Frank O’hara was an American poet and art critic who was born in Baltimore, Maryland and was one of the New York School of Poetry. He first studied piano at the New England Conservatory before being drafted to the Navy in WWII and serving in Japan and the South Pacific. Upon his return he utilized the scholarships offered by the government to attend Harvard where he was majoring in composition and music but his interests began to wane. He began taking theology and philosophy classes and began writing in his spare time. He changed his major and graduated with a degree in English and went on to study at graduate school at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
In his poem, Mayakovsky, I think that O’hara is referring to his time as a soldier and his yearning for knowing what that has done to his psyche. I think that at the beginning of the poem he is reminded of when he was a little boy, perhaps getting ready for bed at night, wondering where his father was. He wanted to see his father one last time before he went to bed. He then goes on to say “That’s funny, there’s blood on my chest, oh yes I’ve been carrying bricks, what a funny place to rupture.” He has now transitioned to war time, he has blood on his chest and the bricks are the baggage from home that he brings. Everyone who I believe goes to war begins to revert back to old distant memories in order to escape the painful images they are seeing around them. This poem may have some relevance today with the onslaught of America’s “War on Terror” but has no personal resonance for me. My father was always home at a reasonable hour, due to not having an extremely long commute to work, and I have never seen the spoils of war. The poem itself is still poignant and beautifully written and I think that I understand what he may be searching to say, but I could not feel nor convey the emotions that he expresses myself.
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