Baby Villon

In Philip Levine’s “Baby Villon”, the title is presumably a reference to Francos Villon, a man born in poverty that becomes a poet, thief, and vagabond. The speaker sees himself in Villon and views him as a brother united in struggle. However the character of Villon is not merely one person, but is instead a symbolic figure representing many oppressed peoples who encompass Villon’s anarchic spirit.

The person that the speaker interacts with has several aspects, the first of those being historical figure of Francos Villon. All of the other aspects of this character follow the archetype that Villon sets as an impoverished and oppressed figure with a rebellious nature. Secondly we see him as representing all oppressed peoples who share Villon’s spirit. The first four lines describe “Villon” as being a variety of contrasting minorities who are being robbed. These include a white person in Bangkok, a black person in London, a Jew in Paris, and an Arab in Paris. Still “Everywhere and at all times… he fights back”.

Thirdly we see “Villon’s” Jewish nature. Phillip Levine, who I would consider to be the speaker, is of Jewish descent that lived in America during World War II. One of the aspects of the “Villon’s” character is a Jew who presumably lived in Germany or a German occupied country during WWII. By doing this Levine is connecting himself to “Villon”. We first see this aspect in line eleven when he refers to the war in North Africa and states that during this time he lost his father and his brother. Lines 13-16 are possibly a reference to how Jewish homes and businesses were vandalized and destroyed in the time leading up to the Holocaust. The windows of the bakery were smashed in, but in defiance “Villon” still ate the glass-filled bread until his mouth bled. It also describes both the speaker and “Villon” as sharing the same black hair.

                His fourth aspect is very connected to his third, which is “Villon” as family member to the. In line ten the speaker calls his father “Villon’s” uncle, and later in the second to last line calls him his imaginary brother and cousin. I don’t believe that he is saying that he is literally his cousin, but is referring to the bond that the two of them share.  We see this symbolically with their black hair. In line lines 19-20 Villon touches his hair and tells him that he should never despair and calls his hair “the stiff bristles that guard the head of the fighter”. Their kiss symbolizes the speaker coming to understand “Villon”.

The poem ends with the line: “Myself made otherwise by all his pain”.   This line explains the importance of “Villon” to the speaker and to us. The pain and oppression that “Villon” went through had a significant influence on who the speaker is as a person. We also can draw strength from his rebellious attitude in the face of oppression. Villon calls us to stand up and fight, especially when it is the hardest to do so.        


Works Cited
Levine, Phillip. "Baby Villon".

In Time of Plauge

         The famous textbook Understanding Poetry promoted the idea of new criticism which restricted students from considering historical and personal significance while analizing a poem. However in most works including Thom Gunn’s In Time of Plague, knowing the time period of the poem is crucial to understand its meaning .

To get at the poem’s emotional center you have you put yourself as a gay man during the late 80’s/early 90’s whose community is suddenly infected with this new deadly disease. The speaker tells us the psychological impact the AIDS epidemic had on his social life. He explains how sexual desire and the fear of death have become strangely intertwined. In line 7 he describes potential sexual partners as men who “want to stick their needle in my arm.” This is a both a metaphor for sex and a reference to the heavy drug use of 1980's gay nightlife. These bars would allow an opportunity for drug abuse and unprotected sex. The two men, Jon and Brad, are given very cliché and generic names to give the feeling that they are just typical bar types who he would normally have sex with without deep consideration.

These men “thirst heroically together for euphoria”.  The language used in lines 21-26 describes search for sex as and grand and important quest. In this “quest” he is able to “enter their minds” as they “lose their differences” together. Then he abruptly goes back to the fear of death. This relates to how AIDS brought a somber halt to their free spirited and promiscuous attitudes. He starts talking about how he fears for my own health and of their evident health”, “health” referring to rather or not they were infected. In the last line he describes the bar patrons as “boisterous and bright carrying in their faces and throughout their bodies the news of life and death.”  In their faces the speaker can see both thier bright human nature and signs of sickness and death.


Works Cited:
    Booth, Alison, and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature. 10thth ed. New York, London: W. W. Norton and Company, 2011. 478-479. Print.