I hope everyone found John Gay’s “Trivia” as entertaining as
I did because I was really not expecting to be so amused. In the passages we
read, which compromised his trip/stroll through the muddy streets of London, I
found that I was particularly drawn to the fact that while on the outside he is
able to organize his poem into a lovely
heroic couplet, the story itself is mostly chaos.
Sounds pretty familiar right? Typical description of a college student if you
ask me: organized and put together on the outside, but on the inside we are all
really just going crazy and trying to keep up with the madness that is UD?!
Yeah.
Anyways… I thought the rhyme scheme and visual imagery that Gay
provided made the poem easier and more enjoyable to read and allowed the reader
to really focus on the sights, sounds and seductions of the city as seen in this excerpt:
When the mob gathers, swiftly shoot along,/
Nor idly mingle in the noisy throng./
Lured by the silver hilt amid the swarm/
The subtle artist will thy side disarm:/
In this particular stanza (and later on), Gay talks about the
dangers of traveling in an urban environment and provides useful tips/warnings
about how to successfully venture through and avoid threats of pocket thieves, runaway
carts, dark alleyways, and prostitutes. On campus, we mostly just avoid cops,
Kirkbride Jesus, and awkward weekend hookups, but same thing right?
In another section, Gay describes crossing the road as basically an epic battle that has to be won…
Yield not the way; defy his strutting pride,/
And thrust him to the muddy kennel’s side:/
He never turns again, nor dares oppose,
But mutters coward curses as he goes.
So yeah, although it seems slightly weird that he is discussing a
trivial subject (walking), he really is using this irony to tell us about the
dangers and difficulties that this hobby entails and does so in a comical way!
Well done Gay, well done.
I also noticed how Gay's poetic language and rhyme scheme juxtaposed what he wanted to convey throughout the text. He used the easy rhyme of the couplet to enhance the irony of what he was talking about; the mucky, classless, almost frightening streets of London. I also noticed how he organized his writing into four (maybe more) sections, that i labeled as "things to beware of", "how experienced men know the days of the week by nature and people of London", "the poor and unemployed", and "quarrels, crowds, stealing, and prostitution". After reading I looked back at my labels, and I found it interesting that reading this text had been a very pleasant read because of its form, despite the essence of the lines themselves. He creates such a beautiful sound for such harsh words.
ReplyDeleteWhat struck me when reading Gay's poem is how modern the description felt. You can see the same things in a big city today - the tight-packed crowds, the street-side vendors selling things in season, the pickpockets, and the prostitutes. Most people, when reading old literature, remark on how different life was back then, but I'm the opposite. I notice the similarities, and think about how little has really changed.
ReplyDeletePart of the reason Gay's language is so light and airy is that, although the things he's describing are sometimes ugly, he loves it all the same. Like I said in class, it's a love song to the city of London, and his affection for the city shines through even when he's talking about the pickpocket and the prostitute. These are familiar sights he's seen so long he's rather fond of them, and would be disconcerted by their absence. It's not a passionate love he feels for London, necessarily, but rather a strong attachment based on long acquaintance, and expressed through those sweet, cheerful couplets.