“Black Zodiac”
By: Charles Wright “Black Zodiac” is a 96-line poem by famed poet Charles Wright. This long dense poem, like his other works, is generally thought to deal with three themes. The three themes that can be observed in this poem are: landscape, life, and language. These themes drive the overall message of this poem. While the three themes are major, another important element plays to the effect of this work, that is style. Wright is able to use an almost cryptic style throughout this work, with an abundance of symbolic meanings and accounts. The term Black Zodiac comes from western astronomy, referring to the dark counterpart in every person’s Zodiac sign. This can be related to Wright’s poem in many ways. The work is dense in nature and presents many dark images. Wright is able to express his message through his own accounts and stems. He is almost trying to describe what he sees, and not what he thinks. Once again, the style of this poem adds to the overall effect of the work. The poem is read like a string of images and broken thoughts left for interpretation by the reader. The profound symbolism in this poem drives the mode of negative transcendence. The message and syntax that can be observed in “Black Zodiac” is comparable to Wright’s other works. His concentration on afterlife and transcendence is consistent with poems in his collection. While the vocabulary, message, and syntax is relatable to his previous poems, “Black Zodiac” offers a much darker theme than the rest.
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