Galway Kinnell poem “When the Towers Fell”.
- Apart from describing what he sees that day and recording his reactions, what other purpose guides Kinnell in the writing of this poem? {In his remarks before the reading on the accompanying CD Kinnel mentions this as the reason why he felt he had to write.}
2. What are three different perspectives on the events of September 11 you can see in this poem?
(a)
(b)
(c)
3.What does the quotation from the medieval poet François Villon mean? (second stanza, lines 6 – 9)Why does Kinnell include it?
4. Describe TWO techniques used in stanzas 2, 3, 4, 5 to give the reader the sense of what actually happened and how overwhelming it was for those there.
(a)
(b)
5. What is the purpose of including the two quotations from Paul Celan? (Schawrze Milch der Fruhe wir trinken sie abends, section 8, Wir schaufeln ein Grab in den Luft da liegt man nicht eng, last line section 9)
6. What perspective on September 11 is implied in section 9, “They come before us now not as a likeness,/ but as a corollary, a small instance in the immense/ lineage of the twentieth century’s history of violent death”?
7. In what way does section 10 work as a type of opposite to section 9?
8. Section 12 is the shortest in the poem but it may well be the most powerful. What is it saying? How does Kinnell use words to make it shock the reader?
9. Section 13 introduces the mid 19th century American poet Walt Whitman who wrote during the American Civil War? Why does Kinnell include this reference? How does the inclusion of an excerpt from a poem about the Civil War fit Kinnell’s stated purpose, “to try to make sense of what had happened”?
10. What image is used in the final section of the poem? Do you find the last section of the poem an effective ending?
11. The poem is constructed of many short sections marked off from each other. Many of these sections in turn consist of one-line statements laid down one after another in an order that feels more about effect that having any given set reason. Why is the poem constructed this way? What advantage does this structure have for the nature of Kinnell’s task – to capture an event that has just happened of which he is in part a witness and to attempt to make some sense of it?
12. Write a paragraph stating what are the conflicting perspectives Kinnell offers on September 11, how he conveys them to the reader and what he adds to what reader knows already from seeing the film footage.