Telephone Poles by John Updike

Text:

They have been with us a long time.
They will outlast the elms.
Our eyes, like the eyes of a savage sieving the trees
In his search for game,
Run through them. They blend along small-town streets
Like a race of giants that have faded into mere mythology.
Our eyes, washed clean of belief,
Lift incredulous to their fearsome crowns of bolts, trusses,

struts, nuts, insulators, and such
Barnacles as compose
These weathered encrustations of electrical debris¬
Each a Gorgon’s head, which, seized right,
Could stun us to stone.

Yet they are ours. We made them.
See here, where the cleats of linemen
Have roughened a second bark
Onto the bald trunk. And these spikes
Have been driven sideways at intervals handy for human legs.
The Nature of our construction is in every way
A better fit than the Nature it displaces
What other tree can you climb where the birds’ twitter,
Unscrambled, is English? True, their thin shade is negligible,
But then again there is not that tragic autumnal
Casting-off of leaves to outface annually.
These giants are more constant than evergreens
By being never green.

Initial Reaction:

I believe that the poem “Telephone Poles” is about how humans tend to disregard the beauty and serenity of nature, but instead, humans destroy nature to further their own means. For example, in the poem, humans are described to have “eyes of a savage” as they “[sieved] the trees” to build telephone poles. The line depicts the idea that humans have a tendency to grab whatever they can for their own and to transform it into something that they believe will better their own lives.

Paraphrase:

They have been on Earth for a while.
They will be on Earth longer than the elm trees will.
Our eyes, like the eyes of beasts cut the trees
To search for game,
Run through the trees. They blend in on the streets
Like giants who have become purely mythology.
We no longer hold the belief,
We are unbelieving that the large crowns of bolts, trusses,

struts, nuts, insulators, and such
Barnacles as compose
These old pieces of electrical dust¬
Each like the Greek Goddess Gorgon,
Who could turn us into stone.

Yet they are our creation.
See where the shoes of the workers
Roughened the tree into another piece of bark
Onto the bald trunk. And these spikes
Were driven sideways in ways that are fitting for human legs.
The Nature of what we build is completely The
Than the natural Nature
What other tree can be climbed where the birds lay,
Unscrambled, is English? True, the thin shade of our creations is next to nothing,
But then there will not be the tragic autumn
As the tree casts off leaves annually.
These giants are more unchanging than evergreens
Without even being green.

SWIFTT:

SW: The poem is composed of short, simple sentence structure. In the last stanza of the poem, it uses the rhetorical question, “What other tree can you climb where the birds’ twitter, Unscrambled, is English?” to convey the concept of technology versus nature. The poem uses word choice that conveys an earthy image. For example, the poem uses words such as “the elms” and “the birds’ twitter” to convey an earthy image. But at the same time, the poem uses words such as “sieving” to convey the idea that humans tear apart nature to meet their own ends. In addition, the pronouns in the poem have significance, as the pronoun “they” refers to the telephone poles, and the pronoun “ours” refers to the entire human race.

I: The poem is composed of imagery of Nature and industrialization. Throughout the poem, the reader can see the Nature imagery as the author writes, “The birds’ twitter” and “Casting-off of leaves to outface annually.” In addition, the industrialization imagery can be seen as the author writes, “Lift incredulous to their fearsome crowns of bolts, trusses, struts, nuts, insulators, and such.” Further, crucifixion imagery can be seen as the author writes “cleats of linemen, Have roughened a second bark, Onto the bald trunk” and “these spikes, Have been driven sideways at intervals”

F: The poem satirizes the industrialization of nature. While the poem is seemingly praising the fact that humans have cut down countless trees to build telephone poles, in reality, the poem is condemning the destruction of nature. For example, the poem states, “The Nature of our construction is in every way/A better fit than the Nature it displaces.” While the narrator claimed that human constructions are better than nature, the narrator actually feels disdain towards the destruction of nature in its natural state.

T: The tone of the poem is bitter and satirical as the narrator conveys the idea that humans have destroyed nature to achieve their own purposes. The narrator stated, “Yet they are ours. We made them” in an almost disdainful manner, for humans “[sieved] the trees” and built “giants [that] are more constant than evergreens/ By being never green.”

T: The theme of the poem is that as humans push more and more for advancement and industrialization, they also push farther and farther away from nature in its natural state. For instead of appreciating the shade of trees or “the birds’ twitter,” humans are “sieving the trees” and building telephone poles.

Conclusion:

“Telephone Poles” is a satirical poem about how as humans push for advancement, they lose touch with nature. Instead of appreciating the wonders and beauty of nature, the poem conveys the idea that humans simply “[sieve] the trees” with a “savage” look in their eyes and build up more telephone poles. The poem suggests that industrialization is a give and take, for while humans do receive great advancements and additional comforts through it, at the same time, they lose things, like the evergreens that are replaced with telephone poles that will be “never green.”