Close Reading, Part I

Ellena Kruse

Tuesday January 27, 2009

Eng. L202 Denise Cruz

First Fight. Then Fiddle.

First fight. Then fiddle. Ply1 the slipping string2
With feathery sorcery; muzzle the note
With hurting love the music that they wrote3
Bewitch, bewilder. Qualify to sing4
Threadwise. Devise no salt, no hempen5 thing
For the dear6 instrument to bear. Devote
The bow to silks and honey. Be remote
A while from malice and from murdering. 7
But first to arms, to armor. Carry hate
In front of you and harmony behind.8
Be deaf to music and to beauty blind. 9
Win War. Rise bloody, maybe not too late
For having first to civilize10 a space
Wherein to play your violin with grace11

1. Ply: To bend, bow
2. Slippery String: verb choice of slipping string implies the string is a symbol of music, which is slipping form order of importance within this context.
3. "Muzzle...wrote" implies that it hurts the person to "muzzle" playing, with the oxymoron "hurting love" emphasizing this idea.
6. Hempen: made of hemp; of or pertaining to hemp. hempen homespun, cloth made of hemp; hen; one clad in such clothe or rustic and course manners.
5. Hempen, as a word choice, in contrast with the words "dear instrument" gives a contrast to fighting, which is crude, and the personified fiddle as dear, with only so many difficulties it can "bear".
4. Qualify: to make less wrong or reprehensible, to justify. This word choice implies that somehow that player must justify their music.
7. Words such as "malice" and murdering" are the opposites of fiddling.
8. The Idea of hate and music cannot co-exist are introduced here.
9. Comparing music to beauty reflects the idea that music is inherently good, romanticized, and idealized.
10. The word "civilize" is connected with the word "bloody", reflecting the idea of civilization as stripping the natural beauty from a land.
11. The word "grace" has connotations to a common saying in the 18th and 19th century, "arts for arts sake", later used in Latin by MGM studios. This saying reflects the idea of Brooks poem, that art in congruent to beauty, solely due to it's artistic value.