I've chosen to turn my attention to poems after re-writing a couple of lines for a requester on Mechanical Turk who wanted his poem to be put into iambic meter.
This brought me to the conclusion that I'd like to start reading and reviewing poetry again (something I used to enjoy at school) Since the author of the poem below, my friend and former classmate, George, has been brave enough to link me and others to his blog, I thought I'd start there.
The pull
As a title this delivers a completely different image to my mind than to the one the poem contains; immediately what sprang to mind was university students going out on “the pull”, but I wonder whether the author didn’t intend to parallel this romantic “pull” with the more spiritual draw of an historical place of worship.
I guess that they designed it thus:
The author surmises in this line that architects had sat down to plan the effect their building would have on people.
Four holes in the dome, one woman
Numbering the building’s four apertures and then placing the one woman at the end of the line in this way suggests that the designers made it not just of stones but of people. The dome here brings to mind the domes of the mosques and churches of the Mediterranean.
Not there to clean but stir up dust, embodying
Dust here may symbolize the building’s history and the word “embodying” gives a physical form to that history.
The beam by which the morning visitant
The beam of light through clouds or in this case through stirred up dust is often a symbol of God’s light reaching down from heaven Here the choice of the word “visitant” brings to mind the word “supplicant” suggesting this light is some form of answer to a prayer.
Is struck; through another gap at evensong
The word “struck”, sitting as it does as the second word of the line and being followed by a semi-colon, brings the poem to a halt as the beam of light would no doubt cause its recipient to stop for a moment in wonder.
It slopes to stroke the censer and the priest,
The introduction of the censer and the priest confirm that this is a Catholic church or cathedral. The choice of the words “slopes” and “stroke”, the alliteration and consonance of the letter ‘s’ combined with the assonance of the letter ‘o’ in this line suggests a softer evening light when compared with the morning ray which “struck” the visitant.
“Stroke” is a very anthropomorphic word and either the light itself or the designers of the church are seeking to make contact with or perhaps just to soothe the priest.
Scribing something in a language I can’t read.
The alliteration from the previous line carries over to the first two words of this one maintaining the meditative mood. The poet thoughts seem to take a more regretful turn in the second half of the line with his admission that he can’t read the language the priest is writing in and is the first three such admissions of an incapacity to do something.
The use of the archaic word "scribing" provides a bridge to the past and the priest’s predecessors in this building, scribes, who in Medieval times would have written in Latin and Greek, both languages which connected them to an even earlier period in time. This would also have been when the building’s designers were alive.
Like some galactic starship’s S.O.S still echoing
The “echoing” of the S.O.S. parallels the echoes one hears in a large building. The wooden beamed roof of a Western church is somewhat reminiscent of an upturned boat and the author may have heard it described so. The white domed interior of an Eastern church, in contrast, bears a very striking resemblance to the dome on the top of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the popular science-fiction series Star Trek.
The word “still” suggests the S.O.S. has been echoing for a long time and so it is a link to the lives of a now extinct alien race and their one cry for help in Morse code. Perhaps the author sees the designers of the church as trying to reach out through history and have their souls saved.
In space when all the crew are dead, it carries
The word “dead” intensifies the author’s thoughts. This focuses our attention on the last word of the line, the fact that the ship still “carries” something.
In its emptiness a pull that I can’t shake
This is the second reference to something the author can’t do – this time it is shake the “pull” of the poem’s title which is the draw of the long-dead crew’s message still transmitting through the ages and what the previous line was building up to.
And weighs me down to sit and try to voice
The force of the ship/church’s pull must still be strong even as an echo because it causes the poet to sit down and try to breathe life into it again with his voice.
The ringing letters of these walls: to someone
Both the echo and the unreadable language make a return here in the “ringing letters”. This replaces the quiet but insistent language contained in the Morse code of the S.O.S. with the waves of sound produced by church bells echoing back and forth with great beauty but no ready meaning. Except that the “ringing letters of these walls” do have an intended recipient: “someone/Earlier than me”.
Earlier than me, something means, something means.
The regret is back in force here as if the author feels he has come along too late to be that person to whom the ringing letters “something means”. The repetition of the latter phrase has two purposes: it is a physical representation of the echo the author detects; and it is the author’s frustrated mutterings as he attempts to decipher the message.
And all that I can feel is the stain that I can’t see
The “stain” is a reference to the invisible letters and another admission of something the author can’t do.
Or care enough to make the world, as this building
This time the author suggests that in fact he doesn’t care enough to attempt the things he has claimed he couldn’t do.
Does, something gentler, more meaningful than me.
Instead of looking for meaning or a message anymore the poet concedes that the building has achieved much more than he could ever achieve or wish to. In fact, this could be extended to the church’s original designers who perhaps had no conception of the effect it would have on so many people. In the end it is the building that he gives credit to for making the world a gentler more meaningful place.
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