City Eclogue Response

While Ed Robertson's style of poetry is sometimes obfuscated and difficult to understand, it is clear that the common themes between them (whether or not they relate to each other directly) are the industrial side of a city and its following attributes.  This is understandable, as it is shown many times that Ed Robertson grew up in Pittsburgh and as a result, it makes sense that he would give some insight on the various aspects of an urban city and the results of industrial colonization.  The method of which Robertson chooses is difficult not because of the content, but rather the format, as at first glance, one becomes confused because of the large spaces between certain lines, use, misuse, or lack of punctuation, and the stanza formats.  This shows that rules are meant to be broken, and that poems can emphasize or disregard certain conventions to poetry entirely, while still creating something insightful and meaningful.  The method of metaphors and imagery are very effective in conveying various aspects of an urban city.

It is unclear to me whether or not there is a direct narrative between the poems, however there is a common theme: living in a city and the various aspects and hang-ups that come with this.  Though this is apparent, other themes are explored as well, be they segregation, urban colonization, or even returning to nature.  It explores segregation specifically in numerous ways, utilizing racial slurs and blatant racism to emphasize a point about this issue, such as in poem 9 of "Beauty's Standing".  It effectively conveys the "return to nature" aspect of many poems, alluding to aspects of nature by comparing them to industrial structures.

Ultimately, City Eclogue serves its purpose in describing a move to a big industrial city as an African American.  I particularly enjoyed the poem on page 112, titled "Psalm", as it really paints a picture of bloodshed at the time, and blaming God for these misdeeds.  The interpretation is relatively vague, yet I interpret this poem as killing as a result of social issues, particularly racism and segregation.  "... buildings jumped and lives fell over and shattered, the blood wine and glass all over the ground of any social fabric spread between people    certain dishes of issue   dropped abruptly and concluded" was a quote from this work that stood out to me, as it eloquently described the blood shed sparked by social injustice and prejudice.  Ed Robertson effectively conveyed various issues in a biting and powerful manner, while toppling various poetry and writing conventions in the process.