meter or rhyme in Weigls poem but noticing things like repetition

and how the lines are broken up helps with the analysis.

Figurative language is something that is common in most poems. The authors word

choice can be a great clue to discovering the meaning. In Weigls poem there are many words of

war and the horrors of it, like napalm, barbed wire, mortar, pain, and burning. These certain

words should automatically get the reader to think that this poem may be about war. The author

describes a scene of a girl running from her village, and burning napalm, in great detail. Why the

author chooses to describe this scene so vividly should be a key to figuring out what the poem is
 Harding 3

about. How the author describes how the speaker sees things like the shadows of trees as barbed

wire instead of trees are important to show what the meaning of the poem is. The word choice

also lets you get into the mind of the speaker and how they describe things; in this poem,

possibly the things they saw in the war. The reader can connect with the speaker and start to

relate on their own terms drawing closer to the meaning.

If a reader can connect or relate to the poem then they have an understanding with the

speaker. They understand at least some of the speakers emotions and feelings through the

words of the author. In this case its about war. War is almost a constant in the world today.

It is publicized and reported on over and over. We hear of the horrors of war, of soldiers

coming back only to suffer post traumatic stress disorder. We cant imagine what they saw

but now the speaker is bringing it to you and telling you about it in detail. Maybe the reader

has been part of a war themselves. If a personal connection is made the poem is easier to

relate to and therefore easier to interpret subject wise.

After looking at all these clues and reading the poem over a few times the meaning may

start to emerge. First the reader may start to understand what is actually happening in the poem.

In Weigls poem the speaker starts of by describing perhaps his home and the small things that

are happening between him and his wife We stood in the doorway watching horses (next line)

We stared through the black screen (Weigl). Then he talks of seeing barbed wire in the

shadows of the trees leading us to think its a flashback of the war. He seems to realize it is a

flashback I turned my back on the old curses. I believed They swung finally away from me ...

(Wegl). But the speaker still cant shake the memories but still the branches are wire (Weigl).

Then the speaker goes into detail of the things that he saw and how he cant erase them from his

memory: the girl running with napalm on her dress and mortar and how he did all this just so he

could stand with his wife, free. But no matter how hard he tries he can not forget what he has
 Harding 4

done Nothing Can change that; she is burned behind my eyes (Weigl). And he says to his wife

and not even her good love can deny what he has done. By understanding what is really

happening in the poem we can easily see the meaning of the poem. The speaker is apologizing to

his wife for the things he has done, because now they are forever engraved in his mind and

nothing can change that.

Song of Napalm
BY BRUCE WEIGL
For my wife

We stood in the doorway watching horses
Walk off lazily across the pastures hill.
We stared through the black screen,
Our vision altered by the distance
So I thought I saw a mist
Kicked up around their hooves when they
faded
Like cut-out horses
Away from us.
The grass was never more blue in that light,
more
Scarlet; beyond the pasture
Trees scraped their voices into the wind,
branches
Crisscrossed the sky like barbed wire
But you said they were only branches.
Okay. The storm stopped pounding.
I am trying to say this straight: for once
I was sane enough to pause and breathe
Outside my wild plans and after the hard rain
I turned my back on the old curses. I
believed
They swung finally away from me ...
But still the branches are wire
And thunder is the pounding mortar,
Still I close my eyes and see the girl
Running from her village, napalm
Stuck to her dress like jelly,
Her hands reaching for the no one
Who waits in waves of heat before her.
So I can keep on living,
So I can stay here beside you,
I try to imagine she runs down the road and
wings
Beat inside her until she rises
Above the stinking jungle and her pain
Eases, and your pain, and mine.
But the lie swings back again.
The lie works only as long as it takes to
speak
And the girl runs only as far
As the napalm allows
Until her burning tendons and crackling
Muscles draw her up
into that final position
Burning bodies so perfectly assume. Nothing
Can change that; she is burned behind my
eyes
And not your good love and not the rain-swept
air
And not the jungle green
Pasture unfolding before us can deny it.