Question Home

Position:Home>Poetry> Is this a poem, and if so, who's the speaker and what does it say?


Question: Is this a poem, and if so, who's the speaker and what does it say!?
William Trowbridge
Kong Looks Back on His Tryout With the Bears

If it had worked out, I'd be on a train to Green Bay,
not crawling up this building with the air corps
on my ***!. And if it weren't for love, I'd drop
this shrieking little bimbo sixty stories
and let them take me back to the exhibit,
let them teach me to rumba and do imitations!.
They tried me on the offensive line, told me
to take out the right cornerback for Nagurski!.
Eager to please, I wadded up the whole secondary,
then stomped the line, then the bench and locker room,
then the east end of town, to the river!.
But they were not pleased: they said
I had to learn my position, become a team player!.
The great father Bear himself said that,
so I tried hard to know the right numbers
and how the arrows slanted toward the little o's!.
But the o's and the wet grass and the grunts
drowned out the count, and the tight little cheers
drew my arrow straight into the stands,
and the wives tasted like flowers and raw fish!.
So I was put on waivers right after camp,
and here I am, panty sniffer, about to die a clown,
who once opened a hole you could drive Nebraska through!.



This was a question in a creative writing class discussion group that had a wide variety of responses; I was hoping to get the poets and writers on here to give their thoughts to see if it would still have a wide variety of responses!.

Www@QuestionHome@Com


Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
This is an interesting poem!. Although I have poor knowledge about football and King Kong, and have no knowledge about NFL (because I am a Japanese living in Japan), this poem gives me several images and a story!.
Like this poem, using pop culture’s icon is sometimes seen in Japanese poems!. I have read several Japanese poems written by several poets with using the characters such as Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jelly and Donald Duck!.
I think this is a poem of methodology like a postmodernist approach, and a poem that makes us enjoy its funny and ironic images created by the characters and names of mass culture!. This poem is also successful in giving us pathos by the first-person narrative setting of King Kong !.

I have two questions in reading this poem!.
I cannot understand what is Nagurski!. (Is a famous football player!?)
Why Nebraska!? Is this related to the King Kong movie!?Www@QuestionHome@Com

Poor overachieving Kong, ever trying to do things in as big a manner as he is physically large, only to find perfect failure!.

Had to grin at "tight little cheers" (leaders) but the fish thing!. Sheesh, Mixie, if it smells/tastes like fish, something is desperately wrong!.

Thanks for the grin!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

I think it is a poem, or maybe a very poetic piece of prose!.

The speaker is obviously Kong!. To some extent I think it is a little tongue-in-cheek, a bit of a jab at football players, especially the ones who could've been but end up being a nobody!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Prose poem to me!. King Kong is the speaker!. Pappa Bear reference was funny!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

It says we have more ability than we can handle!.
An hour in Heaven, an Hour in Hell!.!.!.it's still an hour!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The speaker is King Kong, i!.e!. the movie monster monkey!.

There seems to be an ironic comment that a monkey that size could have gone into professional football with the Green Bay Packers but instead ended up taking the "bimbo" hostage when he climbed with her up the Empire State Building and had airplanes trying to shoot him down!.

King kong has been interesting for many movie directors and movie audiences, so you have to ask why he's been such an interesting symbol over these years!. What he symbolizes (innocence vs!. greed, love vs!. money, wildness vs!. civilization) and how the poem is revising the version of Kong we have from the movies!. Obviously he's not real in the living world, but he's real as a movie icon!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

The speaker is a 230 lb blockhead with a GED, who got a scholarship to play with a pigskin!.!.!.!.!. too stupid to know any better he partied on/off the field until they probated him!. Still he couldn't keep his head on straight and screwed!.!.!. makin' babies and trouble!.!.!. until he was dumped!. Now he's a crack addict who cleans windows in Kansas!.

Sound poetic to me!.

Says - Can't have your honey and eat her too!.Www@QuestionHome@Com