Telephone Poles

“Telephone Poles” by John Updike.

They have been with us a long time.They will outlast the elms.Our eyes, like the eyes of a savage sieving the treesIn his search for game,Run through them. They blend along small-town streetsLike a race of giants that have faded into mere mythology.Our eyes, washed clean of belief,Lift incredulous to their fearsome crowns of bolts, trusses, struts, nuts, insulators, and suchBarnacles as composeThese weathered encrustations of electrical debris¬Each a Gorgon’s head, which, seized right,Could stun us to stone.

Yet they are ours. We made them.See here, where the cleats of linemenHave roughened a second barkOnto the bald trunk. And these spikesHave been driven sideways at intervals handy for human legs.The Nature of our construction is in every wayA better fit than the Nature it displacesWhat other tree can you climb where the birds’ twitter,Unscrambled, is English? True, their thin shade is negligible,But then again there is not that tragic autumnalCasting-off of leaves to outface annually.These giants are more constant than evergreensBy being never green.
Initial Impression-
The poem is talking about the ubiquitous use of telephone poles in modern day society. When looking at the poem as a whole, the author, John Updike, lauds the use of telephone poles. For most parts of the poem, Updike seems to complement the useful aspects of the telephone poles. However, Updike also states some undesirable features alongside the desirable features of telephone poles. Updike, for example, makes allusion to the Gorgons’s head when he is talking about the wires of the telephone poles. This allusion has an unfavorable connotation that makes the readers think about the harmful aspects of telephone pole. Additionally, the central message of the poem is that humans are taking over nature and making an artificial environment. Updike makes it clear that although the human designed environment has some bad qualities, it also has many favorable qualities that society should embrace.

Paraphrase-
They have been beside us for a while now.
They will stay longer than elm trees.
Our eyes savagely look through them, searching for food.
They exists alongside our streets like big creatures of mythology
Our eyes, in disbelief, open and see big bolts, trusses, struts, nuts, insulators and other such things; the wires on the poles are electrical debris that represent the snakes on Gorgon’s head, which aggressively move and could kill us.
Yet, all these creations are ours; we made them.
The marks left by lineman show were the poles are and will go.
Human replacement of Nature is good for humanity; the Nature that is created by human construction allows for us to listen to English rather than birds tweeting. How amazing is that?
The shade from the poles isn’t that great, but then again, it’s better than autumn leaves annually falling onto the ground
These telephone poles more common than evergreens, but they are never green.

SWIFTT-
SW- The poem has an interesting syntax. There are two stanzas of roughly the same length. In each stanza, there are complex and simple sentences. Additionally, in the second stanza, the writer includes an interrogative sentence. Throughout the poem, the author never directly says the words telephone poles. However, through the author’s word choice, it is evident that the author is describing telephone poles. For instance, the author says, “electrical debris…bald trunk… these giants.” All of these words make the readers think about telephone poles.
I- Throughout the poem, Updike creates vivid images of telephone pole. When Updike says, Our eyes, washed clean of belief, “their fearsome crowns of bolts, trusses, struts, nuts, insulators, and such barnacles as compose these weathered encrustations of electrical debris¬each a Gorgon’s head,” the writer sees a city filled with large telephone pole that are connected with active electrical wires.
F- Updike uses an allusion in the poem. He calls the wires Greek mythological Gorgon heads. In addition, the allusion is also a metaphor because it implicitly compares Gorgon heads to wires. The poem also consist of a simile that compares the eyes of humans today and the eyes of a savage: “like the eyes of a savage sieving the trees in his search for game.”
T- The tone in the poem is that of intrigue and appreciation. Updike seems to be fascinated with human ingenuity in shaping the environment.
T- Although the narrator only uses telephone poles to convey his theme, the scope of the poem reaches far beyond telephone poles in modern day society. In fact, the central theme of the poem is that humans should be embracing human ingenuity, instead of being discouraged by human induced changes to the natural environment.

Conclusion-
The poem is embracing the changes that human’s have brought to Nature. Throughout the poem, Updike vividly describes the ingenuity of the man-made environment. When I first read the poem, I thought that Updike was simply appreciating telephone poles. However, after having analyzed the poem, I clearly see that Updike had much more on his mind than telephone poles when he was writing the poem. In fact, Updike portably was thinking about industrialization when he wrote the poem. Additionally, I find it interesting that in the poem, Updike praising human ingenuity as well as encouraging its progress.