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Roger McGough Meets Ray LaMontagne (Week 21)

April 4, 2013 by Francis Flores   

Hello, everyone! So I was originally going to do a poem by Maya Angelou because I really liked it, but I started the whole analytical process and it turns out the whole poem was about sex. The whole poem was literally describing the speaker having sex, so I decided not to do that poem, even though I had perfect music for it. Wow. Anyway, I hope you guys are doing well. Is anyone else SUPER excited at how close the end of the school year is, or am I the only one? I honestly cannot wait to go home, no offense to Pennsylvania. I’m in a weird and jittery mood. I think the coffee is starting to actually seep into my skin because I don’t drink coffee.

So, this week I found two gorgeous pieces. I’ll be looking at “The Trouble With Snowmen” by Roger McGough and “Are We Really Through” by Ray LaMontagne.

I actually could not find the publication date for “The Trouble With Snowmen,” but if any of you poetry buffs happen to know, that’d be great.

“Are We Really Through” was written and performed by Ray LaMontagne and released on his “God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise” on August 17, 2010.

Here is the song *note: The “Pariah Dogs” are the other musicians he collaborated with on this album*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5eSzHrkw8s

The Trouble With Snowmen

‘The trouble with snowmen,’

Said my father one year

‘They are no sooner made

than they just disappear.

 

I’ll build you a snowman

And I’ll build it to last

Add sand and cement

And then have it cast.

 

And so every winter,’

He went on to explain

‘You shall have a snowman

Be it sunshine or rain.’

 

And that snowman still stands

Though my father is gone

Out there in the garden

Like an unmarked gravestone.

 

Staring up at the house

Gross and misshapen

As if waiting for something

Bad to happen.

 

Far as the years pass

And I grow older

When summers seem short

And winters colder

 

The snowmen I envy

As I watch children play

Are the ones that are made

And then fade away.

 

To be honest, I actually have no idea how I found this poem. I was on poemhunter.com (or something similar to that, I really don’t remember) when I saw his name in the suggestion bar to the side based on my recent views. I think this poem is so great. The beginning of the poem starts off so lighthearted and sweet. The speaker reflects on an important part of his childhood and does so with an ABAB-type rhyme scheme, which gives it that lighthearted tone. It’s almost as if the speaker (I’m just going to refer to the speaker as ‘he”) and his father are sitting inside after a long snowman-building session and drinking hot chocolate when the father brings this up in the hopes of lightening up his son’s eyes. As the poem continues, though, it is revealed that the speaker’s father has died even though the snowman still remains. When this is revealed the rhyme scheme doesn’t quite match up, and this indicates a nuance in tone; however, it’s not a complete change, because it takes up two stanzas to shift into the next major tone of the poem. Starting from “And that snowman still stands…” to “Bad to happen,” the speaker provides an image of how the snowman looks now. It is no longer an innocent father’s attempt to make his child happy, it is now a permanent stone-cold figure that will not leave the speaker’s sight. The last two stanzas are mournful now that the speaker is older and looks with the snowman with disgust instead of wonder. The last four lines are what really tie this whole thing together, though. When he says, “The snowmen I envy/ As I watch children play/ Are the ones that are made/ And then fade away.” It maintains the same light-hearted tone which creates a kind of ironic innocence that adults don’t necessarily maintain. As a child, building a snowman, especially with his father, was a magical thing. It was the ability to create something new, allow it to leave, and then start all over the next day. As a child, you don’t think about it as just melting away, you think about it as a chance to create something better. Now that he is an adult, though, he is constantly reminded of his father’s death. He is unable to move on and he cannot allow the memories to just melt away and begin anew.

This song seemed to be the perfect match to this poem because the light guitar strumming allows for the image of a young boy and his father building snowmen, going inside, talking lightly, and drinking hot chocolate together, both of their cheeks pink from the biting cold outside. However, LaMontagne’s voice is exactly what mournful would sound like. His voice almost illustrates the speaker growing up and being there when his father dies and coming home to the snowman, knowing that his father once helped him with that, and knowing that his father can’t help him with another one. As the song progresses and LaMonagne’s voice becomes more haunting and melancholic, I can see the speaker sitting on his couch, sipping hot chocolate out of the same cup he used as a kid, and imagining him and his father building and re-building snowmen. He becomes increasingly agitated and begins to resent that grotesque looking snowman because of its permanence while his father no longer lives. As the song fades out, I can imagine the speaker walking around and watching children play, becoming increasingly envious and maybe even a bit sad. I can see him turn away and avoid going home to that permanent snowman. The tone of LaMontagne’s voice embodies the speaker as a whole and the music captures his experience and nostalgia. He still maintains a certain innocence but only because he is only able to cling to the memory of his father in a way that makes him resent the things that made him so happy as a child, like building snowmen.

I heard of Ray LaMontagne when I watched the movie “I Love You, Beth Cooper.” They played his song “Let It Be Me” (which was on his Gossip in the Grain album), and I absolutely loved the song. I was reminded of him today when I was on Tumblr and one of his songs (Burn, which was on his Trouble album) came up. Like I said earlier, I found the poem somewhere on the internet and I loved it. I thought it was the sweetest thing ever until I finished it, but that’s the kind of poetry I like: the kind that leaves an impression. I really hope you liked this week’s post. It’s the second to the last, which makes me sad, but I’ve got a surprise for the last post that I hope you’ll enjoy. Thanks for reading!


2 Comments »

  1. Patrick Yan says:

    I totally did not expect a poem that started out so innocent to make me think so much. As I was reading, I slowly got to the part where the father decided to create a permanent snowman for his child to have forever, and I thought his idea was great. The child would have a snowman in the winter and a statue or decoration for the rest of the year to remember his childhood days. However, I did not see the turn the author decided to take regarding the fact that he cannot move on past his father’s death because of the ever-present “haunting” of the snowman.

  2. Ammara Ansari says:

    ok. ok ok ok….I absolutely love both the poem and the song that you’ve chosen this week. Might I just add that since I am completely drained, I did not understand the poem so well. But As soon as I started reading your analysis, I was like…This is so adorable and amazing and cute and sad and etc etc. And you are so right. The voice is basically made for the poem.

    WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO FOR THE LAST WEEK???

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