Sound and Sense #1

"Constantly risking absurdity" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti is essentially a metaphor for writing poetry itself. Specifically the speaker compares a poet to an acrobat at a circus, making leap and maneuvers. The complex and precise actions that an acrobat must preform to succeed and avoid death are directly compared to the methods of poetry that are used to avoid absurdity. The poem uses unique line structure and spacing to convey its meaning. Most of the lines are split in two parts, which flow together as sentences, but allow each part to be considered individually. For example the opening lines, "Constantly risking absurdity/ and death" ("Constantly risking absurdity" 1-2), make sense together, but when "and death" is placed on its own represents a totally unrelated idea. This structure forces each line to be viewed in context and alone. This allows for the expression of a broad idea and a nuanced description at the same time.