Formalistic View of The Naming of Parts

Naming of Parts

by Henry Reed

Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But today,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens likecoral in all the neighboring gardens,
And today we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have the naming of parts.

Analysis:
"Naming of Parts" is a deceptively simple poem; its situation is so painfully familiar that the reader is tempted merely to nod in wearied assent to its explicit structure, a series of ironic contrasts between rookies who are being instructed in the arts of death, and a nearby garden which is teeming with the life of Spring. It is only when we begin to explore these contrasts in some detail, however, that the richness of the poem beyond this overt state of affairs is apparent. Such exploration shows that the term "parts" has three meanings in the poem: it pertains to the elements or "parts" of the gun; to the "parts," faculties, or talents of men, now employed for destructive ends in war; and to the private "parts" or genitals. Implicitly, the poem is an affective union of the three.

The surface differences between the life of the recruit and the life of the garden are obvious enough: the glint of sunlight on the barrel of the well-cleaned gun finds its natural counterpart in the glistening of japonica; the rookies are all thumbs and awkwardness, and they do not have "silent, eloquent gestures" but the stiff, rigid, unnatural motions of an unfamiliar military bearing. Nor will they have the grace of natural objects when they fall in battle, only the frozen, macabre postures of the dead.

But there are broader differences. Like Eden, Reed's garden is a place of innocence and peace which contrasts starkly with the instruction in evil and death to which the army classroom is devoted. It is a place of abundance, fertility, and unfallen nature (the bees celebrate the Spring by pollinating flowers, thus giving life), and not of fallen humanity (the men can "ease" only the spring of a death-dealing weapon). The garden is thus a tacit reproach to man, who has lost his Eden. Because of the loss death has entered the world, and the earth is now merely a scrimmage of technically skilled beasts. The "parts" or faculties of man which, in his prelapsarian state, knew no evil and could do only good are now totally depraved, so that man's talents are employed only for new forms of sterile destruction.

The commitment to death rather than life which man has after the Fall takes a sexual form too. Even here his "parts" are depraved. The incompleteness of the rookie's equipment is a mocking symbol for his sexual incompleteness, his isolation from women in a wartime camp. The result is that he lacks a "point of balance" and can ease the tortures of Spring only by masturbation and debilitating daydreams. The concomitant is crippling frustration and guilt. What the bees do in natural fulfillment of their being can be accomplished in this society only by means of a degrading perversion; this is the final irony of a fallen, inverted world.

Source: http://www.solearabiantree.net/namingofparts/explicator.html