Ferlinghetti's poem "Constantly risking absurdity" uses unconventional structure and meter to convey the risks a poet takes to perform above their audience. The poet is likened to an acrobat, balancing on a high wire above a sea of faces and performing tricks without mistake. The choppy line breaks and spacing mimic an acrobat's movements. In the second half, the poet is described as a "super realist" striving for beauty, but they may fail to "catch" its form. The unconventional form serves the message of risking failure to attain higher ideas.

1. Constantly risking absurdity
a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919)
Critiqued by:
Sarah Maguire

2. What is a poem?
 ―It is not meters, but a meter-making
argument, that makes a poem—a
thought so passionate and alive
that, like the spirit of a plant or
animal, it has an architecture of its
own, and adorns nature with a new
thing‖
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. Thus, the greatness of Ferlinghetti’s
―Constantly risking absurdity‖ will be
evaluated on the following criteria:
 Not its meter, but its ―meter making argument‖
 Its passion and liveliness
 The originality of its architecture
 If it ―adorns nature with a new thing‖

4. Constantly risking absurdity
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
above a sea of faces
paces his way
to the other side of the day
performing entrachats
and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
and all without mistaking
any thing
for what it may not be

5. Originality
 Unconventional meter
 Unconventional structure
 No rhyme
 Yet, appropriate for the poem’s message

6. Acrobat imagery
 Subject of poem ―performs/above the heads/of his audience‖ (3-5)
 How appropriate that poem is structured:
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
 The word ―he‖ is literally above the word ―heads,‖
which is literally above ―audience‖ – as a real acrobat
would literally perform above the heads of his
audience
 the poet risk writing ―above the heads/of his
audience‖ – they might not understand his
message(4-5).

7.  The unique indentation and choppy spacing on
the poem contributes to Ferlinghetti’s attempt
to convey that, like an acrobat, the poet
is, ―balancing on eyebeams/above a sea of
faces‖ (9-10).
 As an audience follows the ―entrechats/and
sleight-of-foot tricks/and other high theatrics‖
of an acrobat, the poem’s reader’s eyes follow
its staggered phrases unconventionally spaced
across the page and his written ―sleight-of-foot
tricks‖ (14-16).

8.  The structure of the poem mimics the climbing action of an
acrobat in the way the phrase is broken up into lines and spaced
strategically:
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making

9.  The structure also mimics his taking of steps:
before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
toward that still higher perch
 The way in which the poet uses emjambment, cutting lines off
mid-phrase, reflects his climbing ―toward that still higher
perch,‖ as ideas are cut off into sections and the structure
resembles an various levels, like perches (24).

10.  A transition occurs midway through the poem on line 19:
For he’s the super realist
as ―For‖ is the first word to be capitalized since the first
word of the poem, signaling a transition or development to a
new idea (19).

11.  It is noted that he ―must perforce perceive/taut truth‖ to
advance, ―toward that still higher perch/where Beauty
stands and waits‖ (20-1, 24-5).
 However, though Beauty will ―start her death-defying leap,‖
he ―may or may not catch/her fair eternal
form/spreadeagled in the empty air/of existence‖ (27, 30-3).
o He is trying to attain beauty
o He may or may not attain or ―catch‖ her

12. Yes, ―Constantly risking absurdity‖ is
a great poem
 No conventional structure or meter, but present
structure and meter best emphasize poem’s point
 Passion and liveliness in the thrill of risky theatrics and
death-defying stunts
 Ideas and ―architecture‖ of poem are truly
different, original, and suiting to its idea
 Throws out new idea:

13. To think about…
 Taking the ―next step‖ can be risky, but such risks are
often necessary to get to ―that still higher perch‖
 One ―may or may not catch‖ the ―fair eternal form‖ of
who or what one seeks – so to risk so much for the
change of failure can seem absurd
 But, one can choose an existence of always trying to
reach that perch, and thus ―Constantly risking
absurdity‖ in the process

14. The End