Poem Analysis: The System By Stanley Ku Proceedings
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The System
“The System” by Stanley Kunitz is a small four line poem with great meaning. It is the first poem I have read by Kunitz that was so overtly political. The poem is political commentary on the nature of those who govern the masses. Kunitz is trying to emphasize the inappropriate behavior and immoral actions of politicians through diction. “That pack of scoundrels.” In the first line, Kunitz is already lending the reader his impression on politicians. The word pack suggests these people are not humans for animals like wolves travel in packs. That dehumanization of the politicians lends itself to Kunitz’s belief that politicians act cruelly and without respect for those they govern. The word “scoundrel” adds to the dehumanizing effect Kunitz is trying to create.…show more content… I felt that the leaders of the state were tumbling because of drunkenness, this would lend itself to Kunitz’s idea that the politicians acted in ways that was opposite of the manner leaders should act. The line can also be interpreted as the “scoundrels” pushing and tumbling past each other to get in the front. This would emphasize the aggressive and manipulative behavior of politicians always trying to be better than the other. The last two lines identify these scoundrels as politicians. When I think of the word emerge I think of something grand emerging from the sky. I feel that Kuntiz does this to show the double nature of politicians. They act one way in secrecy, but in public they emerge onto the scene and are grand beings. This idea that the politicians are both inhumane and grand leaders reemphasizes the idea of two in one that was present in “The Unquiet Ones.” Kunitz uses the politicians to make an even larger commentary on government present in the title. Government, the system, both helps and hinders the people it vows to