American post civil war (1861 - 1865)poet Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

American post civil war (1861 - 1865)poet - Essay Example on the market in the fifties rather than to, say, Equanil or Valium, gains ominous proportions when put in the perspective of a canvas which makes Lowell see the sun as a feared savage and the white magnolia blossoms as "murderous". True the metaphors are localised and the "rising sun" is symptomatic of the jaundiced imagination of the poet who fears passion and vitality, very much like an Indian savage in "war paint" who "dyes us red.† But what is more important than the intensifying death-in-life existence of the couple as explained by the pun on "dyes", is the association of this feeling of death with the word Miltown in the beginning of the poem. It is now that the word Miltown no longer remains a torment, but goes onto metonymically suggest such terms as Mill town, mill stone, and small town. It becomes an emblem of the space of doubt, of frustration, of angst that loomed large over the American population at a time when the first effects of a looming Cold War was being fe lt. The poets state of anxiety is thus immediately seen as true representation of a larger American dilemma, of a crisis that occurs in Small Town or Any Town in the United States. The image of neurotic fracture is intensified in the second half of the line and the dislocation of humankind is aptly shown in the image of the nuptial bed that has been replaced by "Mothers bed". Lowell seems to imply that this voice of degeneration, of aridity, of being a dislocated whole, is so alike the husband and wife, locked in a social charter called marriage and continuing to feel consummated, exhausted and dead in the relationship. He feels that these shadow lines can only grow larger until of course the marriage falls apart. In a way, the poem, trying to show the failure of the relationship, is an attempt to question the so-called Christian idea of family and happiness. It seems to make a mockery of the Christian values in a world where Miltown, the tranquilliser rules, and a space where, Miltown the