Telephone Poles- John Updike

They have been with us a long time.
They will outlast the elms.
Our eyes, like the eyes of a savage sieving the trees
In his search for game,
Run through them. They blend along small-town streets
Like a race of giants that have faded into mere mythology.
Our eyes, washed clean of belief,
Lift incredulous to their fearsome crowns of bolts, trusses, struts, nuts, insulators, and such
Barnacles as compose
These weathered encrustations of electrical debris¬
Each a Gorgon’s head, which, seized right,
Could stun us to stone.

Yet they are ours. We made them.
See here, where the cleats of linemen
Have roughened a second bark
Onto the bald trunk. And these spikes
Have been driven sideways at intervals handy for human legs.
The Nature of our construction is in every way
A better fit than the Nature it displaces
What other tree can you climb where the birds’ twitter,
Unscrambled, is English? True, their thin shade is negligible,
But then again there is not that tragic autumnal
Casting-off of leaves to outface annually.
These giants are more constant than evergreens
By being never green.

First Instinct

          After reading through “Telephone Poles” by Updike my first reaction to the poem is that he is using the poem to describe the telephone poles. Another reaction that I had to the poem was that is not criticizing the telephone poles. Updike is using the poem to express his feeling towards the poles and humans ability to create them. Since the humans have created these poles, they are beginning to take over today’s society. Also by reading while the poem, I have come to the conclusion that Updike believes that the telephone poles will be on earth forever.

Paraphrasing

Poles have been with us a long time.
They will survive longer than other trees.
Our eyes are of violent filtering the trees
In his search for game,

Run through them. They are along small- town streets.
Like a race of gaints that gone into mythology.
Our eyes, washed clean of any belief
Boost unbelieving to their frightening bolts, binds, bars, nuts, insulators, and such Barnacle as compose.
These weathered accumulations of electrical wreckage.
Each dragon’s head, grasped right,
Could shock us to stone.

However they are ours. We made them.
See here, where the spikes of linemen
Have abraded a second bark
Onto the bald trunk. And these spikes
Have been driven sideways for human legs.
The Nature of our construction is in every way
A better fit then the nature it moves.
What other tree can you climb where the birds are,
 Decoded is English? Yes, there tiny shade is insignificant
But then again there is not that catastrophic fall
Where the leaves fall off every year.
These poles are most constant then other trees
By never being green.

SWIFTT

          Syntax/ Word: The poem is divided into two stanzas to function as two different topics being discussed. This structure supports the author’s purpose because in the first stanza Updike discusses the poles in general. While the second stanza Updike uses as a way to discuss how telephone poles are better than actual trees. Throughout the poem, Updike uses his word choice to influence the reader’s opinion of the poem. The phrase “could stun us to stone” is used to describe the telephones and conveys animism. This is significant because the readers are able to visual the telephones have this magical phone. If individuals think about a telephone pole, they really are magical.

          Imagery: Updike uses imagery throughout the poem to describe the telephone poles. The image of the telephone poles running through and blending in on small-town street depicts a picture of telephone one after another on side of street because the readers envision driving down the street and every few seconds they will see a telephone pole. Individuals are so usual to see the telephone roles along the side of the road that they begin to blend in with their surroundings. Another image of Gorgon’s heads depict the picture of the telephones having a head with a bunch of wires coming out of it  because the reader’s envision that the top part of the telephone pole is the head, while all the wires that are attached to the pole is the hair on the head. This is significant for the readers to envision because it is how Updike is attempting to describe the actual telephone pole. The final picture of a bare trunk spikes depicts a picture of tree with no bark and has something sharp coming out of it because the readers envision the bare pole with the spikes at stick out of the sides of the pole. These spikes are uses as a step ladder the workers use to climb the pole; which is why this image is important for the readers to understand.

          Figurative: The author alludes to animism in order to describe the telephone poles. Animism is that everything, including nonliving objects, has spirits inside of them. Through this reference, the readers connect the telephone poles to spirits and can more fully understand the author’s purpose to describe that the telephone poles are alive. In the poem there is one simile. The subject of our eyes is compared to the eyes of a “savage sieving the trees”. This is fitting because our eyes and the eyes of a “savage sieving the trees” share these characteristics: they both can filter through the trees and see everything.

          Tone: Once the readers, fully analyze the poem by Updike, individuals can conclude that the tone of the poem is relax and proud. There are plenty of reasons why the readers can conclude that the tone is relaxed. The main reason is that Updike does not use any specifically strong word to critic the use of tree as telephone pole. Readers can also conclude that the tone poem is proud because of the way Updike is proud of the creations, humans have made. Without these telephone poles, we probably would not be able to have as fast as of a communication system we have today.

          Theme: The theme of the poem, Updike was trying to accomplish was that there is a disconnect between humans and nature and humans are happy due to this disconnection. The fact that the disconnection because humans and nature is allowing the industrial world to take over the nature world. We are happy because we are taking God’s creations and making them into something that is more useful in today’s society.

Conclusion

          After closely analyzing the “telephone Poles” by Updike, readers have the ability to grasp his true purpose in writing the poem.  The true purpose for writing the poem is not only to describe the telephone poles and their importance in today’s society but to always prove how humans treat nature differently. Now that humans have innovations like telephone poles and car, there is no longer a need for humans to appreciate nature as much as we use to. The majority of the time, the things us humans use to make and build stuff comes from nature. As we use more and more things from nature humans are going further away from nature itself.