James Dickey once said that, “A poet is someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning” (“James Dickey,” 2015). Thus, one would be lead to believe that James Dickey must not like poets or poetry. Contrary to this belief, James Dickey is a renowned American poet himself and is praised for his works in poetry. Throughout his poems, Dickey writes about the concerns for humans’ and animals’ instincts. These concerns are portrayed in the themes of his poems and is the basis for much of his poetry.
Born and raised in Buckhead, Georgia in 1923, James Dickey’s interest in poetry grew as his father read him famous speeches. Growing up, he was a high school football star and continued his sports career at Clemson college. During his early twenties, Dickey decided to join the United States and the Allies in World War II. He joined the United States Air-Force and began to develop his taste for apocalyptic poets. Soon after the war was over, Dickey resumed his education and studied at Vanderbilt University.
During his senior year, James was encouraged to write and began to focus on his poetry. James was dogged to write and began working on his graduate degree at Vanderbilt and later at Rice University. He continued his passion for poetry and in 1960, he published his first collection of poetry titled, Into the Stone and Other Poems. Soon after his first publication, Dickey’s poetry sparked. During the years of 1964 and 1965 he began to write his two most famous poems, Helmets and Buckdancer’s Choice. He later won the Melville Cane Award and National Book for these publications.
Eventually, James Dickey was honored for his work and became the Poetry Consultant to the Library of Congress from 1966 to 1968. Unfortunately, James Dickey passed away in South Carolina in 1997 due to a long illness. The underlying basis for Dickey’s work “testifies to the power of the human spirit, especially under extreme condition” (“James Dickey,” Poets. org) and creates his thematic concerns. Much of the work of James Dickey has the same thematic concerns. He focuses on the concern for humans’ and animals’ instincts and the result or results that follow.
Dickey expresses his themes and concerns “through direct confrontations or surreal juxtaposition of nature and civilization, [and] the need to intensify life by maintaining contact with the primitive impulses, sensations, and ways of seeing suppressed by modern society” (“James L. Dickey’). There are three poems that illustrate the thematic concerns. In A Sleeping Dog on My Feet, Dickey poses the concern for the hunting dog’s instinct to be a man’s best friend and to hunt for its prey. Also, in Falling, Dickey focuses his concerns on the instincts of humans that become captivated by fear in shocking situations.
This is exemplified in his poem as a flight attendant falls from a plane to her death. Again, the concern for humans and their instincts is understood in The Lifeguard, where the instinct of emotional burdens of a tragedy takes over the lifeguard. There is a reoccurring concern and theme in all three of these poems. A Sleeping Dog on My Feet, Falling, and The Lifeguard all revolve around the concern for humans’ and animals’ instincts by using image cluster to support his concerns. This leads to the theme that life’s journeys lead to death.
In A Sleeping Dog on My Feet, the main character lets the dog sleep on his feet because the dog is his muse. It indicates that the man’s inspiration for this poem comes from the dog. The poem states, “The poem is beginning to move, up through my pine-prickling legs, out of the night wood, taking hold of the pen by my fingers. ” (Dickey, “A Dog Sleeping on My Feet”) and thus implying that the reason for his poem is because of the dog. Also, in Falling, the poem focuses on the mental processes that occur due to the flight attendant falling out of an airplane.
The fall is symbolic to the idea that humans cannot determine their destiny, and can only control their actions. At first, the flight attendant screams because of her instincts. During the fall, “she [the flight attendant] is screaming singing hymns her thin human wings spread out” (Dickey, “Falling’). The human wings symbolize her regaining her conscience and she plans to make her death significant by undressing during her fall and to hit the ground nude. Ultimately, the flight attendant’s journey leads to her death and supports the concern for humans’ instincts.
Even in The Lifeguard, the concern for humans and their instincts remains prominent. In this poem, a lifeguard attempts to save the life of a drowning child but is unsuccessful and is faced with the emotional burdens of the tragedy. The lifeguard’s natural instincts cause him to feel guilty and lose his identity as a lifeguard because he could not do his job to save the young child. Much of the poem fluctuates between hope and despair, reality and fantasy, and life and death. The child and water symbolize death and the children on the bank symbolize life.
Conclusively, the concern for humans’ and animals’ instincts is apparent throughout these poems. One might describe James Dickey as “someone who stands outside in the rain hoping to be struck by lightning” (“James Dickey” 2015). He is a renowned American poet and carries over his love for poetry into his craft. He implements his concern for humans’ and animals’ instincts in his poetry. Furthermore, it is evident that James Dickey’s thematic concerns are established in his poetry and thus resulting in establishing himself as an iconic figure in the modern-day poetry era.