On the Move - Thom Gunn

On the Move - Thomas Gunn

This is summary of stanzas of Gunn's on the Move. He describes the contemporary issue of 1950s in this poem. This write up helps you know the details of this poem and as well as one can answer better if he can grasp the meaning of every stanza. This will help university guys who are in their post graduation.

On the Move by Thomas Gunn

Thomas Gunn's 'On the Move' is famous one with five stanzas. He starts it with "On the move man, You gotta go". This is the intended words to describe the lifestyle of motorcycle gangs of 1950s who are by products of altering civilization and inventions spurted in the given period. They are infamous with their behavior in United States and Great Britain. Thomas Gunn in his poem describes the lifestyle of these gangs and provides a message through this attempt. This is the main intention of the poem.

On the move man, You gotta go

First stanza

Thomas Gunn in this stanza compares human beings particularly gangs with the birds. The blue jay which scuffles in the bushes has some hidden need in doing so. The group of birds those are flying across the fields has some intention. The swallows have their nests in trees and low level bushes. Every bird has been guided by instinct or according to their need and purpose. Now he brings these gangs into the poem saying 'One moves with an uncertain violence' which says one is going very speed on ones bike raging violence as it may lead to accidents. The motorist is driving crazy as he is totally confused and the dust is raised and fallen on him itself. Like this first stanza provides contrasting nature of human beings with the birds and the craziness for speed are described.

Second stanza

In this stanza, Thomas Gunn wants to project a picture of long shot to close shot of motorcycle gangs coming from a long and top of the road to nearer. He describes it very well as if he is closely monitoring them. He sees gangs coming. He compares them with flies. When he sees them in a long distance they appear as small creatures like flies in black color as they have worn the black jackets hanging in heat. This is what he assumes when he see gangs in distance. Then the distance throws them to come further, (means as they come near) the distance sound of humming turns into thunder sound with the razing sounds emanated from vehicles. He says they are driving them 'held by calf and thigh'. He is also explaining how the gangs look like. They wear goggles not be disturbed by the dust emanated from their vehicles. He is saying them impersonalities. The shining jackets are turned into dusty and he is saying that the jackets are trophied with the dust. Their sound is unbearable but they can hear meaning in the created noise.

Third stanza

In this stanza, Thomas Gunn is explaining how they are disturbing and the repercussions of the scientific inventions. He says that there is no fatigue to them in their journeys. They do not know where they are going. They do not know where they will stay. The swallows have nests but these motorists do not have shelter at least like them. They travel in the way. They travel in ways where their vehicles can go. They travel without purpose and at the same time they fear the birds which are flying across the fields. These birds follow their instincts and needs but these gangs are against it. Their destination is not known to them. Thomas Gunn is referring scientific inventions especially machines. He says that men made machines as well as their personalities. He says men are using what they cannot use perfectly and they control it imperfectly. They only consider their present, leaving the future to the fate.

Fourth stanza

Thomas Gunn is referring the state of the bike men. He uses the word 'half animal'. He says that they lack the instinct and without any purpose they move on without any destination and target. They only love present going speed. It is violent speed disturbs the flight of birds and the human beings who are with destination. The speed attracts accidents and a loss respectively. He says that no one sleep as he is saying ' one wakes afloat on movement'. One(Motorbike gang) lives in this world without values. There is no need of destination for them. It is always travelling towards.

Fifth stanza

Thomas Gunn is explaining how these bike men travel and where they would leave to. They sit astride and speed up their vehicles to unknown destiny. He used 'self denied' in this stanza to refer the gangs. They travel through towns where there no nests for birds and homes of holiness. It is because saints and birds have purposes. They travel in that direction. But, these speedy motor gangs do not have purpose, Hence they are travelling away from them. They say they should be on the move always. They want to enjoy the speed without any intention. They are marred with dust. These do not bother them. They are at their worst while they are on the move. They are in continuous motion. Thus they are always nearer to the final rest (death).

About the poem

Thom Gunn’s “On the Move” is the opening poem in the collection The Sense of Movement. The poem is said to be “a sociological footnote of the nineteen fifties.” The motorcyclists had become emblematic of reckless vigor and aggressive energy in the East. The subtitle also functions as the epigraph emphasizing the need to keep going on, asserting the hyperactive strain and the kinetic energy that they embodied.

The bird with gay plumage is essentially from the crow family. Its “scuffling movements” exemplify the restless movements as it pursues some hidden purpose. The birds symbolize the motor cyclist–groups owing to their reckless energy and  their proclivityto thrive in communities. They hunt for the instinct that dwells within them or their poise, or rather they seek both. Some exhibit needless or pointless speed. Some put on display their uncontrollable animal instinct.

They arrive in motor-cycles as flies in the heat, their strides across the road appearing smooth. The term the Boy refers to how the motorcycle gang haunted lonely women with their unrestrained attitude, a superlative assertion of their notion of masculinity. The sound of the bikes as they travel in unison bugles to the sound of thunder. The bikes are in supreme control between their calf and thigh. They adorn goggles; therefore it is not easy to distinguish between them –the impersonation is pronounced. The dust on their jackets are like trophies on to display of their ‘dont-care’ attitude. As they no longer communicate coherently, they have replaced meaning with noise.

Their energy has no destination; it is not channelized in the right direction. There is no ‘exact conclusion’ to it. They press forward where the tyres take them, with no objective and intention. They scare the care-free birds in their wild endeavour. Gunn states that the will-power should yield to the natural (instinct).This is perhaps what Martin Dodsworth called Gunn’s ‘voluntary commitment to the irrational.”

                                 Men manufacture both machine and soul,

                                 And use what they imperfectly control

                                 To dare a future from the taken routes.

Men are capable of the objective (machine) and the subjective(soul). They utilize the one they can (atleast)imperfectly control to carve the future according to the ‘taken routes’(conservative, inherited or the routes of experience). It is a partial solution to the existential dilemma. It cannot be considered to be a discord, if one acts according to his instincts. He cannot be damned if he is half-animal. One only lacks direct instinct, because as one wakes consciously in his world ,he is directed by social doctrines and dictums that compel him to move on their lines. One joins the movements; nevertheless the end-point is common for all-Death or Nihilism. The speaker asserts so that (at least) as long as one lives, let him strive forward in the direction he desires because, most significantly, it is his.

                                 A minute holds them, who have come to go:

                                 The self-denied, astride the created will.

                                 They burst away; the towns they travel through

                                 Are home for neither birds nor holiness,

                                 For birds and saints complete their purposes.

                                 At worse, one is in motion; and at best,

                                 Reaching no absolute, in which to rest,

                                 One is always nearer by not keeping still.

Everybody is united together at least for a minute in that they accept the fact that they ‘have come to go’. The ‘self-denied’ and the ‘created will’ are wasted in such a stance; they just burst way. The towns they travel through are ultimately not a home for the bird (signifying striving towards a destination) or ‘holiness’ (religious dictums). Birds and saints do eventually complete their purpose. As the desire of attaining the purpose is satiated, they lose the joy, as there is nothing to look forward to. However, the one in constant motion reaches no absolute (to quench himself).Neither is he static, nor has he reached any goal: the journey itself becomes the destination.

Summary 3

Stanza 1

In stanza one the first four lines describe a natural scene. Birds dart around in an energetic way doing what is instinctive (natural) for them to do. The birds, while undisturbed by humanity, are in harmony with their environment. In line 6 the pronoun ‘One’ is ambiguous and operates on more than one level. It refers to the poet, or people (mankind) or by extension to the bikers. This is usually difficult to explain to a class. I generally leave it at the level of the poet and if a brighter pupil spots the possible alternatives, I let discussion develop as far as they can take it. The point becomes clearer further on in the poem when the poet identifies with the basic feeling of indecision within mankind. In the final lines of the stanza mankind (or the bikers, or the poet) also acts with vigour, like the birds, but it does not know exactly what it is doing nor can mankind express its ideas clearly. In the attempt at articulation, a disturbance is caused – ‘an uncertain violence’. Humans are out of tune with themselves and their surroundings. (See stanza four – humans lack the instinct to direct their actions.) Note the words ‘dust’ and ‘thunder’ foreshadow the appearance of ‘the Boys’ in stanza two. Even the word ‘baffled’ operates on different levels, referring to frustration or an exhaust silencer.

Stanza 2

Stanza two opens with the view of the motorcycle gang in the distance as small and insect-like. They grow larger as they approach and the roar of their engines increases in volume. Soon the riders are seen astride their powerful machines. In their leather uniforms they all look the same (‘donned impersonality’). The distasteful images in line two suggest disapproval and even something alien. The gang’s physical (sexual?) mastery of the machines is suggested by ‘… held by calf and thigh…’. Lines 7 – 8 deal with the uniformity of clothing and behaviour – two aspects of the gang which are purposeful. The uniforms, their collective way of life and their constant movement almost give them a sense of purpose in life which may overcome their doubts about themselves.

Stanza 3

In Stanza three , the Boys’ are trying to prove their manhood, but are uncertain about how tough they really are. They know their origin, but they are not certain of their destination. The bikers disturb the birds and the poet sees this as typical of modern life: nature has now to submit to the will-power and control of man. This control is often unplanned and uncoordinated. Modern man makes ‘both machine and soul’ – he consciously shapes his beliefs and his characters – and he uses both these elements (although he cannot completely control either) to take great risks in unusual or novel enterprises. Men do not move (or are not motivated) by instinct only, as the birds do, but by their own acts of will – men have a measure of free will in their actions.

Stanza 4

Stanza four suggests that attempts by man (or the poet) to shape his future should not be condemned. Because man is only half animal he cannot act by pure instinct only, as the birds do. Man has to make decisions. These decisions are difficult and it helps him if he joins a gang or groundswell of human change (‘movement’: line 5) which will give him moral support and some values with which he can identify, while in that group. The actions of the gang make ‘the Boys’ feel that at least they are getting somewhere, but there is no concept of how or where the journey will end (death being an accepted absolute).

Stanza 5

In the final stanza, ‘the Boys’ do not stop for long. Soon these self-assured(?) young men mount their man-made machines and roar away. Their way of life (the route they travel) has no final goal or resting-place, and does not achieve a natural wholeness, as the lives of birds or saints do. Although they do not gain a feeling of satisfaction or completeness from life, they do at least feel that they are moving somewhere – which is better than sitting doing nothing at all. George McBeth in his book Poetry 1900 to 1975  (Longmans 1985) has this to say concerning the ending of the poem:

‘The last three lines of the poem have immense authority and might stand of Gunn’s central philosophy of life.’

Generally, the attitudes expressed in the poem are similar to the philosophy of existentialism: men have no God-given purpose, but must define themselves (line 34), manufacture their own souls (line 22) and choose their own destinations (line 31), thus creating some sort of value system where none existed before (line 30). (Elsewhere in his book McBeth states that Gunn has a ‘… clearly articulated group of attitudes. These seem to be that man is a creature possessinf free will whose identity lies in his power to choose and pick his future by his own actions. This philosophy derives from the existentialism of Jean-Paul Satre and Albert Camus.’)

Furthermore, men still have a measure of free will: life is a journey with an uncertain, if not unattainable, destination. Moving fast may give man the illusion of reacting vigorously to the difficulties of life. Man is not sure, however, that what is being moved forward is good or not so good.

It is worthwhile to note the ambivalence of the poet toof clear goals in life. Yet he seems to sympathize with them and to understand them, and he does not wish them to be condemned. He even seems to admire their powerful machines, their group feelings and their attitude that it is better to be doing something active rather than to sit inert.

On the Move - Thom Gunn - Poem Summary

Introduction:

This poem, from Gunn's second collection, is his most famous piece, and among the best-known of all post-war poems. In it, the aimless, but threatening movement of a motorcycle gang becomes a metaphor for modern man's sense of alienation and lack of purpose. In On the Move, Gunn uses a series of connected metaphors, all deriving from the key image of movement.

A Sociological "footnote of the fifties":

The poem is a sociological footnote of the fifties. The young black-jacketed motor cyclists of the west become fitting symbols of restless energy and violent movement. The subtitle of the poem, "Man, you gotta go" denotes the unwillingness and inability to stand still. It is the epigraph to the poem.

In the first stanza, Gunn briefly introduces the general premise of the poem, that is, always to be on the move. The bird of the crow family, the blue jay, with its gay plumage, with its confused movements, is also always on the move, following some hidden purpose.

The aimlessness of the motor-cycle gang:

The depiction of "the boys" in the second stanza seems sympathetic (they are seen very much as they wish to be seen, bikes, goggles, leather jackets) yet Gunn also views them critically. Gunn uses the analogy (parallel) of the actions of the motorcyclists to show how modern man in general (in the poem, referred to as "one") lacks a clear sense of purpose and thus follows others, even if their activity too, is ultimately purposeless. They are unable and unwilling to keep still. They have replaced language with noise, and pursue their hidden purpose forward.

The statement that men "manufacture both machine and soul" is developed in the reference, later, to the "self-defined" and the "created will". It examines the idea that modern man invents or chooses, as a deliberate act of will, definitions of lifestyle and personality, to supply what nature has omitted.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Gunn shows how the bikers' activity, because it is only a "part solution" leaves the central existential problem still open, whether there is a solution or only a "part solution" to man's lack of purpose. Thus, for Gunn, man's life is a struggle in which, through action, kind of victory is won in defeat. The poem can be understood in three ways: as an example for the poet's heroic stance; as a sociological footnote of the fifties, and as a beautifully finished piece of imaginative writing.