Secrecy: Bukowski’s Message for the World

Poems as Social Commentary

Poems are often used as Social Commentary to condemn the events in a culture or, more precisely, within the country's people. In this situation, poetry can be used to raise the consciousness of particular facets of politics, life, and love. It is often used to draw attention to facets of human life that would otherwise go unnoticed. Since mere consciousness has no concrete benefits, the ultimate aim in the composition of poetry is always to encourage change in the world. As a result, poetry involves an artist communicating their psychological view on culture. This paper is an attempt at explicating two poems written by Charles Bukowski namely Bluebird and The Man with the Beautiful Eyes. Both masterpieces explore the theme of isolation in society albeit from divergent perspectives. From the two poems, we can deduce that individuals have a tendency to hide from the society (Gierveld, Tilburg, and Dykstra 3).

Bluebird by Charles Bukowski

In Bluebird, Bukowski introduces a man who is determined to keep hidden a part of him and as a result experiences an emotional isolation. The man could be in a situation, perhaps at work, where he feels underappreciated and undercompensated. The metaphorical bluebird could be the inner voice that demands justice for a person, but the man remains adamantly against letting out that voice for fear of the consequences. It can be seen in the second stanza where the persona asks,

“I say, stay down, do you want to mess me up?

you want to screw up the works?

you want to blow my book sales in Europe?”

Bluebirds are small creatures that can be easily chased away or just entirely ignored. Rather than chase his away, the person chooses to neglect his bluebird by distracting himself using alcohol and cigarettes. The above-mentioned idea is akin to the issue that the other individuals in society turn to substance abuse in an attempt to escape the reality of their lives (Gierveld, Tilburg, and Dykstra 5). However, the human does not entirely ignore his bluebird, at night he communes with it. The character recognizes that he presents a benevolent force albeit not a powerful one as the person is able to contain it. He does not wish to reveal his hidden secret because the human perceives only the negative consequences.

Bukowski uses a prideful tone throughout the poem. The person is impressed by himself and his ability to handle his situation. He has kept hidden the bluebird from everyone while at the same time the person has nurtured it and kept it alive. Besides, the human has developed the routine of distracting himself with alcohol and cigarettes while he is out and let the bluebird out at night while he is in solitude. In his own words, “there is a bluebird in my heart that/wants to get out/but I'm too tough for him”. Since he cannot share with anyone, anything concerning his situation, the person resorts to exhorting himself concerning his secret (Gierveld, Gierveld, Tilburg, and Dykstra 13).

The bluebird in the poem is a metaphorical stand-in for the human’s desire to express himself more than he currently dares to. The expectations he has for himself do not have any place available for honest exposition of the inner workings of his heart because of the possible negative consequences that will befall the persona. Takeaways from the poem include various themes such as, pride, loneliness, and escapism. The protagonist has a closely guarded secret which he withholds from the world. The ultimate goal of the poem is that it can be harmful for a person to conceal the secret because it may lead to self-preservation (Gierveld, Tilburg, and Dykstra 8).

The Man with the Beautiful Eyes by Charles Bukowski

In the Man with the Beautiful Eyes, Bukowski describes the idea of loneliness in the society, and how it is seen by external observers. The poetic tale is told from the perspective of children who, in their play, defy their parents, and approach the strange house with its reclusive occupant. At first, it does not appear that the house is fully occupied, but the kids are rarely, if ever, reliable detectives. Adults as their parent might have noticed something that the children have missed and as a result warned them not to approach the strange house. The children are playing around the strange building for weeks without ever noticing any occupant within the residence.

On the day when the children finally got confirmation of the presence of an occupant within the house with a help of a voice shouting an insult followed by the ‘natural’-looking man, from whom it emanated, stepping beyond the threshold of the house to face them. After delightfully quipping “hey, little gentlemen, having a good time, I hope?”, the human retreats to his residence and has been never seen again by the boys. After their encounter, the kids conclude that the unkempt man with his bright eyes is the subject of envy for their parents. That’s why, after the strange house burns down, the boys decide that their relatives must have orchestrated it to ensure that they will never see the beautiful-eyed man again.

The tone of the poem is aspirational. Initially, the boys aspire to lay their eyes upon the occupant of the strange house despite not knowing for sure the human. As a result, one of the boys directly contravenes their parents’ wishes by going near the strange house. The shades of the residence are always drawn so they have resorted to patiently waiting while playing in the yard of the house for weeks after which they have finally caught a glimpse of the man with beautiful eyes. After that, they have decided to solve the mystery of the strange house resident which has grown to the point of developing a conspiracy theory in which their parents are involved. The mystery surrounding the house’s occupant has sparked wild admiration for the man’s eyes and speculation in the boys’ minds concerning them.

The ultimate morale of the poem is that society’s response to an individual’s self-imposed isolation is more often reactive than proactive (Gierveld et. al. 16). The adult neighbors of the man in the strange house who represent the parents of the boys who has gone to play in the strange house’s yard, choose to simply avoid their isolated neighbor and also tell their children to do the same. They have not considered the fact that their children will try to reach out to the man which has transformed the mystery into fear which has seeped into their kids who, instead of knocking the man’s door after they have proof that he exists, continue to play in his yard hoping he will step out again so that they can see his beautiful eyes again (Gierveld, Tilburg, and Dykstra 12).

Similarities between the Two Poems

The two poems describe a case of solitude in the society. In Bluebird, the loneliness is a product of a man’s attempts to keep a part of him hidden as we get to hear the human’s own thoughts on the matter. The secret weighs heavily on him, but he constantly reassures himself by saying “I’m too tough…” and “I’m too clever…” to keep from faltering in his goal of keeping his secret. In the Man with the Beautiful Eyes, the person in the strange house seems to be in a similar position although he has resorted to physical isolation. During the weeks that the boys are playing around the house, they only see the man once which tells us nothing about his internal struggle which could be present in the man with beautiful eyes.

The use of alcohol and cigarettes by the beautiful-eyed man is similar to that of the person in Bluebird. Now people use alcohol and cigarettes for a myriad of reasons. But the fact that both poems are written by the same writer, only a slight stretch is required to arrive at the conclusion that the two men could be using alcohol for the same idea-to distract from the reality in which they are living with the help of isolation and total secrecy (Gierveld, Tilburg, and Dykstra 8).

The Differences Between the Two Poems

In Bluebird as in the Man with the Beautiful Eyes the protagonist is the main character under the consideration. The poem presents a soliloquy in which the person recounts his experiences of keeping his metaphorical bluebird hidden from the world. By contrast, in the Man with the Beautiful Eyes, the human is the observer who recounts his experience with a strange occupant of a residence. The idea of the poem is the mystery which surrounds him inspires the human to speculate on the circumstances in the neighborhood.

Another significant difference between the two poems is that firstly, Bluebird, is primarily metaphorical while the second is not. The bluebird is only a symbol that the person uses in the first verse while in the second one; the beautiful eyes are literal and are observed by people.

Conclusion

The differences between the poems allow to differentiate despite the fact that they have originated from the same mind; that of Bukowski. However, a combination of both the similarities and differences allows starting a great discussion. The matter is that from the coverage of mental solitude to physical isolation, the two poems prove that isolation can lead to a person’s detriment which is indicated in the poems in the form of alcohol and cigarettes (Gierveld, Tilburg, and Dykstra 8).

Article Summary

An article by Jenny de Jong Gierveld, Theo van Tilburg, and Pearl Dykstra titled Loneliness and Social Isolation, delves into the concepts of loneliness and isolation as apparent in modern society. The article details the different types of loneliness and isolation from percieved to actual and from emotional to physical. It deals with the concepts on a theoretical level exploring the factors that lead to it as well as the product of their manifestation in a person’s life. The survey relates to both the poems directly on the issue of loneliness in society. Having described from two different perspectives we get to see what a person is experiencing during the various types of isolation. In Bluebird, we get the inner monologue of one person who experiences loneliness which is rife with self-assurance about his strength. In Bluebird, the person also addresses his solitude through the taking of alcohol and interacting with people, but he does so as the human still hides the part of him because the character is lonely. In the Man with the Beautiful Eyes, we see physical isolation embodied in the man who interacts with the children in the only one instance. The parents are telling their children to avoid the house where he lives which indicates the neglect which he experiences due to the fear caused by the mystery that surrounds him due to loneliness and isolation.

Works Cited

de Jong Gierveld, Jenny, Theo van Tilburg, and Pearl Dykstra. “Loneliness and Social Isolation”. Anita Vangelisti & Daniel Perlman (eds), the Cambridge Handbook of Personal Relationships, Second Edition, Cambridge University Press (forthcoming). N. p., 2016. 1–30. Web.