Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrachats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be
For he’s the super realist
who must perforce perceive
taut truth
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
with gravity
to start her death-defying leap
And he
a little charleychaplin man
who may or may not catch
her fair eternal form
spreadeagled in the empty air
of existence

Analysis, meaning and summary of Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem Constantly Risking Absurdity

4 Comments

  1. wtf says:

    proper english please

  2. amzid achraf says:

    the poet trys to compare between the acrobat and a poet. both of them perform acrobat ina circus in front of the audiance & the poete performs in his poems & the audiance are the readerthe.
    the death of the acrobats in a real one he will lose his life in opposite the poete’s death is just unreal but he’ll lose his skill in writing poemes .

  3. keddar abdallah says:

    the poet trys to explain the hardness that poets face in order to write because of what everyone expects to be in poetry chages from one person to another.

  4. laila says:

    the poet makes a comparaison bet the poet and the acroat cos bothe of them are artist and bothe are threaten by danger but in different.for the acrobat there is a physical death because his physical movement.for the poem there is figurative death cos his performance is verbal

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