Poet Jack Gilbert is a proficient writer who is known for his masterpieces. The poet did an excellent job keeping his private life private and making sure that all people knew was his written work. Comparing that to what he says about stubborn gladness, it is evident he guides his happiness and joy vehemently and may have a lot to do with why he dies happily at 87 years old. In the poem “A Brief for the Defense,” there are different themes exemplified. An analysis of the themes of suffering, beauty, and grief, as seen in the poem, will be done in this essay. The poem is straightforward, and immediately after one starts to read it, they get images of things that have happened around them or to them that were hard to look away from. The central attention of the poem is about the rawness of humanity, the violence, bleakness and suffering in the state of being human.
The one distinguishing factor in this poem and Jack Gilbert’s work is simplicity, straightforward language, and a clear tone of execution. Gilbert uses classical images and precise language with extended metaphors to explore suffering, grief, and beauty. In the first line, “Sorrow everywhere/ Slaughter everywhere,” one sees the theme of suffering (Housden 18). An image starts from babies starving somewhere and life being full of grief as flies fill the babies’ nostrils. The writer gives the reader an extreme contradiction of the great suffering of life and its extraordinary joys. Gilbert wants everyone to appreciate the presence of each person because they exist in a light that is unaccountable to one another. Gilbert ascribes the nature of events and how the world can be seen as the work of God. In the poem, the stark horrors of violence, poverty, and calamities are portrayed on one side. On the other side, a view of beautiful portraits of laughter and beauty is depicted. The existence of beauty in suffering is seen as an impoverished survival in the mundane habits of life.
The poem shows how suffering is not sovereign, as seen in the line “To make injustice the only measure of our attention, is to praise the Devil” (Housden 18). Gilbert shows the reader through juxtaposing how the world is laid out; both good and bad exist, as well as pain and pleasure, and it is the existence of each that makes the other worth and fulfilling. Gilbert shows how many times people’s lives are ruined because they are in a constant battle to separate the concrete marred realities that have both suffering and joy. The human life experience is similar to a tainted piece of art that looks chaotic and beautiful at the same time. If the chaos is removed, then somewhat the beauty of the art is lost along with it. There is no need to sanitize the painful encounters of life from the happy ones because it is in the blending that beauty is found.
Many analysts believe that one writing a poem, such as Gilbert, has to pay very close attention. The poem wants people to see how fundamental it is to be keen and not want to miss it or to refuse to turn an eye away. The poem’s most significant lesson is the attitude people have towards the occurrences in life and how they shape the type of lives that they lead. It is fundamental to have the right attitude in life even when things are not going according to the initial plan. In the poem, Gilbert has one superb attitude and view of life, as illustrated when he says, “If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude” (Housden 18). It is incredible to know that people can have some bad and good experiences but have different stories to tell because of their perception and reaction towards the things that happened. The poem encourages people to wonder and treat life as a puzzle, and that turns the tragic into curious, which means if the attitude changes, the approach is altered as well. The poem advises the reader to stop going against the wave and sit in the muse. People should live loud, not argue with the given circumstances because that is the surest way of having a life full of suffering all through. Memories are made of the good times that come after the bad times because one knows how to appreciate joy after suffering. From the poem, “We must risk delight/ We can do without pleasure, but not delight/ Not enjoyment/We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world” (Housden 18). This quote from the poem summarizes the need to find joy in all circumstances and embrace the good with the bad.
The poem teaches everyone to know the value of life and not be too soaked in finding happiness but feel delighted in all the moments of life. The masses are suffering from cowardice and anxiety because of the profound need to control everything that happens in their lives. So the lesson is to look for the beauty in the chaos, suffering, and grief. Trying to avoid these things only makes life miserable and not worth living.
Work Cited
Housden, Roger. Ten Poems for Difficult Times. New World Library, 2018.