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AP English Literature

October 3rd 2019

Artistry

In life, an artist is given colors and the lines they paint depict the art they create.

Identifying where these barriers lay is artistry in itself; drawing the barrier between two hues. A

true artist of words, Robert Penn Warren, draws attention to a feeble grasp of morality in

“Grackles, Goodbye.” Disturbed by the attempts to make his deceased mother seem lively,

Warren uses the juxtaposition of figurative nuances to engender the barricade between life and

death he finds comfortable.

Colors given allow for an artist to shape the lines. In the first stanza, Warren begins with

“Black of grackles glints purple as, wheeling in sun-glare...Soon they are lost in the tracklessness

of air. I watch them go. I stand in my trance” (Warren). The placement of these two subjects in

the same sentence prepares the reader for digestion of indifference later in the poem. Warren

does this by referring to the highlight of an immensely dark color: purple, illuminated by the

sun’s everlasting yellow light. While functioning as a contrast, this also provides the beginning

of a consistent theme: death too can be beautiful, for it reminds of the love that was shared.

Alongside this theme, Warren watches the grackles fly without any direction as he stands still,

accepting the fate of reality. The imagery of the speaker standing isolated, as the grackles

dissipate over the blue-lit sky, signals the acceptance he is unable to influence the events of

nature. The grackles represent his grief that come and go during a time of year, similar to the

migration of birds. This time of year being the anniversary of his mother’s death.
 Strictly drawing boundaries with words prove no challenge to Warren. In the first three

stanzas, Warren employs euphony to assist in the creation of a lighthearted, warm tone. Euphony

such as “gloss...pool,” “tracklessness of air,” “splays away,” and “drift in peace” (Warren).

Using these euphonious phrases, Warren pleasantly pleases the audience, accentuating the

euphoria and nostalgia once felt. However; this euphony is quickly juxtaposed in the third stanza

where the antonymous cacophony begins. The author uses phrases such as “obscene fake lawn,”

“sick lie,” “vacant and lonely,” and “rusty creak” (Warren). The onomatopoeia “horde’s rusty

creak” creates the auditory sense of dissonance amongst the crowd of grackles. The dissonance is

in place for grief, for when this time of year comes around, Warren feels as if the sound is so

loud that it is hard to think. By using these cacophonous phrases in the last two stanzas while

facing the mortality of morality, it skews the lightheartedness once felt. Positioning the

cacophony after the euphony allows for the author to enforce the barricade that he places on

death. And allows for him to express his openness of reality about his mother’s death.

The pace at which the words are delivered allows for the audience to stomach the reality.

Employing assonance and consonance, Warren manipulates the tempo of the poem to focus

attention on specific segments. “Black of grackles,” “convict the half-wit,” “above...love,” and

“while...piled” (Warren). These examples of assonance speed the tempo of the poem upwards.

For example, for “convict the half-wit,” Warren was discussing the perturbed emotions he was

experiencing from the dressing of the corpse and the guilt that would consume those who have

even “half-wit.” The speeding up where this phrase lies(at the end of the stanza) finalizes his

anger and assists in clearly stating it. In the third stanza, he was discussing how he enjoyed fall

once as an innocent child, until he was an adult consumed by grief. The words “while...piled”

create the sense of timelessness while he was discussing his childhood, until the reality of
adulthood robbed this timelessness. As for consonance, “grackles glints purple as,”

“soon...tracklessness...stand...trance,” “sunrise and sunset,” and “flung thus in the teeth of time”

(Warren). The first two examples, found in the first stanza help reinforce the peaceful tone that

would later be obstructed. “Soon...tracklessness...stand...trance,” all are a form of sibilance

consonance; the abundance of soothing hissing sound help impact the tone. However; this

tranquil tone is later ruined when the last two stanzas come about. They contain “flung thus in

the teeth of time,” where alliteration consonance takes place. The harsh sounding “t” consonant

repeated at the beginning of the words highlights the jarring nature and imagery of teeth, while

conveying a fast pace; representing the nature of life. The nature of life is that the end may come

so quickly, and one may be eternally destroyed. Since Warren is stating this with great dignity, it

signifies the fact that his mother’s death taught him to love people even more.

In “Grackles, Goodbye,” Robert Penn Warren utilizes juxtaposition as the paint that

binds. From contrasting forms of consonance, to euphony versus cacophony, Warren is sure to

express his acceptance of his mother’s death even though it may be tremendously difficult. He

also realizes that learning to accept death is easier than living in a state of denial; it teaches to

love in greater multitudes. Loving in greater multitudes strengthens the soul, and even though

one may feel pain when a loved one is lost, Warren expresses that the memories never leave their

side. He conveys the fact that it is still damaging to remember the great memories of his mother,

but he rather live in remembrance than in denial like others around him. Warren’s colors were

spilled out onto a canvas in front of him, and when challenged on what to see, he drew lines

using his words, but managed to smear the line between life and death.