Read the following poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Then write response of about 100 words. You can write your own poem, a short "interpretation" of the poem, any connections you might think about, or a reaction to one of your classmates responses.
A Vast Confusion
Sounds of trains in the surf
in subways of the sea
And an even greater undersound
of a vast confusion in the universe
a rumbling and a roaring
as of some enormous creature turning
under sea and earth
a billion sotto voices murmuring
a vast muttering
a swelling stuttering
in ocean's speakers
world's voice-box heard with ear to sand
a shocked echoing
a shocking shouting
of all life's voices lost in night
And the tape of it
someow running backwards now
through the Moog Synthesizer of time
Chaos unscrambled
back to the first
harmonies
And the first light
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
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31 comments:
I see the underwater world when i read this poem, the "rumbling and a roaring/as of some enormous creature turning/under sea and earth" reminds me of some giant mystical creature or whale sied creature making noise. However, it's not making noise because it's angry, its noise just scares everyone because of its mass. The population of life in the ocean is defined by the "billion sotto voices murmuring/a vast muttering/
a swelling stuttering". I may see a life of merpeople since I believe in them, but it could be all the life of fish and other sea creatures that are causing this murmuring.
Another more logical way to interpret it, is a tsunami coming to destroy a civilization. The "rumbling and a roaring/as of some enormous creature turning/under sea and earth" could be the start of a giant wave. The "billion sotto voices murmuring/a vast muttering/
a swelling stuttering" could be all the people preparing for this destruction. And the "Chaos unscrambled/back to the first/
harmonies/And the first light" could be explained as what the tsunami may bring, and the "first light" being the new beginning for the world to start over.
This poem begins by contrasting the invention of man with the natural world of the sea:
"Sounds of trains in the surf/in subways of the sea." Subways are especially representative of large cities, such as New York, and industrialization. This gives the ocean the feeling of being like a great city.
I was not sure what the word 'sotto' meant, so I looked it up and found out that it literally means "under the breath." When someone speaks under their breath, usually they are saying something that, if heard, might offend or shock someone. But in this case ("a billion sotto voices murmuring/ a vast muttering /a swelling stuttering/ in ocean's speakers.") the author seems to be comparing the muttering of seas creatures to the sound that speakers make. This brings to mind a computer - another representative of the technological advances being made in our day and age. When Ferlinghetti writes "And the tape of it somehow running backwards now/through the Moog Synthesizer of time/Chaos unscrambled/back to the first/harmonies/And the first light." He seems to be saying that
nature is rewinding itself and getting beck to the time when there was that first harmony and light, back before man when nature was pure.(For anyone interested, Moog Synthesizer = analog and digital music synthesizer)
Overall I really liked this poem, especially the last line. It really gave a feeling of new hope and life.
I also really like the image that Michelle brought up about the merpeople. I can also imagine them murmuring deep under the oceans surface. And her interpretation of the 'blunt meaning' of the poem is also something I thought about while reading it. All of the disquiet felt throughout the poem is occurring under water and so we, as humans, will think of something kinda large and scary. In other words: a tsunami is coming. Using this idea and applying it to what I was saying earlier, the 'tsunami' could represent a wave of technology that is coming to, as Michelle put it, "destroy" or corrupt humanity.
This whole poem seems to be the author’s way of expressing the clash between nature and humanity and what humanity creates. The trains evoke such a streamline image while the word surf evokes an image of chaos and mayhem. These images do not seem to fit together so right from the start of the pome the words seem to contradict one another. The line “undersound of a vast confusion in the universe” also exhibits this confusion that seems to stem from the combination of nature and all that is man-made. The pome seems to be demonstrating the inconsistency between these two forces.
When the pome talks about the voices talking “a vast muttering” I took this to be the voices of those who advocate for the earth speaking their mind. It talks about this message as “a shocked echoing a shocking shouting” This seems to reference to the unbelievable destruction humans are inflicting on the earth, hence the word shocking. I agree with Morgan when she says the line “And the tape of it somehow running backwards now” is talking about nature reverting to before humans disrupted it, when there was harmony and light “first harmonies And the first light”.
Alright, my first response to this poem is "what the heck did I just read?" It was like a collaboration of things that aren't normally classified together..nature and city infrastructure? Unheard of. Kind of like that definition we wrote about. Anyway. Clever mixture of two very different things. Twas quite a visual poem as well..I really could see subways coming out of waves, weird. Reminds me of some ~land of atlantis type of thing. I really like what Michelle said about it too. "A tsunami coming to destroy a civilization" sort of morbid, but really easy to see. This poem reminds me of something I'd see written on a scrap piece of paper blowing down the street at the intro of a movie about the end of the world. A cataclysmic sort of phenomena ending the world in one final sweep. Guess that's just what I think. Hope this ~covers the prompt.
When I read the first few lines of this poem it made me think of the complex underwater living world that coexists with all the living species within it. Subway trains are a maze, they all run at the same time in complete synchronization like the underwater world that it is compared to in this poem. Reading this I imagined all the fish, whales, sharks and so forth all living in complete balance, coexisting with each other, moving together in complete harmony.
The middle of the poem I began to feel as if the natural order setup in the beginning of the poem was being disturbed. Like Michelle said, the tsunami is coming to destroy civilization. In this case it made me think not only of human civilization, but also of the ocean civilization. Even if one thing is set off balance, in either world, everything is sent into chaos.
But at the end of the poem it talks about the first light, it made me think of a new beginning. A beginning before anything is thrown out of balance, where everything is where its supposed to be. The fish and the subway trains all go back to working together, coexisting.
I think this poem's deeper meaning might be a simile for human kind. There must have been a point in history, billions of years ago probably where everything, humans included, all worked together. Look around now, all we see is fighting, between people and people and people and nature. Maybe if we all thought about how it was supposed to be, the way it was created to be we would make the world run like its was supposed like.
Like the fish and subway train's.
The title of the poem, "A Vast Confusion" gives an introduction to one of the main themes in the poem, nature vs. the inventions of man. The poem relates the ocean to what the modern world is like, which is a place of confusion. The ocean is a place of serenity and beauty, and it is difficult to realize that like the world, it is also a complex place. I liked the way Ferlinghetti used the words “murmuring”, “muttering”, “stuttering” and other words associated with speaking in the poem. It makes it seem as though the ocean has a voice, but not everyone listens to it.
Like Samantha, I thought that this poem was quite shocking, for it compared two things that I had never been able to see parallels in before. The ocean is something I associate with beauty, tranquility, and purity whereas I see a city as loud, dirty, and busy. I would never think of comparing the two, and finding ways that they are similar.
I liked when Ferlinghetti wrote about the sound of the ocean as “a shocked echoing/a shocking shouting/of all life's voices lost in night” because on a rough day the ocean can get so loud that it is almost deafening. I agree with Morgan when she says that Ferlinghetti says that nature is replaying that moment “back to the first harmonies/And the first light” when everything was pure and less chaotic as it is today. I think that the ocean, although it is loud and boisterous, still gives a calming and serene feeling when you listen to it. Overall I really like this poem because I liked how Ferlinghetti used the effect of the Moog Synthesizer (thanks Morgan for the definition) to “unscramble” all of the chaos that goes on and to go back in time when everything was pure and harmonious.
This is a very overwhelming poem. It reminds me of the vast evolution of mankind and how we are growing and changing and destroying at an unstoppable and almost threatening rate. The comparison of "sounds of trains in the surf/in subways of the sea" is contrasting technology with nature, and how they are seeming to blend together. The "vast confusion in the universe/ a rumbling and a roaring/as of some enormous creature turning" seems indicative of an anticipated force that is lying dormant, ready to awaken at any time. the ending of the poem, "chaos unscrambled/back to the first/harmonies/and the first light" is almost like mankind has been undone, and the earth has spun back to it simplistic, original form of just nature, with no complications.
For anyone who has ever surfed, especially in the winter of Maui's north shore, the ocean changes from the sandy beaches of paradise into a powerful and uncontrollable force of nature. The first time i read this poem, it reminded me of one of these winter surf session, and more specifically, wiping out. The "rumbling and a roaring... a shocking shouting/ of all life's voice lost in night" sparked images of the dark waves crashing above my head while immersed beneath the waves. I loved the journey of this poem as well, it begins with the "subways of the sea", transitions into "all of life's voices lost in night" and end with "the first light". As I'm sure many of us have experienced, life is a "Vast Confusion" full of unexplained and uncontrolled emotions, events and experiences. At times, we can get lost in the darkness of this unknown chaos; but, as this poem shows nothing, even suffering, is permanant, "Chaos unscrambled/ back to first harmonies/ and the first light". Like this quote reveals, life is a cycle that repeats itself, from the highs of light to the lows of dark the human condition is subject to this "subway" and must live withing the "vast muttering" of the world.
I really liked how michelle wrote about the sea creatures, and the underwater world that this poem paints in the minds of the readers. Having grown up so close with the ocean, i feel a special bond to it and this poem is a beautiful representation of the ocean's (and world's) chaos. I also like how Carissa talked about how the authors word choice made it seem like the ocean was speaking. I really loved that part of the poem, as it really brought the words to life!
This poem’s symbolism parallels biblical themes. The water and ocean symbolizing chaos is a common theme in the bible. But it has a modern spin seeing as “trains” and “subways” are mentioned. In mentioning the sounds in the middle of the poem there is a comparison between humans and the creatures of the sea. The poem says “a billion sotto voices murmuring/ a vast muttering /a swelling stuttering/ in ocean's speakers” It seems to be suggesting that the voices of sea creatures are never heard because of humans. The end of the poem suggests the theme of light and dark. Through the darkness came a light that symbolizes harmony and peace.
I definitely had trouble interpreting this poem. While I agree with what Michelle said about how the author could have been using this poem as a metaphor for a tsunami I would never have came to that conclusion on my own. As with everyone else I picture an ocean or beach - like scene. The comparisons throughout the poem such as "sounds of trains in the surf" make for a very fascinating yet complex poem
I love the beginning of the poem. As childish as it sounds, it reminds me of the beginning of the movie Finding Nemo, when Marlin and Nemo are going to school. The craziness and organized chaos of the ocean is captured in the scene, as fish, turtles, rays, and other creatures interact. The visual of "subways of the sea" really captures this organized chaos as the various creatures intermingle to form a well-running society. In two lines, the author of this poem is really able to capture the ocean.
I am quite on the same page as Sam with the rest of the poem. Upon a first and second read-through, its meaning in the middle continued to elude my best guesses at inturpretation. However, upon reading the reviews of my peers (thank you to those of you with a deeper understanding of poetry than me), I can begin to see where the tsunami theory is coming from. The climax of the tsunami is seen in the line "a shocking shouting/ of all life's voices lost in night." However, it then corrects the chaos of disaster by showing the circle of life. It brings it back with the last lines of "back to the first/ harmonies/ And the first light." This is a good ending for the poem because it shows how chaos, even in the worst forms, always brings a silver lining of new life and new beginnings.
As I read through this poem a second and third time, the only thing that came to my mind was a desire for tranquility. All the imagery has a large or loud focus that mixes into confusion. I get a feel for the need to break out of confusion and into a time of being alone with your own thoughts to gather and prepare yourself to once again enter the bustling world of chaos in which we all live. I know that I myself require a lot of alone time to think; and if I do not get it I am easily agitated by the rushing flow of the day. So this poem was a sort of comfort and reminder to step back, re-stock, and get back into the hype of ones daily routine ready to take on another day.
In his poem, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, is comparing the vast ocean to the chaos of the earth and of mankind. In the beginning he uses the train and subway metaphor as a symbol for order and structure of both the ocean and earth. Further into the poem the underwater world has turned from orderly and peaceful to unease and commotion. This is showed when there is "a rumbling and a roaring/ as of some enormous creature turning/ under sea and earth" This mysterious creature causes loss and destruction and "all of life's voices [are]lost in night" This kind of made me think of destruction, the end of the world and the apocalypse how suddenly everything is back to darkness and nothingness. But then at the end of the poem the world is back to how it was in the beginning of the poem, tranquility and peaceful. It is like a cyclical chain of events that repeat themselves every thousand years. "chaos unscrambled back to the first harmonies and the first light". This dark to light is like when God created the earth all was darkness and until he made light. Just like Kendall said, the end of the poem symbolizes a new beginning for the world, however the same events will happen over and over again just like the rerun of a tape. All of time will keep repeating itself.
In the short poem, “A Vast Confusion” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, there is an overall feeling of noise in immense proportions. Through the specific details of word choice, repetition, image, and sound, the poet skillfully creates the sensation of the massive power of sound. He further incorporates concepts to lead the reader along on a sound journey.
Since this poem is short, every word and image is important to portray Ferlingghetti’s theme of noise. He uses words like surf, sea, universe, and earth to suggest largeness and to accomplish his purpose of showing that noise is all around us. Sounds such as “rumbling and a roaring,” and “echoing” and “shouting” indicate that the volume is high. There is further evidence of the magnitude of sound in the effective images of a “billion voices,” “ocean’s speakers,” “world’s voicebox,” and “life’s voices.” An additional poetic element in this poem is repetition. Each line presents a new sound image and builds the idea that sound is everywhere. This is important because there is an obvious feeling that it is getting too loud and crazy which is what the author intends. He then reverses the energy and unscrambles the chaos through the image of a tape recording “running backwards.” At the end of the poem, the reader is left feeling calm and in harmony like when waking up in the morning.
This poem reminds me of genesis. The water representing chaos and recreation. as michelle was saying the water destroyed a civilization and then returned to "first light," meaning the beginning. "The sounds of trains in the surf," to me definitely represented a tsunami wave that came to wipe out the current civilization just like genesis. and then out of all the chaos light was made.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti writes about several different issues and themes while unifying all of them under a single image: the vastness of the ocean. The poem evokes a feeling of power at the start, of being overwhelmed by something much greater than ourselves. Ferlinghetti likens the roaring of the ocean to the speed and craziness of modern life, where an individual is only one of the “billion sotto voices murmuring.” Like Morgan and a few others had mentioned, the poem has really strong images of chaos returning to order, from complexity back to simplicity. I interpreted it to represent an individual lost in the immensity of the organized chaos returning to the calm of “chaos unscrambled/back to the first/harmonies/and the first light” through the destruction of symbolic tsunami that Michelle first mentioned.
THis poem stood out with its vivid imagery and use of the power ocean. There is an apocolyptic theme in this poem with the mentioning of life's voices being lost to the night. This is a very beautiful but sinister situation that represents nature, Unforgiving and all powerful. This poem talks about how time can go and go and build momentum to come to an abrupt end whenever it so chooses to start over and do exactly what is had done for eternity. The poet uses the image of the voice box of the earth which i like alot due to its personification properties. I can imagine resting my head against the giant chest of the earth and hearing the rumbling of everything the earth has to say. A very organinc image. I agree with ariel when she talks about how overwhelming the poem is. its hard to take in all the giant metaphors and images brought about in this poem. It also does represent the evolution of man kind when time is brought into perspective with and end. Man kind has evolved and will evolve and end just as time has over the billions of years of existance (if not longer) it was a great poem but seemed, in a broad sense, to appear as post modern.
To me, this poem is relevant to all of our lives. Living on Maui, I am sure that every person in the class has experienced that indescribable feeling of being underwater in the ocean. The deep, cool water surrounding every inch of you. Personally, being underwater escapes me to a place that is so relaxing and reflective. The line "Chaos unscrambled/back to the first harmonies/And the first light." I connected with this line because the ocean has that exact affect of "unscrambling chaos" on me. The sounds and specific details of the water in this poem make it very easy to visualize and connect to the feeling the author is trying to get the reader to feel: peaceful, calm, and reflective. This poem takes you to another world, showing a different life on earth. One that has nothing to do with human beings, but rather with mother nature. You can feel the soul and depth in the description of the sea.
This poem reminds me of being underwater and just listening to the rhythm and sounds of the ocean. And also im imaging hearing whales talking to each other and other sea creatures. At first it was very confusing. But i walked away from it and then re read it and i pictured a whole world down beneath the water
I loved this poem. My first reaction when i was done reading was like, Morgan, hope and happiness. The whole poem kind of took me for an emotional journey. When the poem began talking about the chaos of the world, all the rumbling and chaotic voices it immediately made me the think of the chaos in my own life, but i was able to let it go, sort of flowing away like the sea. I disagree with Samantha in the sense that i don't think this poem is the comparison of two ridiculously unalike things. Thinking of city and urban craziness that is our world makes me think of the ocean and how crazy and powerful it can be, just like society. So i think it wasn't as far fetched as it seemed. Overall, beautiful poem!
I love the imagery used in Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s poem. When he describes the “Sounds of the trains in the surf in subways of the sea” and most of the other imagery used, I could imagine someone being tossed and turned underwater after being struck by a huge wave. It reminded me of the “vast confusion” that you get when you are pumbled by a wave and don’t know which way is up and down. The chaos of finding the surface and then the world makes sense again when you can see the “first light” from above. Not sure if that is what it is actually about, but that is what I personally picture when I read it.
I really love this poem, and at first i thought of the world under the sea, but then it started to turn into the universal sounds of life. The roaring and rushing of the waves coupled with the sounds of whales and the sea creatures. The poem also mentioned the murmuring and the chaos so i got the sense it was taking about all life inhabiting the sea and land. The noise conveyed seems confused and overpopulated. In a sense, towards the end, it say, "chaos unscrambled/ back to the first/ harmonies/ And the first light." I interpreted it as the population of the earth, or the actual revolution of living organisms. From the ocean to the land. In the end of the poem, it talks about the beginning and first light so i interpret it as evolution.
Michelle, your tsunami theory is very interesting, but i only see one small section in the poem that justifies your answer. How would you explain the end of the poem contributing to the tsunami theory? I certainly agree that the ocean plays a huge role, but i think the rumbling is simply the constant crashing of the waves.
Great minds think alike, I also imagined Finding Memo as did Taylor. I loved how the imagery played itself out and created a world of chaos that searches for "the first light". When I first read the poem I was confused with the comparisons Ferlinghetti was incorporating yet when I read it a second time I came to a better understanding. Many other comments resemble what I feel the poem meant. I felt that from the start it was a build up of sounds, these sounds symbolized humanities struggles and problems. The entire poem encompassed opposing forces that was ended by my favorite line stating, "Chaos unscrambled/ back to the first/ harmonies/ And the first light". This poem is very good and I definitely enjoyed how it ended.
I felt the reverberating power that the author was talking about in the lines " A vast muttering/ a swelling stuttering/ in the oceans speakers/ world's voice box heard with ear to sand." The vibration of the voice is a universal harmonic that penetrates beyond words. when you listen to chanting or to a meditation of your own, its that vibrations that seems to rattle and open the cavities of spirituality that are impervious to words and sounds we here in " civilization."
the image and sounds that came to mind is Tibetan monks chanting. Its that rich, deep harmony that has a powerful effect on the body when listening to it. the line that reminded me of it was, " a billion sotto voices murmuring."
unlike many of my classmates I feel a sense of tranquility when I read this poem. Its like the silence you hear when you are underwater in big waves," as if some enormous creature turning/ under sea and earth." You are tossed around like a rag doll, and moved in ways our bodies are incapable of, and you surrender your panic to the flow and power of the water, and its that surrender that connects you and reminds you of the power nature has over us.
This poem, like Michelle, reminded me of an underwater world. When reading this I saw the vast ocean and all the immense power it contains. It almost seems as if it is depicting a night storm and how the night ocean is full of confusion and an uncontrollable chaos. “a rumbling and a roaring/as of some enormous creature turning\under sea and earth” (5-7) And then at the end the ocean is described as “Chaos unscrambled/back to the first/harmonies/And the first light” (17-20) This reminds me of the calm after the storm and the with the new day comes a calm and placid ocean in replacement of the previously furious water.
This poem has a lot of great detail. It shows the relationship between what mankind has become today through vivid imagery of industrial inventions and the unchanging state of nature through the imagery of the ocean and waves. These to aspects of the poem are constantly related to one another, "Sounds of trains in the surf/in subways of the sea" This is an example of the term conceit we had to look up last night.
It interested me that several people commented that they picked up apocalyptic undertones in this poem, because I didn't really see that the first time I read it.
DYLAN SHORT: To me, this poem represents many things. I agree with Sam, Zoe, and Morgan's response in that a main theme of the poem is the contrast between man's creations and the creations of the universe, but I reject their suppositions that it is a cynical, reactionist piece criticising humanity. The author uses similes to compare the creations of mankind with what naturally occurs in the universe, and so I see this poem as being an expression of interconnectedness instead of polarity. Ferlinghetti compares images of vast mystery with easily recognizable sensations. The waves like trains, a vast sea creature with human voices, time and tape. The author seeks to reconcile the finite and infinite, and describe humanity's creative urge as a manifestation of the creative forces that define the universe. The author uses the images associated with the ocean as an archetypal symbol of mystery, the ocean is vast, mysterious, unearthly, supernatural, yet at the same time just as earthly and naturaly as you or me, and it serves to ignite a sense of wonder and awe in the reader, it is primitive, untamed, womb-like, outer-space like, dark, destructive, and ineffably fecund, just like the creative universe.
I love the use of sounds in the poem like "a vast muttring/a swelling stuttering/in ocean speakers." Like Kailea said, it really reminds me of surfing and then wiping out and being caught in the break of the wave for a few seconds. The few moments when it's just you and the ocean and a person can feel how really insignificant they are and all you can hear is the crashing of the wave and buzz of the ocean. I think this is also a poem about coming back and seeing the truth through all the lies and chaos that surrounds all people. How we are hearing what was before lost or dismissed but is brought back. I really like the lines, "of all life's voices lost in night/and the tape of it/somehow running backwards now/through the moog synthesizer of time" It makes me think that things were synthesized, made fake but then by being run backwards, it brings back the original and beautiful version.
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