On the Move, Man You Gotta Go

On The Move, Man you gotta go:

The blue jay scuffling in the bushes follows
Some hidden purpose, and the gush of birds
That spurts across the field, the wheeling swallows,
Have nested in the trees and undergrowth.
Seeking their instinct, or their pose, or both,
One moves with an uncertain violence
Under the dust thrown by a baffled sense
Or the dull thunder of approximate words.
On motorcycles, up the road, they come:
Small, black, as flies hanging in heat, the Boy,
Until the distance throws them forth, their hum
Bulges to thunder held by calf and thigh.
In goggles, donned impersonality,
In gleaming jackets trophied with the dust,
They strap in doubt--by hiding it, robust--
And almost hear a meaning in their noise.
Exact conclusion of their hardiness
Has no shape yet, but from known whereabouts
They ride, directions where the tires press.
They scare a flight of birds across the field:
Much that is natural, to the will must yield.
Men manufacture both machine and soul,
And use what they imperfectly control
To dare a future from the taken routes.
It is part solution, after all.
One is not necessarily discord
On Earth; or damned because, half animal,
One lacks direct instinct, because one wakes
Afloat on movement that divides and breaks.
One joins the movement in a valueless world,
Crossing it, till, both hurler and the hurled,
One moves as well, always toward, toward.
A minute holds them, who have come to go:
The self-denied, astride the created will.
They burst away; the towns they travel through
Are home for neither birds nor holiness,
For birds and saints complete their purposes.
At worse, one is in motion; and at best,
Reaching no absolute, in which to rest,
One is always nearer by not keeping still

jay2(j³)

n.1. Any of various often crested birds of the genera Garrulus, Cyanocitta, Aphelocoma, and related genera within the family Corvidae, often having a loud, harsh call. Also Calledjaybird.

On the Move

This poem, from Gunn's second collection, is his most famous piece, and among the best-known of all post-war poems. In it, the aimless but threatening movement of a motorcycle gang becomes a metaphor for modern man's sense of alienation and lack of purpose. The image is very much of its time but illustrates a more lasting problem, not knowing one's destination and, so, joining the movement which offers the illusion of purpose, as a “part-solution”. When you have read the poem, try to discover what Gunn is arguing in it. Then see if you can follow the way in which Gunn uses the analogy (parallel) of the actions of the motorcyclists to show how modern man in general (in the poem, referred to as “one”) lacks a clear sense of purpose and thus follows others, even if their activity, too, is ultimately purposeless.

Why are saints different from most people, and why are they likened to birds, rather than to other men?

In the first stanza, Gunn briefly introduces the general premiss of the poem, which is fully developed in the fourth stanza. Try to understand what Gunn means by “uncertain violence” and the “dull thunder of approximate words”. How does Gunn justify this kind of movement (albeit equivocally) with his theory of the “part solution” later in the poem?

The depiction of “the boys” in the second stanza seems sympathetic (they are seen very much as they wish to be seen, bikes, goggles, leather jackets) yet Gunn also views them critically. Consider the effect of such phrases as “trophied with the dust” or “they strap in doubt” and their “almost hear(ing) a meaning in their noise”.

Consider the statement that men “manufacture both machine and soul”. How is this developed in the reference, later, to the “self-defined” and the “created will”? Is “what they imperfectly control” something more (or other) than their motorcycles? Show how Gunn, in this poem, examines the idea that modern man invents or chooses, as a deliberate act of will, definitions of lifestyle and personality, to supply what nature has omitted.

In conclusion, show how the bikers' activity, because it is only a “part solution” leaves the central existential problem still open (whether there is a solution or only a “part solution” to man's lack of purpose). Show, too, how the form of the poem matches its content, the tight iambic metre and the formal eight-line stanzas resembling the jackets which “strap in” doubt.

Kelly, from the University of Florida, sent me an interesting quotation from Thom Gunn, in which he writes critically about On the Move:

There are many things to dislike about On the Move. To begin with, there's the constant use of the word “one”, which I find very stilted now. Now I would use the word “you” rather than “one”. Then again, it's such a period piece. I say that, not because it's based on a short book by Sartre, or because it's also based on The Wild One, but because of its tremendous formality, which I really dislike. I'm also not sure that the last line (“One is always nearer by not keeping still”) means anything.

Focus poem: 'On the Move'
A 'Beat' poem, but written in a highly controlled, formal style.
What does this poem seem to be saying about human energy and will? (You might like to compare it with Ted Hughes' 'Thrushes' - a poem on a similar theme, but much more resignedly pessimistic, in my view.)
Consider Gunn's use of the word 'one' in stanzas 1,4&5. Do you get the sense that Gunn is really talking about himself here, but displacing/faking(?) things by using the generalised 'one'?
How insistent are the sexual connotations in this poem? ('spurts', 'come', 'Bulges to thunder held by calf and thigh' etc.) Read Bruce Woodcock's interpretation of the poem (64) with its indications of how a gay reading of the poem might be developed.
Is this a poem about the exploration of sexual identity, or a poem about the search for meaning in a world seemingly without values, or both?
Be aware of the formal control in this dense and highly accomlished poem. Check out the regular, but quite complex, rhyme scheme, and focus on the skilful rhythm and diction in the poem.

.. for Gunn during this period, the Beat poems performed a fantasy function which allowed an exploration of sexual identity, though a contained one. These poses are images of desire which lead nowhere fast. They indicate a struggle to deal with sexual desire but in ways which the poems themselves often declare as unsatisfying. The emphasis on the machine, instrumentality, the will, containment, are one side of the picture but not all.
(Woodcock, 65)