Analysis Of Jack Gilbert

Jack Gilbert, Born in 1925, grew up and educated in Pittsburgh, San Francisco. He spent various periods of his life outside the United States, mostly in France, Italy, and Greece, but rarely publishing. His first book of poetry, Views of Jeopardy, (1962) won the Yale Younger Poets Prize and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. (Wikipedia) He was married to the American poet Linda Gregg and later to the Japanese poet Michiko Nogami, to whom he dedicated a limited edition of poems. He presently resides in Berkeley, California.

Jack Gilbert uses a simple, personal tone in his poems. He is able to create a balance between intellect and emotion. To an interview with the Paris review he said: “So much poetry that’s written today doesn’t need to be written. I don’t understand the need for trickery or some new way of
Circe was a semi goddess, best known for her role in Homer's Odyssey. During Odysseus adventures towards Ithaca, he and his crew reached the residence of Circe. Circe turned his crew into pigs, but Odysseus, protected by Hermes, compelled her to restore them to their original shape. In the first stanza the speaker tells the readers that “Circe had no pleasure in pigs. Pigs, wolves, nor fawning lions. She sang in our language and, beautiful, waited for quality”. If Circe represent the poet/Artist, then Gilbert creates a metaphor for the poet waiting patiently for the right people who can appreciate his creations. We can notice that time has an important role in the poem. The second stanza opens with “Every month they came”, and third stanza “season after season, dinner after dinner”, shows us that finding true appreciation takes time. The speaker advice that “every month they came” while “The great sea-light behind them”, uses an imagery of shadows which light behinds them, not able to see their faces, which makes them all look the