“Constantly Risking Absurdity” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Constantly Risking Absurdity”

“Constantly Risking Absurdity” Summary

“Constantly Risking Absurdity” Themes

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  The Difficulty and Beauty of Poetry

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-33

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Constantly Risking Absurdity”

• Lines 1-5

  Constantly risking absurdity ...
  ...                                                             of his audience

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 6-8

     the poet like ...
  ... his own making

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  and balancing on ...
  ... side of day

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-18

      performing entrechats ...
  ... may not be

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-21

         For he's ...
  ...                    taut truth

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 22-24

      before the taking ...
  ... still higher perch

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-27

  where Beauty stands ...
  ... her death-defying leap

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 28-31

      And he ...
  ... fair eternal form

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 32-33

  spreadeagled in the ...
  ...                   of existence

  

  

  

  

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“Constantly Risking Absurdity” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Consonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where consonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “Constantly risking absurdity”
  • Line 2: “death”
  • Line 7: “climbs,” “rime”
  • Line 9: “balancing,” “eyebeams”
  • Line 10: “above,” “sea,” “faces”
  • Line 11: “paces”
  • Line 12: “side,” “day”
  • Line 13: “entrechats”
  • Line 14: “sleight,” “tricks”
  • Line 15: “theatrics”
  • Line 16: “mistaking”
  • Line 19: “super realist”
  • Line 20: “perforce perceive”
  • Line 21: “taut truth”
  • Line 22: “taking,” “stance,” “step”
  • Line 23: “supposed advance”
  • Line 24: “toward,” “still”
  • Line 25: “Beauty stands,” “waits”
  • Line 26: “gravity”
  • Line 27: “to start,” “death-defying”
  • Line 29: “little charleychaplin”
  • Line 30: “catch”
  • Line 31: “her fair eternal form”
  • Line 32: “spreadeagled,” “empty”
  • Line 33: “existence”

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where assonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 7: “climbs,” “rime”
  • Line 8: “high,” “wire”
  • Line 9: “eyebeams”
  • Line 10: “sea,” “faces”
  • Line 11: “paces,” “way”
  • Line 12: “day”
  • Line 14: “tricks”
  • Line 15: “theatrics”
  • Line 20: “perforce,” “perceive”
  • Line 22: “stance”
  • Line 23: “advance”
  • Line 32: “spreadeagled,” “empty”
  • Line 33: “existence”

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 20: “perforce,” “perceive”
  • Line 21: “taut,” “truth”
  • Line 22: “stance,” “step”
  • Line 23: “supposed”
  • Line 27: “death,” “defying”
  • Line 29: “charleychaplin”
  • Line 31: “fair,” “form”
  • Line 32: “empty”
  • Line 33: “existence”

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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  Where imagery appears in the poem:

  • Lines 3-14
  • Lines 22-27
  • Lines 31-33

• Pun

  

  

  

  

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  Where pun appears in the poem:

  • Line 7: “ climbs on rime”
  • Line 19: “For he's the super realist”
  • Line 22: “before the taking of each stance or step”
  • Lines 25-27: “where Beauty stands and waits /                                      with gravity /                                                 to start her death-defying leap”

• Extended Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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  Where extended metaphor appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-33

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2
  • Lines 2-3
  • Lines 3-4
  • Lines 4-5
  • Lines 6-7
  • Lines 7-8
  • Lines 8-9
  • Lines 9-10
  • Lines 10-11
  • Lines 11-12
  • Lines 12-13
  • Lines 13-14
  • Lines 14-15
  • Lines 15-16
  • Lines 16-17
  • Lines 17-18
  • Lines 19-20
  • Lines 20-21
  • Lines 21-22
  • Lines 22-23
  • Lines 23-24
  • Lines 24-25
  • Lines 25-26
  • Lines 26-27
  • Lines 28-29
  • Lines 29-30
  • Lines 30-31
  • Lines 31-32
  • Lines 32-33

“Constantly Risking Absurdity” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Absurdity
• Acrobat
• Rime
• Eyebeams
• Entrechats
• sleight-of-foot
• Theatrics
• Perforce
• Taut
• Stance
• Charleychaplin man
• Fair
• Spreadeagled

• (Location in poem: Line 1: “Constantly risking absurdity”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Constantly Risking Absurdity”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Constantly Risking Absurdity” Speaker

“Constantly Risking Absurdity” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Constantly Risking Absurdity”

More “Constantly Risking Absurdity” Resources

• External Resources

  • The San Francisco Renaissance — An introduction to the Bay area poets (including Ferlinghetti) that sprang up in opposition to mainstream poetry in the 1940s and '50s.

  • A Reading of the Poem — Hear the poem read aloud by the poet himself.

  • A Coney Island of the Mind — A review of Ferlinghetti's first collection of poems, written 50 years after its publication, for The Guardian. 

  • Lawrence Ferlinghetti's Biography — Read a short biography the poet via City Lights, the book shop and publishing house Ferlinghetti founded.

  • The Flying Trapeze — Watch circus acrobats in action.