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HAND AGAINST THE LIGHT
"Hand Against the Light"
We are nothing but a feeble bag
of blood and bones,
and a pin, it is true, can kill us;
but in us flows the seed
that may produce
the one butterfly,
of light only and of shadow only and only ours,
without skin, network, or frame,
nor possibility of being caught
by human or divine;
the invulnerable being,
incorporeal, as long as the world,
that brims, free, the infinite
and goes on to the impossible.
-Juan Ramon Jimemez
ANALYSIS
In "Hand Against the Light" the author talks about the one thing that makes us different from all others. We are all the same, as Jimemez states in the first line, "a feeble bag of blood and bones". There is found inside us a certain spark, (different in all ), that makes us who we are and no one can stop us from letting it grow, as it is referred to as a "seed" in line 4. This one thing lets us surpass the boundaries of the world and jump the highest barrier. It is "the invulnerable being" that can not be touched nor hurt and lets us strive for the impossible goals in ourselves.
POETIC TACTICS
The shaping of this poem is very unique. The poem itself is only one sentence long representing the one individual person. With in the one sentence the poem is broken down into three parts that portray three different parts to the human being. The first part of this poem deals with the stated fact of human design and structure. "We are nothing but a feeble bag/ of blood and bones," is a true statement (lines 1-2). The second part to the sentence deals with the spark inside us that makes us who we are. It deals with the creation of the human soul. There is no "skin, network, or frame," that makes a human soul, it is created and grown deep inside us (line 8). Also stated in the second part is the illusion to a divine spirit. It says that not even the divine can catch the spirit inside us. This is almost a contradiction in the formation of humans when the divine created us but it can not touch or create our inner self. The third and last part of the sentence states that with this inside us people are able to reach and pass their goals and continue reaching toward the impossible.
There is also the question of a turning point arising in the poem. Lines 7-8 are the mid-point of the poem and thus compare the two topics of humans to the spirit. "Of light only and of shadow only and only ours,/ without skin, network, or frame," (lines 7-8). Line 7 deals with the thing that are believed to be associated with the spirit. Spirits are imagined to be bright and have a shadowy effect to their creation just as in line 8 the structure of humans is discussed. Human bodies rely on a structure and framework to make them what they are to give them a platform to build on top of. These two images give the reader images of two different, yet necessary elements to strive for the impossible.