Spectating

by Dermot Glennon

Thursday 12th August 2010 11:29 pm

my Ivory tower

has a window with a view

outside the officials

bustle in their uniforms

with talismans of status

the servants and the maids

mingle with the others

each believes that peoples

can be classified by classes

those who have their trades

the shirkers and the thieves

acerbic, I watch them

nobody sees me

none of them see anything

none of them are able

but I have eyes that see

I see traditions that are not rules

they only follow

they cannot lead

I see no long term plan

stretching further than a day

in their power grasping hands

there is no vision

they have no leader

but still they are led

their road begins on morning street

and ends on evening strand

there is no life

there is no pulse

she does not breathe

she has no head

they carry on like subjects

in subjugated masses

waiting for her crumbs

that fall from her table

they won’t believe

the queen is dead

the crumbs that fall aren’t gifts

they’re that, which wasn’t wanted

Comments

Tue 31st Aug 2010 19:53

The Queen represents outdated traditions mostly, it also alludes to the Queen is dead just as a really economical way of getting the feeling of "life is very long when you're lonely" across.
This last is intended to give the perspective of the viewpoint character (narrator) from the poem as a person who really feels they are outside of it all and wanting to stay that way in a jaded acceptance that most people are very conservative and set in their ways.

Isobel

Fri 27th Aug 2010 19:47

An interesting explanation Dermot. Also interesting to see that the self centred, egotistical aristocrats and monarchs should be personified as a woman. Maybe that has something to do with Elizabeth II - that's the only reason I could come up with...

Fri 13th Aug 2010 21:04

The ivory tower (and the word outside, and indeed the title) all refer to not really feeling like I'm fully part of the society I live in. Over the years, I have felt a bit isolated and socially excluded on occasions but its also (as indicated by the word acerbic) that I'm a bit defensive and wary and not wanting to get too involved with people.

Over the top of that, there's criticism of the modern hangover from the class system in the psyche of the populace(especially amongst the fairly well off) in that people seem to feel that they either have to know their place and act accordingly to get on, or to feel they never will get on and rebel totally against that in the expectation that they never will get on in life and they may as well just lash out.

There is also the idea in there that people sort of limit themselves by looking back on things always being done a certain way by peoples who preceded them down the ages and revering "traditions" as rules that should be continued and obeyed rather than as stuff that primitive people did just because primitive people were a bunch of eegits (which primitive people mostly were).

The ending just illustrates the idea that while some primitive people may have towed the line out of a genuine (and idiotic) love, respect and reverence to their leader and others towed the line for the protection, status and wealth that they were given in return, aristocrats and monarchs and anyone else who wants to set/control the rules that other people are made to feel they have to play along with were (and are) only ever really out for themselves.This applies not just in Government, but also in everyday social politics.So yeah, just thought I'd write a poem about that but I tend to be oblique because, at the end of the day, it's a poem, not an academic discourse.

Paul F Blackburn

Fri 13th Aug 2010 16:16

Ah yes this is one of the anomic pieces from the relativistic, absurdist Glennon period and is a poem that will be on the 2030 A-level syllabus. Discuss.

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Fri 13th Aug 2010 08:44

I can feel immense ideas floating through this, but, IMO, I'm not sure they ever quite crystallize. What is your definition of 'Ivory tower' other than deliberate, protective separation from so-called reality? And 'acerbic' in such a dominant placement meaning 'bitter, harsh'? I don't make the connection. All comments made with great respect always.

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Spectating

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