Professional Documents
Culture Documents
by Thom Gunn
Glossary:
Scuffling fighting.
Spurt an energetic but brief effort especially to increase speed.
Poise dignity; calmness; balanced.
Approximate nearly accurate, estimated.
Donned put on.
Robust strong; in excellent health; muscular.
Discord lack of harmony; disagreement, conflict.
Astride with a leg on each side.
Epigraph quotation or motto at the beginning of a chapter or poem.
Enjambment the unbroken continuation of a sentence from the end of one line to the
beginning of another.
Existentialism the philosophy that meaning in life is not something one is born with or
given but rather something that one has to find or even create for oneself.
Summary:
The poem deals with the existential questions of the search for the meaning of life by
exploring the response of the leather jacketed Boys astride their motorcycles. The speaker
admires the bikers whom he sees as defining or realising themselves whilst in action.
Throughout the poem the human life is contrasted with animal life. Unlike man, the birds
seem sure of their purpose. The continual reference to movement in the poem may not just
mean physical action but also progress whether it be intellectual, philosophical, spiritual,
etc.
Enjambment:
The enjambment serves the purpose of emphasising the importance of movement in the
poem both to the bikers and to finding purpose in life.
Interpretation:
Key:
Green important connotation.
Blue contrast between nature and man.
Purple rhyme.
Epigraph:
Man is representative of all mankind. That Go has a capital G emphasises the
importance of movement and, as a result, finding meaning in life. The epigraph is an
example of typical, informal biker language, as seen in gotta.
Line:
1. The birds are disorderly. Scuffling suggests that one needs to fight in order to
achieve meaning in life as the birds have.
2. Despite the lack of order the birds have a purpose in life, even if man does not know
what it is.
3. A sense of the movement and energy of the birds is given.
4. The birds follow their instinct to survive they have purpose.
5. The next lines speak of mankind. Man must find his own purpose (instinct, poise)
in life.
6. One shows us that the speaker is referring to mankind. Violence refers back to the
scuffling (see line 1). Man is uncertain of his purpose but is fighting to find it.
7. Dust thrown can be a reference to the motorbikes of the Boys that kick up dust
when moving. It may also refer to the common expression to throw dust in his
eyes. This suggests that man is blind to his purpose in life. Baffled shows man to be
confused as to his purpose and thus his intellect is a barrier to his goal of achieving
purpose.
8. Dull thunder describes the mighty noise of thunder as dull. This suggests that it is
pathetic and meaningless merely a background noise. Approximate shows mans
words to be undefined/unclear or without meaning and so language is also a barrier
to mans goal of achieving purpose.
9. The bikers come up the road on their motorcycles.
10. The first impression of them is that they are flies. This suggests that at first the
bikers appear as nature they have a purpose in life. This is however not a lasting
impression as the bikers are discovered to be hiding their doubt, as to their purpose,
later in the stanza. Boys has a capital B to suggest the bikers status and that this is
what they call themselves.
11. The bikers have come much nearer.
12. The faint noise of their bikes has now become a loud roar of the engines between
their legs.
13. Goggles make them look like insects with big eyes. This refers back to flies (see
line 10). The bikers have taken on a new conduct in order to hide their doubts.
Donned is an old word used for wear or put on like clothing. This suggests that
their attitude and rough appearance are used as a mask/ cover for their true selves.
14. Trophied suggests that the bikers are proud of the dust that covers them it stands
as proof of the distance they have travelled.
15. The bikers restrain their doubt/ they keep it in place by hiding it under a strong
outward appearance and attitude.
16. The bikers feel close to achieving meaning in their life through their motorcycling.
17. The result of their choice to have a course exterior appearance and attitude...
18. has not yet formed they have not yet achieved purpose.
19. The bikers ride wherever their bikes take them.
20. The noise of their bikes and their presence upsets nature.
21. Man is here described as wild. Those of purpose, nature, must submit to those
without nature, man. Mans purpose seeking is an intrusion of nature.
22. Men make machinery as well as their own destiny.
23. They try to use those things in life that they have little control of...
24. in order to forge their own destiny. Taken routes suggests that this is the path that
all men have taken the path to finding ones purpose.
25. The bikers quest for meaning through movement can here be interpreted as being
either a temporary success or an incomplete one. Either way it results in the bikers
continuing on with their journey, to find meaning.
Compiled by B. S. Seegers