The park is clearly preferable to a railway station, not only because it is more idyllic for the scene of an erotic encounter, but also because it is a Dionysian setting, preferable to the crude, structured Apollonian setting of a railway station. I Continue Reading...
" Communing with nature is the ultimate Dionysian act; the poet's subsequent writing of the communion is the Apollonian gesture that tempers this Dionysian indulgence. What each of these three poems has in common is the fact that they are based arou Continue Reading...
The horn, like Saturn, Is suspended in its ring of steering wheel; And below is the black tongue of the gas pedal, The bulge of the brake, the stalk Of the stick shift, Lines 17-21) The simile, "like Saturn" succeeds in expanding on the image Continue Reading...
Thus, Sharon Olds' poem progresses through a series of interesting images, which analyze the relationship between the Apollonian and the Dionysian states, that is, from the pure individuality to a state of merging with the other and overstepping the Continue Reading...
" Dobyns's poem, at first glance, seems to be built on the exact opposite terrain. With a remarkably more somber tone, "Counterparts" appears to exemplify the Apollonian qualities of clarity, restraint, and sobriety in the construction of a work of Continue Reading...
In this reading, Dobyns' "Counterparts" is his statement of personal philosophy that argues the only way to reach the Apollonian ideals is to work with, and embrace, the Dionysian and thus create a whole, or a yin-yang. This practice of using the Di Continue Reading...
