Commentary On Robert Hayden’s Astronaut

Commentary on Robert Haydens Astronaut:
In Astronauts Robert Hayden explores the philosophic issues raised by moon exploration. Despite the proudly unaffectionate and bravely independent title Astronauts the get-go five lines of the rime actually reveal the lack of individualism and personality of the astronauts, as they are faceless in [their] visors, an idea accentuated in lines troika to five w here their mirrormasks/ [reflect] the general glare and / shadow of moonscape. The alliteration here emphasises the absence seizure of any defining features on the moon which echoes the absence of specific details about the men.

This absence of personality and identity seems initially to be broken at the end of the first stanza when the poet uses colloquial terms to reflect the astronauts excitement as they roar wow and oh boy, and
Hayden carries this tone over into the beginning of the next stanza where the articulate exulting suggests their elation. However, the fact that Hayden employs a third person berth throughout the poem effectively distances us from the astronauts preventing us from sharing their emotion.



This sense of distance is abruptly re-emphasised for the reader in stanza deuce by the parentheses which seem to include a direct channelise from the poet or persona to the reader reminding us of the training that the astronauts maintain undergone encouraging them to be wary of emotion and philosophy. This dread and warning ultimately undermine the excited singing of the astronauts, creating a sense of bathos which
maybe foreshadows the fact that we will be left troubled at the end of the poem as if the moon-landing has left us only with questions and doubts instead of the answers that we perhaps sought.

The substantial hollowness of this scene which should be filled with
excitement is perhaps best indicated by the lines breaking / the calcined
stillness / of once sheer(a) Otherwhere. Initially, these lines may seem
to suggest a break through as the poet...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: Orderessay



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