Literary commentary on the poem "the satirist" taken from collected poems by Louis Mac Neice

Résumé du document

Louis Mac Neice was a famous Irish playwright and poet. He was born on September 12th, 1907 and died on September 3rd, 1963. He was a member of the "thirties poets" which included W. H. Auden, C. Day Lewis and Stephen Spender. He wrote many plays like The Dark Tower and other radio scripts and above all many poems like Letters from Iceland and Collected Poems in 1966 edited by E. R. Dodds. We are going to try to understand how - through a poem which seems to be a criticism of satirists - the poet succeeds in hiding praise.

Extraits

[...] Literary commentary on the poem satirist” taken from collected poems by Louis Mac Neice Louis Mac Neice was a famous Irish playwright and poet. He was born on September 12th and died on September 3rd He was a member of the “thirties poets” which included W. H. Auden, C. Day Lewis and Stephen Spender. He wrote many plays like The Dark Tower and other radio scripts and above all many poems like Letters from Iceland and Collected Poems in 1966 edited by E. [...]

[...] To highlight this satirist's value, Neice says is that mad, so deftly filling his pipe / As if he created something?” with the image of the mad who is filling his pipe, that underlines the fact that the satirist analyses and skillfully thinks of what he says in his satire. And the image of creation illustrates the fact that the satirist suggests a new world, he created something better in his satire. All this second part shows that, satirists are sharp in their satires and they give an example of a perfect new world in their satire. satirist” is a poem which offers two opposite views of who can be a satirist. To conclude, satirist a poem which both denounces satirists' practices and defends their satires. [...]

[...] He also uses comparisons, when he says “this man, with eye like a lonely he compares the satirist to a dog, because a dog smells to find a bone, and the satirist goes into people's flaws to write his satire, and lonely because the satirist is a person rejected by the society because he denounces human's vices and flaws (and people are to proud to recognize their mistakes). Then, to continue the satirist's negative description, Neice uses pejorative vocabulary, he writes “pinprick”;”dissect”;”condemned”, and pejorative expressions, like “selfish motive”;”not creative at is There is also a parallelism of construction at the end of verses two and three can dissect” and can discover”. That denounces the fact that satirists search to find all Human flaws. [...]

[...] Then, the satirist makes thoughtful criticism, when Neice says that the satirist “knows what he missed, what the others missed unconsciously.” It means that the satirist is a human person, so all the flaws he denounces in his satires are also his own flaws. Even if he has a definite target, he doesn't tell that he is perfect. Like everybody, he has got vices But he is conscious of them. That's why he writes satires, he tries to make people to be aware of their own flaws. The satirist never makes “free satire”. Finally, the satirist is highlighted in this poem, because satires are interesting because the satirist suggests some ideas, to improve what he criticizes. [...]

[...] Moreover, at the end of verse four the verb “collect” reinforces this idea. Finally, Neice tries to show us that people made many prejudices against satirists. They are considered “onlookers” who criticize their lack of invention. Because the satirist only makes an observation of all human's flaws. Moreover they are considered “heartless” types. Satirists make biting criticism of society, persons or politics and they write everything they think and they want to tell. Their selfishness is also denounces in this poem reverence here for hero, saint or lover.” We saw this poem criticizes the satirist with many terms, expressions, metaphors, comparisons and irony to denounce their practice, their behaviors and their personality. [...]