Duncan Explication

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Foley 1Brittany Foley

Mr. Gallagher

AP Literature and Composition

Dec 27 2010

Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow Explication

In his poem Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow, Robert Duncan presents his

argument that all individuals form similar relationships with a physical location that eventually

becomes both a physical and abstract sanctuary of theirs in an inverted format. More specifically,

Duncan presents the general idea of his subjects existence and the effects of its presence in the

life of an individual before establishing his belief that all men experience the same breed of

relationship between self and sanctuary.

The start of Duncans poem seems as though it is a continuation of the statement that is

the poems title (Often I am permitted to return to a meadow), as he begins with an incomplete

thought: as if it were a scene made-up by the mind (1). While the text can be interpreted in a

far less fragmented manner upon reaching the second stanza, Duncan chooses to begin his poem

with what appears to be the latter half of a seemingly pre-established statement. This choice

knocks the reader in headfirst dive into the mind of the speaker immediately and without the

possibilities of contemplation and hesitation. This manipulation of the text therefore cancels out

most chances for misinterpretation due to interferences of individual perception as, from the start


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Foley 2of the poem, the audience views all introduced material through a lens that mimics the point of

view of the speaker.

As Duncan familiarizes his audience with the actual subject of the poemthis scene,

this made place (1-2)he continues to manipulate the structure of his poems and the visual

presentation of his words in efforts to maintain further control over the interpretations of his

readers. In the first line of the poem, the speaker describes his subject as a scene made-up by the

mind. The idea of a personthis mindcreating this place gives the location a personal,

private feel, and also hints at the human imaginations role in its formation, suggesting that the

place is perhaps even other-worldly.

In the lines immediately following, however, is the rest of the thought, clarifying that the

scene is in fact made-up by the mind, / that is not mine (1-2). This qualification, with the idea

that another actually created this place, suggests that he who ventures to it, whether the speaker

or a reader, is a visitor there, with the next phrase describing the location as near to the heart

eliminates the thought that one might not be welcome in this place, preserving its personal feel.

Furthermore, Duncans brief use of biblically-relevant vocabulary (in line 5 of the poem, he

refers to the location as an eternal pasture) suggests the mind that created this place belongs to

some higher power. His comment, in the same line, regarding this place remaining folded in all

thought zones in on this idea further, arguing that it is universal. That is, in claiming that the

place of which Duncan writes as folded in all thought, he implies that all view this place, or at

least, a place of this sort, similarly. Duncans choice to identify the perceptions of this place

without directly identifying the place itself reduces risk of the audiences opposition to his

claims, as they have time to absorb the idea of all having this default relationship with some

discovered sanctuaryfor, while it belongs to one, it was created by anotherwithout the


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Foley 3opportunity to argue differences due to their lack of argument support that is this lack of

specifics.

After affirming this idea that every man has this place so valued that he cannot help but

think it made by some higher power and has created such a connection with it that he calls it his

own, Duncan works to define it. With that same separation of thought, manages to pinpoint

precise details of his subject throughout its description while remaining vague enough in its

discussion that the idea of its existence is still universal. He reinforces the lingering suspicion

that places so treasured possess creators of higher powers as he describes it as being created by

light, with that light acting as an obvious symbol of a greater being (5). Meanwhile, Duncans

placing of following, qualifying words leave the audience questioning whether it is the light or

the place wherefrom the shadows that are forms fall, potentially suggesting the creator of the

place to be some great protector or the place itself to be, as already indirectly established, a

sanctuary of sorts. Later description reinforces this idea as Duncan claims that the hosts [of

these places] are a disturbance of words within words, or rather the feelings and thoughts

behind expressions that is a field folded, that is this field of expression harvested (11-12). The

discussion of such phenomena, occurrences where inner truths escape from the mediums that

communicate and mutate and hide them, existing in these places only dwells on the thoughts of

the powers they posses.

In attempts to further reiterate the universal powers of these locations, Duncan employs

vivid imagery, finally narrowing his focus to one specific example of such a sanctuary as those

discussed in the poem. He depicts a dream of the grass blowing (13), recreating the surreal

sensation of the winds reassuring embrace, continuing his description in the next line with that

now-signature method of fragmented presentation as he describes how that wind blows east


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Foley 4against the source of the sun / in an hour before the suns going down (14-15), and in doing so

offers his audience a view through natures lens which makes all seen through it appear soft and

beautiful and at rest. The specificity of this example is acceptable because of the choices Duncan

makes in organization, placing his claims of such places existences and relationships with their

visitors before trying to define and compare them.

As the poem concludes, Duncan incorporates its title, Often I am permitted to return to a

meadow (18), before essentially restating his opening line in writing, as if it were a given

property of the mind (19). The similarity between the beginning of the poem and the beginning

of the poems conclusion not only reconnect the aspects of the speakers subjectsthe sanctuary

present somewhere in the life of every being and also his relationship with itbut also identify

the idea they carry, that these sanctuaries are as much states of mind as they are physical

locations, as the main idea of the poem. The speaker means for the audience to understand that

this physical place, this meadow (18) as he mentioned is one of these scene[s] made-up by the

mind (1)that, while in a place such as this, not only he, but anyone can escape mentally and

emotionally just as well as physically from chaos (20) as it is a place (as previously

established) of purity and truth, and while it is an escape it is also a reality check, an everlasting

omen of what is (22). Duncans decisions to first present the general idea that places like these

exist and to identify their purposes and roles in the life of man causes each individual reader to

consider what might be his own sanctuary, while his seemingly specific but actually quite vague

continued descriptions endorse the idea that certain physical locations have the same effects on

other individuals, therefore allowing him to effortlessly conclude that the discovery and taking

possession of some sort of sanctuary is in fact a default aspect of the human nature.

Documents

Duncan Explication