Natural History - Dan Chiasson

Dan Chiasson’s Natural History is a collection of poems written in satirical sense. Most use animals, the most prominent one being an elephant as seen by the three poems titled, “The Elephant,” and with the last section being written from the point of a circus elephant (Ryan). His title refers to Pliny’s “Historia Naturalis.” The title was taken because Chiasson used Pliny’s work as inspiration, but only as a model. He “does not re-appropriate the text in a recognizable manner…What Chiasson was looking to mimic was a different kind of information” (Cronk). In the back of the book in Chiasson’s notes, he says that in a few cases, he “borrowed images and phrases from Pliny” in cases such as the poem, “The Elephant (I).” However, the poems “derive their elements in their stance, their voice, and the cadence from Pliny” (Chiasson).

Building on that, I really admire the form of the poetry in the second and third sections of the book. The form, to me, went really well with the flow of the poems and I found reading them enjoyable. I also really enjoyed the topics and the satire in the poems. My favourite would be “There is a Star in the Sea.” To me, this poem was really well written, especially given that it is one of the shortest in the books. It really did give me a laugh as compared to the other poems.

In this poem, Chiasson personifies the star, in that “it had the good sense to become a fish, but the wit/ to keep its shape.” I found this line is really applicable to the title Natural History, in that from a biological standpoint, this was how evolution somewhat works. The animals, through their genome have this “wit” to evolve over countless generations so that they can adapt to a new environment.

What I really found comical about this poem was the line, “But one day I’ll play a trick on it – I’ll turn the ocean / Upside down!” Here Chiasson speaks as if he could switch the sky and the ocean so that the star will once again be a star, just so he could “pray to it.”

                I found this to be the most comical, but the poem I found the most interesting was the long poem in the third section, “Scared by the Smallest Shriek of a Pig, and When Wounded, Always give Ground.” The poem was about a circus elephant but what I find most interesting about this poem was the voice from the perspective of the circus elephant, and the content of the poem itself.

. . . is poetry picking a pretty word,
say, “charred” instead of “burned” --
as in “charred in a fire”? Real life is so raw,
all on its own; it hurts; words should perhaps
protect us from real life.
Perhaps words should be a shield, rather than
a mirror; and maybe poems should be
an ornamented shield, like the shields
gods made for their favorite soldiers,
sons and lovers. Poems should be
like people’s faces by firelight:
a little true, for verification’s sake,
but primarily beautiful. Or like
pomegranates: hard to open at first
but, when you get them open, full of sweet granules
of meaning. Once, when I was bathed in wine
as part of a military victory parade,
I was purple for a month --
I liked the looks of me that way,
like a giant pomegranate seed!
That’s what a poem should be:
recognizable reality, but dyed,
a sign that someone here felt joy,
someone was released from pain...

                In these verses, Chiasson is peaking about poetry and what poems should be. I really found that these lines stayed with me the most after reading the poem. It was as if, a student taking a course in Creative Writing, I finally got this poetic description of what a poem should be.

Works Cited

Chiasson, D. (2006). Natural History and Other Poems. Bloodaxe Books Ltd.

Cronk, O. (n.d.). Natural History by Dan Chiasson. Retrieved from http://www.bookslut.com/poetry/2005_09_006546.php.

Ryan, K. (n.d.). Absolut Pliny. Retrieved from New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/20/books/review/20ryan.html

Natural History- A Collection of Human Experiences

Dan Chiasson takes the title of his collection of poetry- 'Natural History' from Pliny the Elder's 'Historia Naturalis'- in which Pliny attempts to record all of the ancient Roman knowledge. 'Historia Naturalis' gave the model that all future encyclopedias were based off on- this ties into Chiasson's work as his collection of poetry is suggestive of the fact that like an encyclopedia, a human being is a collection of all things in the world- experiences that are physical and emotional. And so in Natural History- Chiasson gives to his readers individual poems that come together beautifully almost in a manner, reminiscent to an encyclopedia. 

What I loved most about the book was the sheer variance in the tone and the style of the poems. Which on the first reading was mildly unsettling, but really reflected back to the almost encyclopedic style of the book-- the dissonance in the styles and the way he wrote about different subjects made me think about how true to life his poetry was- we react differently to different things- so why should poetry about them be similar?

And so, we have "Love Song (Smelt)"--

When I say "you" in my poems; I mean you. 

I know its weird; we barely met

You must hear this all the time, being you. 

That night we were on the opposite ends of

the long table, after the pungent

Russian condiments, the carafes of tarragon vodka 

the chafing dishes full of boiled smelts

I was a little drunk; after you left

I ate the last smelt off your dirty plate

--which is written in very matter-of-fact way. Chiasson states exactly what he wants to say exactly the way he would say it- no pretension and no hiding behind extended metaphors. His tone is colloquial, cheeky and edging on being almost smug. And it fits because he's talking about a situation where he feels taken by a woman he's met at a nice restaurant at probably a social function- the modern version of romance- colored by the rosy hue of inebriation. 

At the same time, Dan Chiasson also gives to its readers- "There Is A Star In The Sea"-- 

There is a star in the sea, and it burns up everything

it touches. Though men who walk on land deny it. 

One night a star fell from the sky and landed in the sea.

It had the good sense to become a fish but the wit

to keep its shape.It sleeps on the bottom of the sea,

but one day, I'll play a trick on it--I'll turn the ocean

Upside down! then it will shine again, coral bluff

rusted galleon in the night sky and I will pray to it

--Which has been written in a whimsical tone. Despite the sparseness in the description- it invokes powerful imagery. Nature is personified in the star which is depicted more as live creature as opposed to a ball of hot gases, in its decision to become a fish- which shows the way human beings perceive nature- often with a sense of wonder. This poem was my favorite because it made me nostalgic of my babyhood when my father used to tell me bed time stories before tucking me in.

'Natural History' is a collection of human experiences- because with Dan Chiasson, you can experience the grunge of a modern day romance to the wonder of nature. 

-Smriti Bansal

A Personal History Full of Images of Nature

Dan Chiasson’s Natural History proved an interesting read, especially in contrast to the historically fictional poems of Ellen Voigt’s Kyrie and David Roderick’s Blue Colonial. It’s almost ironic, then, that the word “history” would be part of the title of this collection of poems published in 2006. I find that “natural” definitely captures more of the essence of Chiasson’s poems than “history” does—unless, of course, we’re simply focusing on the author/speaker’s personal history, which seems to be the case here. I really liked the way Chiasson so heavily used imagery, often turning to the inspirational scenes of forests and rivers to express emotion in his verses, while sharing with us bits and pieces of his life, often even using his own name in poems such as “To Dan Chiasson Concerning Fortune,” “To Helena Concerning Dan Chiasson,” and “After Party,” to name a few.

I felt that “Purple Bush” was remarkably abundant in imagery and figurative language:

“The whiff of an extinguished candle

            will sometimes cause a miscarriage.

Eels must travel far upstream to where

            the river becomes a ribbon to spawn.

In that shallow water their babies risk

            exposure to the harsh midday sun.” (89)

These first three stanzas of “Purple Bush” work intensely with pictures from nature to weave a story of the unborn. The words themselves, whether heard aloud or in one’s mind flow so gently from the page, only facilitating the creation of this marvelous tapestry. Though he used a rather overused source of imagery, Chiasson was definitely right to use forests and rivers and wildlife as he did; without it his poems would have lacked the earthiness that brings his words to life.

One of Chiasson’s poems that really struck me was “The Elephant.” Though I don’t fully grasp the meaning of all of his short couplets, I could definitely relate to Chiasson’s experience of being (somewhat unfortunately) compared to Wallace Stevens and Randall Jarrell, even though in his mind he resembled more the great TS Eliot, “a man of Europe, a man of cultivation” (88). The juxtaposition of self-concept and public image here was brilliant in my opinion, especially when set in the midst of a metaphor in which Chiasson likens himself (and perhaps other writers as well) to an elephant, “an image of humility” later stripped of all pretenses with the words: “That’s not humility you see on our long final journeys: it’s procrastination. It hurts my heavy body to lie down” (88). Perhaps I was initially drawn to this specific poem because, since the cover of Chiasson’s book itself depicts an elephant, I amateurishly linked the two and gave this poem a special meaning over the ones surrounding it, but I did the metaphor very meaningful, and it made me wonder what kind of animals and what other writers I might liken myself to as a writer, or if I should also feel this strange link to elephants as my soul in animal form. 

I can safely say that I enjoyed Chiasson’s Natural History. Like him, I want to be able to successfully incorporate imagery in my poem and to find the exact words to fill the lines so that my words flow as effortlessly and gracefully as Chiasson’s did.

Works Cited

Chiasson, Dan. Natural History. Northumberland, England: Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 2006. Print.