Frank Kim

ISSN1320
21.07.17

Jacobsen and the City in "Metaphysics of the City"

By confronting us with the ugly facets of urbanity and comparing the organic to

the inorganic, Jacobsen in "Metaphysics of the City" expresses his cynicism towards

urban space and the technological development associated with urbanization.

In the first stanza, Jacobsen uses parallel structure to evoke a mood of monotony

and conformity. The content of the stanza complements this with imagery suggesting

uncleanliness and dreariness, which reminds the audience of the often forgotten

underbelly of urban space: "gutter gratings," "moldy stone cellars," "damp roots of

avenues." Thus, at the onset, the author paints a bleak picture of the city, dredging up

what we willfully forget only to bring it into focus to convey his disillusionment.

This continues in the following stanza, where we are driven even further into the

depths of hidden urban space as Jacobsen describes "telephone cables' nerve fibers,"

"gas pipes' hollow veins" and "sewers." Simultaneously, he begins utilising the corporeal

body as a metaphorical point of reference. The comparison is rather unflattering - it is

telling that Jacobsen's "gas pipe veins" are hollow and that we are so abruptly led from

contemplating the veins of the city to sewers. Jacobsen portrays a city which can only be

anaemically and grotesquely viewed as alive.

This comparison of the organic with the inorganic continues in the third stanza,

wherein skyscrapers are described as "human Alps." In this stanza, however, we see a

shift from the earlier pessimism and criticism to appreciation. The use of imagery -
"human Alps in the east, / . . . spirea-hedged faades in the west" - and parallel structure

underscore a positive, picturesque view of the city which contrasts with the view

portrayed in the first two stanzas. Indeed, this stanza might be read as a celebration of

the side of urban life that interconnects human beings: pervasively, from the east to the

west, "invisible links of iron and copper / bind us together." Jacobsen takes care to offset

these final two lines with an em-dash and departure from parallel structure. The

author's specification of spirea, too, hints at the intention of this portion of the poem, as

the shrub symbolises victory (Cruz). The third stanza therefore tempers Jacobsen's

cynicism and provides nuance to his portrayal: the same unsightly iron and copper of

the gutters, cables, and pipes, is also strong and steadfast, linking individuals together

into a community.

In the next stanza, Jacobsen returns to a more negative portrayal of urban space,

reminding us again of the undesirable parts of urban technology which are normally

kept invisible: cables, pipes, sewers. In describing these components, he echoes the

order in which they were presented in the second stanza, reiterating the repetitiousness

of urbanity, which is doubly reinforced by his return to parallel structure.

The first line of this stanza signals a transition from the appreciative tone of the

preceding stanza into the gloomier tone of the rest of the fourth stanza. Its valence is

ambivalent; it grants life to the telephone cables, but only a faltering, "crackling" one.

The second line is more unambiguously negative, conjuring imagery of darkness and

illness, "sick coughing in the abyss." The third is similarly repulsive, utilising alliteration

between the words "sewers," "slime" and "stench," and vivid diction to emphasise the

concealed unpleasantness of urban infrastructure and the pollution which accompanies

it. Jacobsen concludes this point with another deviation from parallel structure, the final
two lines, which plainly yet emphatically paraphrase the content of the previous three

sentences.

The fifth stanza is characterised by its total lack of parallel structure. The imagery

of this part of the poem is also dramatically lighter, with dancing, fire, silk, and

sunshine. This creates a sharp contrast in the texture of the writing which renders this

portion of the poem conspicuous. Jacobsen shifts to the second person, describing a

person who "danc[es] over the asphalt / . . . [with] silk against / [his/her] navel's / white

eye and a new coat in the sunshine." In these lines, Jacobsen describes a caricature of

the typical inhabitant of the city, which he equates with the audience, hence his

addressing us in the second person. He portrays us as carefree, dancing with joy;

luxurious, with silk clothing; and apt to consume, with our "new coat." Conversely, we

are also nave, perhaps willfully blind and deaf to the "ironclad entrails" of the city, i.e.

that which is "under" (cf. Stanza 1) - we see only what is "above" or at the surface,

touched by the sunshine.

By contrast, the author, doubling as the speaker, describes himself in the final

stanza as a figure apparently far removed from the humdrum of the city. He stands "up

in the light somewhere," where he contents himself with "stand[ing] and watch[ing],"

smoking a cigarette at an unspecified distance - both physical and emotional - from the

typical city-dweller and the city alike. The "blue soul" of his cigarette, then, "chaste" and

striving "toward eternal life" may be read as a fanciful physical manifestation of

Jacobsen's loneliness and isolation, as well as his desire to transcend a bleak existence

in the city.
 Works Cited

Cruz, Priscila Sosa. "S." Language of Flowers Dictionary. Bloomington, Indiana:

XLibris, 2015. N. pag. Print.

Jacobsen, Rolf. Metaphysics of the City. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

ISSN1320 Part 2 of 3: Norwegian Literature Summer 2017. Oslo: Akademika

forlag, 2017.