Yair Gritman Week 3 - “City Dogs”, by Philip Schultz
Week 3 - “City Dogs”, by Philip Schultz
In Philip Schultz’s “City Dogs”, he details the daily life of dogs in New York City in order to make people think about the impersonal nature of city life. He begins the poem with a description of how dogs go through their lives in the city. They are running around everywhere, “nostrils pumping, ear flaps erect & eyes rolled”, oblivious to the hustle and bustle nature of the city. He repeatedly shows the childlike personality of dogs through three different, but connected adjectives. The dogs are “aloof, bemused & ecstatically enthusiastic” as they walk around the parks or explore different parts of the city. This “layered” description allows the reader to better understand the emotions that he thinks dogs experience in their daily lives. It also allows for a more complex portrayal of the way dogs interact with the city by not limiting the reader to have a certain view of the dogs, but instead to think more imaginatively about what is behind the enthusiastic nature of dogs.
Schultz contrasts the way dogs live to the way humans interact within the city. The dogs enjoy the “pulsing beat” of conversations and noise, as well as hellos and goodbyes. However, they do not understand what all of the conversations mean, and thus have a simple view of the world around them. Their environment just is, and they take that in their stride as they “feel the city on their paws.” This description emphasizes the exploration that dogs experience as they walk around, seizing every moment as an opportunity to explore something new. He then puts himself in a dog’s shoes as he writes about following Benya and Gus, two dogs in the city. He explains how they are restrained by their owners, which is why they are unable to explore the world to their fullest potential. In other words, the dogs are missing out on what makes them happy due to the constraints of civilizations. He closes the poem by saying that we should take a lesson from the dogs and enjoy the moment instead of being constrained by the pulls of civilization and productivity.
I thought this poem was interesting because I could see a connection between this work and his other poem, “The Answering Machine”. In both poems, his writing seems to critique our everyday lives and gives people a new perspective on their surroundings. In this poem, Schultz really made me think about my daily life and how sometimes I just live in a blur. In some ways, he made me want to be more like a dog, constantly looking for something new in the ordinary world. I liked how his writing made me think deeply about my approach to life, even though his poem seems to be about dogs roaming the streets in the city.
link to poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=168&issue=1&page=15
Hey Yair! This poem definitely got me in my feels and had me rethinking life, to be honest. In my day to day life, I don't think about how my dogs are constantly inside my house with just a few hours outside to explore. Every time I take them on a walk or let them out in my backyard, they are ecstatic and ready for an adventure. Dogs are such happy animals that take advantage of every opportunity they have. The perspective shared in the poem makes me want to live my life as if I were a dog; saying yes to every opportunity, making the most of the small moments, and seizing each and every day. I really love this poem and your analysis of it- very thought provoking.
ReplyDelete