An Analysis Of 'An Old Cracked Tune'

Stanley Kunitz: A dive into life American poet, essayist, translator, gardener, and journalist, Stanley Kunitz is a man of many talents. While possessing these many skills--and implementing all throughout his lengthy career--he had quite the adherence to poetry. From his metaphysical and intricate early works, to a more pensive narrative he retained later, Kunitz gained the reputation of being a “poet’s poet.” It is through these later (and more reflective) undertakings that make his work still relevant today. Kunitz implements a multitude of techniques to illustrate such pensive works and lessons to show his perspective upon life. It is through the glass of poetry he shall have us look and see his themes of wonderment, reflectiveness, and
He creates an alter ego, an outlying character as the poem is no longer from his perspective. By pushing the narration to or about someone else, and creating this persona of what he wishes he could be, Kunitz ideally creates sense of bravado in his characters and elevates his themes by doing so. No poem is this more apparent than in one of his later workings, “An Old Cracked Tune.” We start by getting to know his alter ego of Solomon Levi, a man with no father and a thorny mother. He lives in the desert and is taught by the sand and the rocks. Yet, Kunitz ends with the most powerful line, “I dance for the joy of surviving, on the edge of the road.” The heart of the poem is fully driven home by this last line. Kunitz is imploring us to dance, for we are alive. What a miracle and happy day it is. This theme of enjoyment or appreciation is elevated by his creation of Solomon Levi. He is who Kunitz wishes he could be, bold, taught by the rocks and earth, and he dances, for he is happy. This creation has the effect of making this common theme into one of substance and meaning found in the interesting character of Levi. Kunitz uses a specific technique to push his theme deeper and leave a more lasting imprint of the reader. Kunitz implements this technique again in the poem “The Long Boat.” In this poem, unlike usual, it is not from his own perspective. Rather, we see a persona of Kunitz in the form of a man adrift on a long boat. Kunitz undertook this poem to illustrate the burdens of life, and the joy that comes with letting go and enjoying the moment. To best show this he created this new character (the man on the boat) as someone every reader can identify and see themselves as, shown in this