The Hollow Thesaurus - Poetry Analysis

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What is the worth of words? When even a poet deems the weight of historical effort to describe the world as “wasted”, one might be forgiven for thinking that the pursuit of literature is a fool’s errand. Roger McDonald’s “THT” reads as an individual’s perspective upon the relationships shared among knowledge, language and experience. McDonald, from the outset, contrasts the ability to name and define things against our ability to appreciate the awe and wonder of actual experience. In this poem, at least, experience seems to emerge as the victor in the struggle for importance. But McDonald is a poet, and his sense of awe is being expressed in words - so perhaps there is a sense of irony present. The meaning we make from knowledge is expressed through language. Experience is the litmus test we use upon our pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Poetry, amongst other things, is the attempt to compress and express the fullness of experience within the limits of language. So the poem might require us to hold two opposing ideas in our heads at one time. Possibly set in a study, retreat or library of some kind, the structure of “THT” invites a reader to focus on the poet’s frustrations and later juxtapose them against his sense of wonder at a moonrise. The free verse format has the effect of placing emphasis in the long first verse upon the frustrations and shortcomings of academic study. The next two, increasingly shorter, verses work like a removal from intense concentration to a moment of revelation; these mark a transition to focus on nature. The journey through the poem reflects a moment along the journey of the poet. He invites us to see his struggles, where by dint of effort and study his poems are “hammered” out, in the first stanza. In the second, he holds both “print” and “moon” before us and suggests the vanquishing of the former as being no more important
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