Death of the Author

[Stephen J. Elliott]

You were a Blackbird,
Carefully crafted by the fingers
of god.
He knew your feather, bone and beak,
And knew the reason behind each.
And every bird must take its flight,
But, not without the watchful eye
of god?

Now, with death, you are a hawk
That preys upon the weak of mind,
of heart,
And plucks the dove from top of mount
To ruthlessly deny your fount.
I pray to know this fowl before,
I pray to peek upon his door,
But every bird must take its flight.
Yes, every bird must take its flight.

With life, you are a mistle thrush
Whos song may warm with slight-of-touch,
To furrow 'friend' into the night,
Or welcome in the morning light.
This - the reason for the wing,
The reason for inspired creation -
To teach of voice with which to sing!
And every bird must take its flight.
Yes, every bird must take its flight.

[Tim Love]

I can follow the 1st stanza, but have trouble with "And plucks the dove from top of mount/ To ruthlessly deny your fount./I pray to know this fowl before, /I pray to peek upon his door". Mount Ararat? Someone acting tough though they used to be gentle? Does "I pray to know this fowl before" mean "I wish I'd known you"?

In stanza 3 we're back to life again, which is a surprize. "Who's song" is a typo. I'm puzzled by "To furrow 'friend' into the night".

It is about some particular author? Poe? Rich?

[Stephen J. Elliott]

Hey Tim, thanks for reading!

They key here lies in the title, 'Death of the Author'. This poem was inspired by 'The Death of the Author', by Barthes - a literary theory that suggests any poem, prose, play, even song, should have nothing to do with the author once it has been finished and 'released' into the world. Instead it is all about the reader, who has the right to interpret the piece however they want. Hence, the death of the author as a 'god' like figure.

So, in this poem the birds represent the poem itself, 'carefully crafted by god'. Stanza 1 speaks of the creation of the poem, acknowledging that the poem must 'take its flight', but wondering on why the author cannot keep their importance.

Stanza 2 and 3 speak of the pros and cons of this theory respectively. With 'And plucks the dove from top of mount/ To ruthlessly deny your fount.' i continue with the religious imagery, 'dove', 'mount', 'fount', hinting at a coupling of the creation of a poem with the creation of man (if only slightly).
With, 'I pray to know this fowl before, /I pray to peek upon his door' the narrator asks to know the 'fowl before', which is the Blackbird in stanza 1. 'his door' suggests what is behind the poem, context of the author, reasons for the poem etc.

In Stanza 3 we have the positive side of 'The Death of the Author', speaking of a warming song (the mistle thrush is known to have a beautiful song), of light...
"To furrow 'friend' into the night" simply means to find comfort in a dark place, like when one reads an encouraging poem or hears a song at the right time. For me, this line was inspired by Charles Bukowski's 'The Laughing Heart'.

Ultimately, the poem ends by agreeing that every 'bird', every piece of literature, must take its flight.
Hope this helped. I've created quite the paradox by explaining this poem, since it is all about the readers own interpretation coming first, ha!

Cheers,
S.

[Tim Love]

I'm familiar with Barthes' 'The Death of the Author' [1] but even so I failed to see the connection. I know I have my off days, but if I didn't see it I can imagine others struggling too.

".. i continue with the religious imagery". But why did you start with the religious imagery? And why Blackbird rather than Raven?

"''his door' suggests what is behind the poem" - does it? So why "UPON his door" rather than BEYOND?

""To furrow 'friend' into the night" simply means to find comfort in a dark place" - not to me it doesn't, even now. What do you mean by "simply"?

[1] I once wrote a poem called "Who killed Jean Barthes?", a spoof of "Who killed Cock Robin?". The Blackbird killed him in 13 ways.

[Stephen J. Elliott]

I would assume that those who have heard of 'The Death of the Author' would recognise that the titles are pretty much exactly the same. Also, by the very definition of what the theory is about, does it really matter that some people will get it and some will not?

When I say I continued with the religious imagery, I purposefully set out to include it because it is something personal to myself. I have read plenty of poems that contain religious imagery where you would not expect it, and I see nothing wrong with that. I actually chose blackbird as a reference to Thomas Hardy's 'The Spring Calling', although i certainly don't expect the reader to pick up on that. Also, the blackbird is a thrush so it links more strongly to the positive than the negative.

I said 'upon his door' because if the author is 'dead' then we will never get to look beyond the door.

'To furrow 'friend' into the night' the night is a dark place, 'friend' is the comfort. If it doesn't mean that to you, then that's okay. Sometimes i need to read over a poem a few times to find my own meaning within the text.

'simply' - are you really analysing the way i speak now?

I don't feel comfortable having to explain these things in detail. There is always going to be different interpretations for any poem. Some are easier to interpret than others, some writing by the author solely for themselves for whatever reason, and left to the reader to interpret...

I honestly don't know if you're trying to give me some constructive criticism, or generally being a bit harsh.

[Tim Love]

All I'm doing is telling you what I (who in some ways is an 'Ideal Reader' for this sort of poetry) thought. It's your poem (very much so), and of course you can leave it just as it is.

"'friend' is the comfort. If it doesn't mean that to you, then that's okay." - but you've put quotes around the word! Suppose someone called you a 'poet' rather than a poet?

[Stephen J. Elliott]

I was really experimenting with this poem, it's not something i usually write. Maybe it just doesn't work the way I intended it to, for the reader to take whatever they want out of it. Perhaps that just becomes frustrating? I had hoped that some kind of meaning could be taken from it, no matter how it is interpreted.

I'm not entirely sure why i wrote it as 'friend', i think it's because the 'friend' comes from the reader; it's whatever the reader finds comforting outside of the poem. Maybe it would work better without the quotation marks.