Figurative Language and Imagery in "Having A Coke With You" by Frank O'Hara Paper Analysis

by Ummanabiegh Ismail Jalla

Abstract

In this essay, the aim of the writer is to analyze the poem entitled “Having A Coke With You” by Frank O’Hara. The aspects the writer is trying to identify is the use of figurative language and imagery in the poem. The writer uses intrinsic theories and close-reading method. In this poem, Frank O’Hara uses kinesthetic and visual imageries and simile to enhance the meaning of the poem.

Keywords: Imagery, Simile, Kinesthetic, Visual

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1    Background of The Study

Literature has many forms, such as novel, short story, or play. One of the most major literary works is a poetry. Poetry is a way of telling something in a beautiful way. It is used by people to express their thoughts and feelings. Its words bring an emotional or sensual response.

Poetry came from the Greek word poises, which means making. Poetry says more intensely than ordinary language. Therefore, provisional understanding is needed to get the message that the poem carries. As a part of literature, Poetry communicates significant experience to allow us live more deeply with our imagination. Poetry’s primary concern is with experience. (Arp and Johnson, 2005:4)

Poetry can be old, hard to understand, and we live with the fact that some people out there think that  poetry is dry and dusty stuff. Moreover, it often makes heavy use of imagery and word association to quickly convey emotions. There are a lot of famous poetries, such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by Shakespeare, ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’ by Robert Frost, ‘I felt a Funeral, in my Brain’ by Emily Dickinson, and etc, yet the writers here choose ‘Having a Coke with You’ by Frank O’Hara to be the subject to this paper, as it will be a refreshing change. O'Hara sought to capture the rhythms and flow of spoken speech in his writing, as if you were sitting down to have a coke with your best friend. And like an ice-cold drink on a hot summer's day, this poem will set one’s skin tingling with its sweet, conversational tone. No "thee's" and "thou's" here­. One do not need a Ph.D. to understand what O'Hara is driving at, but that does not mean that he is just pouring empty calories into your head. More than just babbling, he has got something to say about art, but most of all about love. This is one of the reasons why the writers decide to discuss about it.

1.2    Purpose of The Study

Based on the background of the study of the paper, the purpose of the study is to analyze the poetry by its intrinsic aspect such as imagery and simile in Frank O’Hara’s ‘Having a Coke with You’. The discussion through those intrinsic elements of poetry is hoped to help the reader to understand more about the poetry—not just reading it without knowing its aspects.

1.3    Scope of The Study

Based on the title, the discussion in this paper is to explain about the intrinsic aspects of the poetry, which are imagery and simile. There are seven types of imagery, yet the writers will explain only two of them; they are Visual and Kinesthetic Imagery, according to the most imagery that is used by Frank O’Hara on ‘Having a Coke with You’.

CHAPTER 2

THE POET, THE POEM, AND THE TRANSLATION

2.1  THE POET

Frank O’Hara

On March 27, 1926, Frank (Francis Russell) O’Hara was born in Maryland. He grew up in Massachusetts, and later studied piano at the New England Conservatory in Boston from 1941 to 1944. O’Hara then served in the South Pacific and Japan as a sonarman on the destroyer USS Nicholas during World War II.

Following the war, O’Hara studied at Harvard College, where he majored in music and worked on compositions and was deeply influenced by contemporary music, his first love, as well as visual art. He also wrote poetry at that time and read the work of Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Boris Pasternak, and Vladimir Mayakovsky.

While at Harvard, O’Hara met John Ashbery and soon began publishing poems in the Harvard Advocate. Despite his love for music, O’Hara changed his major and left Harvard in 1950 with a degree in English. He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and received his MA in 1951. That autumn, O’Hara moved into an apartment in New York. He was soon employed at the front desk of the Museum of Modern Art and began to write seriously.

O’Hara’s early work was considered both provocative and provoking. O’Hara became one of the most distinguished members of the New York School of poets, and became a source of inspiration for his highly original poetry. He attempted to produce with words the effects these artists had created on canvas. In certain instances, he collaborated with the painters to make “poem-paintings," paintings with word texts.

O’Hara continued working at the Museum of Modern Art throughout his life, curating exhibitions and writing introductions and catalogs for exhibits and tours. On July 25, 1966, while vacationing on Fire Island.

Frank O’Hara was killed in a sand buggy accident. He was forty years old. (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/frank-ohara)

2.2  THE POEM

Having a Coke with You

Is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne

Or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona

Partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian

Partly because of my love for you, partly because of your love for yoghurt

Partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches

Partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary

It is hard to believe when I’m with you that there can be anything as still

As solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it

In the warm New York 4 o’clock light we are drifting back and forth

Between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

And the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint

You suddenly wonder why in the world anyone ever did them

I look

At you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

Except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick

Which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time

And the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism

Just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or

At a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me

And what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them

When they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank

Or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully

As the horse          

It seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience

Which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

2.3  THE TRANSLATION

Minum Soda Bersamamu

Lebih menyenangkan daripada pergi ke San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne

Atau sakit perut di atas Travesera de Gracia di Barcelona

Sebagian karena kau terlihat seperti St. Sebastian yang lebih baik dan lebih bahagia dengan kaus jinggamu

Sebagian karena cintaku kepadamu, sebagian karena cintamu kepada yoghurt

Sebagian karena tulip jingga yang berpendar melingkari pohon birch

Sebagian karena rahasia yang diambil senyum kita dari orang-orang dan patung-patung

Ketika aku bersamamu, sulit untuk percaya bahwa ada hal lain sediam

Se-khidmat, sepasti patung-patung itu ketika tepat di depannya

Di bawah cahaya hangat New York pukul 4 kita hanyut berkali-kali

Antara satu sama lain seperti sebuah pohon bernafas melalui kacamatanya

Dan pertunjukan lukisan itu seperti tak memiliki wajah sama sekali, hanya cat

Tiba-tiba kau bertanya-tanya mengapa ada yang membuatnya

Aku menatap

Dirimu dan aku lebih memilih untuk menatapmu daripada seluruh lukisan di dunia ini

Kecuali mungkin kadang lukisan Polish Rider di galeri Frick

Yang untungnya belum pernah kau kunjungi jadi kita bisa pergi ke sana bersama

Dan kenyataan bahwa kau bergerak begitu indah, kurang lebih menutupi Futurisme

Seperti ketika di rumah aku tak pernah memikirkan Nude Descending a Staircase atau

Saat aku berlatih sebuah gambar Leonardo atau Michaelangelo yang dulu membuatku takjub

Dan apa gunanya semua penelitian yang dilakukan para Impersionis

Jika mereka tidak mempunyai orang yang tepat untuk berdiri disamping pohon ketika matahari terbenam

Atau dalam hal ini, Mario Marini ketika ia tak memilih penunggang kuda sehati-hati ia memilih kudanya

Sepertinya mereka semua dicurangi oleh sebuah pengalaman yang luar biasa

Yang tak akan aku sia-siakan, maka dari itu aku memberitahukannya kepadamu.

CHAPTER 3

LITERARY REVIEW

3.1 Imagery

Imagery is a way to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to human senses to deepen the reader’s understanding of the work. The function of imagery in literature is to generate a vibrant and graphic presentation of a scene that appeals to as many of the reader’s senses as possible. It aids the reader’s imagination to envision the characters and scenes in the literary piece clearly. There are seven distinct types of imagery: visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, kinesthetic and organic. Many of these deal with the five senses, which all work together to help us create mental images of whatever we are reading.

In this paper, not all imagery will be explained due to the containt of the poem. Imagery, such as visual and kinesthetic, that will be explained by the writer.

3.1.1 Visual Imagery

Visual imagery is an image that appears from sense of sight, and plays the largest role in imagery in literature. It describes what a scene or character looks like. Visual imagery may include:

-          Color, such as: burnt red, bright orange, dull yellow, verdant green, and Robin’s egg blue.

-          Shapes, such as: square, circular, tubular, rectangular, and conical.

-          Size, such as: miniscule, tiny, small, medium-sized, large, and gigantic.

-          Pattern, such as: polka-dotted, striped, zig-zagged, jagged, and straight.

-           

      For example:

a.       The gray sea and the long black land

       (Meeting at Night by Robert Browning)

b.      Two roads diverged in a yellow wood

(The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost)

c.        But I send you a cream-white rosebud

     (A White Rose by John Boyle O’Reilly)

3.1.2 Kinesthetic Imagery

Kinesthetic Imagery is a poetic device that gives a feeling of natural or physical bodily movement or action (like a heartbeat, a pulse and breathing). It also refers to tension along with the movement.

Kinesthetic imagery is further divided into various categories:

-          Touch: Like running fingers on silk fabric

-          Physical movement: Gives feelings of involvement in an activity, like walking on grass

-          Temperature: For example, it might involve sunlight falling over the body

-          Feelings: Internal feelings like being angry, sad, happy, peaceful and calm.

For example:

-          Tossing their heads in sprightly danceaa

(Daffodils by W. Wordsworth)

-          With a wild rattle and clatter, and an inhuman abandonment of consideration not easy to be understood in these days, the carriage dashed through streets and swept round corners, with women screaming before it, and men clutching each other and clutching children out of its way.

(A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens)

3.2 Simile

Simile is figure of speech that makes a comparison, showing similarities between two things. Using similes attracts the attention and appeals directly to the senses of listeners or readers encouraging their imagination to comprehend what is being communicated. Simile allows readers to relate the feelings of a writer or a poet to their personal experiences. Therefore, the use of similes makes it easier for the readers to understand the subject matter of a literary text, which may have been otherwise too demanding to be comprehended.

For example:

“O my Luve’s like a red, red rose

      That’s newly sprung in June;

      O my Luve’s like the melodie

      That’s sweetly played in tune.”

      (A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns)

      “I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills.”

(Daffodils by W.Wordsworth)

CHAPTER 4

DISCUSSION

(Line 1) Is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne.

The poem's title, ‘Having a Coke with You’ really functions as its first line. When a line of poetry breaks off mid-thought, but is then picked up again on the following line, it's called an enjambment. This second part of this enjambment tells us just how fun having a coke with you (whoever you are) is for the speaker. It's more fun than a trip to Europe. Furthermore, In this line of the poem, Frank O’Hara uses kinesthetic imagery–it can be seen from the words ‘more fun’ that represents his internal feelings.

(Line 2) Or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona.

For some reason, he's sick to his stomach, is a physical pain and is also the feeling, so this line is a kinesthetic imagery. Even one were sick to his stomach, strolling down the street in beautiful Barcelona would still be a hoot. One could probably tell all his friends when you get back from vacation about the time one ate too many Spanish sardines and got sick. It'd be a great story, and one would still be more fun than even that.

(Line 3) Partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian.

In this line, there are two aspects; visual imagery and simile. ‘Partly because in your orange shirt...’ here shows a visual imagery as it shows the colour of his lover’s shirt,. while ‘you look like a better happier St. Sebastian’ is a simile. he speaker tells us that you look like a ‘better happier’ version of St. Sebastian. This simile makes more sense with this biography note: St. Sebastian was a Roman soldier, but also an early Christian who, for his beliefs, was tied to a tree by fellow Romans and shot full of arrows. Somehow, he survived that, continued to be a Christian, and so was later beaten to death. He's known as both the patron saint both of athletes and soldiers.

(Line 5) Partly because of the fluorescent orange tulips around the birches.

In this line O’Hara uses visual imagery because Frank O’Hara uses word ‘fluorescent orange tulips’. Her is appreciating the powerful beauty of the flowers around the birch trees. They practically glow (are "fluorescent") with energy and color.

(Line 6) Partly because of the secrecy our smiles take on before people and statuary.

This line uses kinesthetic imagery as there is physical movement here that is showed by the word ‘take on’. It is important to note that these smiles ‘take on’ the secrecy ‘before people and statuary’. It is only in the presence of other folks, or other statues of folks, that these two can exchange these looks–that makes sense. There is a special privacy about being in love that only the two of you can share. The more you're around other people, or things for that matter, the more private and special you can feel about your relationship.

(Line 7) it is hard to believe when I'm with you that there can be anything as still.

In this line, the speaker continues his thought about being with you among statues by using a simile by using the word ‘the can be anything as still’. Specifically, the speaker’s expressing disbelief that anything can be as still as statues. It is important though that this thought occurs to the speaker only when he's with his lover. It seems like the rest of the world is all in motion.

 (Line 8) as solemn as unpleasantly definitive as statuary when right in front of it.

This line picks up the thought of the previous one, with some fancy enjambment and a simile. Statues, in one’s company, are not just still, they are also "solemn" (serious) and "unpleasantly definitive" (or too, well, defined). In other words, they  just stand there, doing nothing but being logical and straightforward. For some reason, this really bugs our speaker when he is around his lover, it must be that his lover has the opposite effect on him.

(Line 9) in the warm New York 4 o'clock light we are drifting back and forth.

This is actually a metaphor, yet it is a kinesthetic imagery as well, as it shows us a physical movement. It seems like the feeling the speaker get when in love, the kind of feeling where he is just so happy it is as if his feet does not even touch the ground.

(Line 10) between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles

This line is a simile. It seems that we recall as the readers from junior high life science that trees absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen through their leaves. So, if trees ‘breathe’ through their leaves, how can leaves be like spectacles? And what do late-afternoon leaves and glasses have in common? Basically, they both are shiny and reflective when the sun catches them. It may seem to the speaker that the trees are wearing glasses as their leaves flash in the sun.

(Line 11) and the portrait show seems to have no faces in it at all, just paint.

This line is also a simile, the speaker uses the word ‘seems to have no faces’. From statues, the speaker turns to portraits. Remember that a portrait is a just a painting of someone's picture. It is like history's instagram. Only, for our speaker, a show of these kind of paintings is just not doing it for him. He doesn't even recognize the people in the portraits. To him, it's ‘just paint’. Just as statues, it does not stack up to the flow he feels from love, and now portraits seem even worse. The speaker keeps comparing his love to art, and art keeps coming up the big loser. It just cannot quite capture the awesomeness that is real life, in this case, the person the poem is written for.

(Line 13 and 14) I look

At you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world

These two lines contain visual imagery as the writer uses “look”. He's looked at statues, at portraits, at the “warm New York light,” and at “you”. Looking seems to be the primary way he accesses the world around him. “You” are the writer’s favorite things to look at, compared to “all the portraits in the world”.

(Line 15 and 16) Except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick

Which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time

In this line, the writer uses kinesthetic imagery, pointing at the Frick Gallery in New York. The portrait in question is "The Polish Rider," painted by Rembrandt, some time in the 1650s. He tells us this as kind of an aside, by saying "anyway." That word "anyway," is something someone might say to someone in conversation. It's a verbal kind of tic, not something that one would expect to read in a proper poem.

The writer has just said that the object of his affections has never been to the Frick. That is so exciting for him because it gives him the chance to enjoy another special, memorable moment with "you."

(Line 17) And the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism

In this line, the writer uses kinesthetic imagery with the word “move”. Futurism was a school of art that emphasized motion, excitement, speed, and energy. It was all about capturing movement Still, “you” move so beautifully that nothing produced by a futurist artist can compare.

(Line 22 and 23) Or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully

As the horse

With this line, the speaker uses kinesthetic imagery as well, by telling us that Mario Marini, who was a sculptor who created several versions of people riding horses, wasted his time because he did not pick the right people to ride the horses.

(Line 24) It seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience

The key word for us in this line is "they." As we near the end of the poem, the speaker now looks back on all the artists that he's run down for, essentially, missing the point with their artwork. It seems that none of the artists, as beautiful and as breathtaking as their work might be, can come close to the actual experience of being in love. He is aware of this marvelous experience. In fact, he's experiencing it right now.

(Line 25) Which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

So that's what he wants you know. Such a marvelous experience (in this case, being in love) can go wasted on an artist (as opposed to our speaker). Maybe it's because they are too busy expressing or representing life to actually appreciate it as it happens. . Which is why he wrote the poe, which is a kind of art. So we have a work of art that wants to truly celebrate life and lament the way that other art can't do the same thing.

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

      As the final points that could be present in this chapter are; there are two kinds of imagery found in Frank O’Hara’s poem, namely visual (describing what a scene or character looks like) and kinesthetic (giving a feeling of natural or physical bodily movement or action). The meaning of each imagery that found is different between one another; it depends on what it is or what the real aim of each imagery.

      Furthermore, Frank O’Hara use simile to represent his feelings. He keeps comparing his love to art, and art keeps coming up the big loser. It just cannot quite capture the awesomeness that is real life.