"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 trees
In his search for game,
Run through them. They blend along small-town streets
Like 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 such
Barnacles as compose
These 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 linemen
Have roughened a second bark
Onto the bald trunk. And these spikes
Have been driven sideways at intervals handy for human legs.
The Nature of our construction is in every way
A better fit than the Nature it displaces
What 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 autumnal
Casting-off of leaves to outface annually.
These giants are more constant than evergreens
By being never green.
They will outlast the elms.
Our eyes, like the eyes of a savage sieving the trees
In his search for game,
Run through them. They blend along small-town streets
Like 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 such
Barnacles as compose
These 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 linemen
Have roughened a second bark
Onto the bald trunk. And these spikes
Have been driven sideways at intervals handy for human legs.
The Nature of our construction is in every way
A better fit than the Nature it displaces
What 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 autumnal
Casting-off of leaves to outface annually.
These giants are more constant than evergreens
By being never green.
First reactions
The poem elevates the mundane telephone poles to mythical status with the comparisons to giants and the Gorgons. They have extraordinary qualities, but they are made by human hands, and for that reason we generally don't notice them. However, there are also elements that are sarcastically disparaging towards the telephone poles, standing in for civilization.
Paraphrase
There have been telephone poles for a long time. They will last longer than elm trees. We look between them. They are part of the background in small-towns, like giants that are only myths. We look upon them, without preconceptions, skeptical of their ability to kill. The poles are human-made. See where the exterior has been worn and where spikes have been driven into the pole for climbing. The poles are better suited for us humans than the nature it replaces. Where else do the "birds" twitter in English? There isn't much shade, but there aren't many falling leaves due to autumn. These poles are better than evergreens, since they never change.
Paraphrase
There have been telephone poles for a long time. They will last longer than elm trees. We look between them. They are part of the background in small-towns, like giants that are only myths. We look upon them, without preconceptions, skeptical of their ability to kill. The poles are human-made. See where the exterior has been worn and where spikes have been driven into the pole for climbing. The poles are better suited for us humans than the nature it replaces. Where else do the "birds" twitter in English? There isn't much shade, but there aren't many falling leaves due to autumn. These poles are better than evergreens, since they never change.
SWIFTT
SW – Updike uses shorter lines and phrases to emphasize them, but otherwise the poem is fairly standard in sentence structure and prose. However, his word choice conveys a sense of age on the telephone poles, referring to them or parts of them as "barnacles" and "weathered encrustations".
I – The image of the poem is, of course, the telephone pole. The [pet gives a description of the poles by parts and then in mythical terms, making the mundane above what it is.
F – The main use of figurative language is the comparison to mythology. We view them as mundane, but Updike compares them to giants due to their size and then to a Gorgon due to their construction, pointing out the danger that belies every telephone pole. Then there is the metaphor of chirping birds to the electric signals the poles carry.
T – The tone of the poem is one of admiration, but also caution. Telephone poles are elevated to mythical status, but the poet hastens to point out that they are human-made.
T – The theme of the poem is of measured respect. The telephone poles are marvels of human technology, but they are dangerous, and the nature they replace should be considered.
Conclusions
My conclusion remains similar to my first impression. Telephone poles should be respected. They are products of human-ingenuity. It's true, they displace Nature, but that's a byproduct of a more globally-connected age we live in—in large part facilitated by those telephone poles.
