Joshua Harms
College English: 1020 Literature analysis
Professor Moninger
Poetry criticism essay
April 25, 13
Motorcycles: Poetry and real life
One of Americans favorite pastimes is riding motorcycles across America. It
has been a hobby since the early 1900’s. This is why a poem about motorcycles, and
even more specifically a motorcycle talking, would spark the interest of any
American Person. Motorcycles are something that everyone can relate to. That is
why Mona Van Duyn’s poem “What the Motorcycle Said” is a very interesting poem
in of itself. However, if we begin to look at the Psychoanalyst criticism of this poem
it brings out a deeper meaning. Through her culture, her way of writing, and the
words that she uses, we can see how the physiological criticism of Duyn is very
interesting. According to the studies done by Sigmund and Freud, “human beings
are motivated, even driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are
unaware.”(Brizee) This tells us that when you are looking at a psychological
criticism you don’t look at how they are saying things; you are looking at what
caused them to write this type of poetry. Not only the physical factors, but also the
factors of the mind that some writers do not even know about. Some people do not
even realize how much they are influenced by the mind, without even knowing it.
Through the words they are speaking, the way the author writes it, and the
background history of the person, we can begin to look at the neurological reasons
for a person writing a poem the way that they do.
When Van Duyn wrote the poem “What the Motorcycle Said” she describes the
person who rides a motorcycle as someone who is very cool. In the poem
It says, “I’ll never be mean, tired, or unsexy.” This shows that Mona Van Duyn
viewed the motorcycle and its riders as being cool and someone that is really
popular. Even though the thought most associated with people who ride
motorcycles are people who are rude, and rough. Usually old men with white
flowing beards. However, Duyn wrote about a person who is obviously good looking
and full of energy, and that everyone gets along with. The psychological criticism
shows that Duyn viewed motorcycle riders as cool and collected. That is something
that was not a common point of view. Mona Van Duyn also had an opinion on
people who are living well. She describes them as people that are “middle class
money makers” and “People who live on dad”. Mona obviously didn’t think that
these people were really that great even though she made all that money. Mona
viewed herself as really able to enjoy life while they were stuck up in their fancy
chairs and business suits. Even though Duyn didn’t mean to she was a person who
thought that it was more important to enjoy life than make a lot of money.
Duyn obviously was very opinionated in her writing. Even in the small poems
that she wrote, Duyn described bikers in something that no one else would use. She
also shows that she does not like to follow rules. She says in her poem that she hates
plastic wear it black and slick. This shows that she doesn’t think its cool to go
around and obey the law at every turn and to listen to whatever they have to say.
Duyn shows a personality that is not really someone that you would want to mess
with. In the book looking in looking out it says that based on culture, people look
differently at certain types of people (Adler). Duyn is from the lower class grade of
people. Therefore she looks at law enforcement and people who are considered
rough and unfriendly as cool and fashionable. This poem shows us that Duyn viewed
cops only as people who would get you in trouble and make your life miserable.
Duyn shows her opinion through this poem time and time again.
The final thing to notice about Duyn is her use of language. Using the S word
and F-word show a side of Duyn that only a poem could show. Even though she only
cusses two or three times in a poem, it shows that Duyn is someone who does not
care what people think about her. She is not worried about being prim and proper.
She only is concerned with getting her point across. I believe that the language that
she uses shows a rough side to Duyn that only a poem could show. She is someone
that doesn’t take any crap from anyone.
All of these points show that a persons thoughts and your mind plays a huge
part in the writing of the poem. If you simply read a story about a person then judge
them you would get a different look than if you look at why they wrote the story the
way they did. I think that Duyn shows a personality that is not very common in
popular people. Most people try to keep their inner self so that people do not think
that they are weird or look down on them. Duyn was not afraid of what people
would think of her. She wrote exactly what she was thinking. Also Duyn was a
person who was probably considered as a person who was in the upper class. She
went to college and received a degree. She wasn’t someone who dressed shabbily
and thought that everyone below her was less than her. However she obviously had
an opinion that she only expressed when she was writing her poetry. Duyn is a poet
that interests me very much. I look forward to learning more about her poems
throughout my life.
Works Cited
Adler, Ronald B., and Russel F. Proctor, II. Looking Out: Looking In - 13th Edition.
Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Brizee, Allen, and Case Tompkins. "Welcome to the Purdue OWL." Purdue OWL:
Literary Theory and Schools of Criticism. Purdue OWL, 14 Sept. 2012. Web. 30
Apr. 2013. <https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/722/04/>.
"Van Duyn, Mona." Current Biography 59.1 (1998): 46. Academic Search Premier.
Web. 30 Apr. 2013.