The Compass

The Compass (p. 586-587)

All of the lines in this poem seem to describe the appearance of a compass, particularly the presence of the two parts that make a compass useful (North and South). The poem begins with "a star" in the first line, giving a very superficial view of a typical compass whose cardinal directions contribute to a star-like appearance. It then proceeds to describe the function and importance of both North and South when the speaker mentions "what else/comes in pairs" (lines 7-8); without exactly two component parts, the compass is useless. It then provides objects whose structural appearances could be used as makeshift compasses themselves, such as the letters "t" and "x." Despite that both the North and South poles of the compass exist, it is never completely correct as magnetic fields on the Earth are almost never located at the poles. The lack of punctuation, capitalization, and multiple fragments (some of which seem nonsensical) give me a strange feeling that I cannot completely trust this compass.

Now that I think about it, the compass could also be another way of describing our course of life and the choices we make based on the information we gather through our own compasses: information that we obtain through word of mouth, text on a page, through the media, or even though school. The poem's rough flow seems to indicate the difficulties in our decisions to trust our compasses (in the forms of our methods of obtaining information).

The poem ends with animals with wings (a raven), mostly animals that do not have them (a lion, ox, and man), and then ends with "an arrow." The concept of flight seems to start as a living entity that is capable of supporting itself with its wings, but then transforms quickly into animals who cannot fly because they do not have wings. The arrow (as in a "bow and arrow") is not a living being and will therefore eventually fall to the ground. The speaker seems to say that if we rush into our decisions (such as through "flight"), we might eventually fail and fall because of a bad decision. However, the last line, "what is lovely an arrow" seems sarcastic but at the same time paradoxical; he seems to say that falling without a means to regain flight is a disadvantage, yet the arrow could also indicate the direction that we follow in life using a compass. This direction in life might cause us to fall like an arrow striking the ground, but when we learn from our mistakes, it is a "lovely" feeling to know that we have gained wisdom through the mistake from rushing too fast into our decision-making.

I felt that this poem in particular was interesting to me because I also face the same kind of feeling that is reflected throughout the structure of the poem. I face dilemmas many times each year and yet I find myself often making the wrong decision and falling like an arrow because I trusted false information (or I did not trust true information, whichever may be the case). Also, the rough feel of the poem seems to reflect the difficulties of waking up each day to seemingly torture myself with work, but it still feels good to know that I am learning something new every day (or at least every other day) because of previous mistakes or other means of learning.