Moulding poetry 001

Moulding PoetryJune, Ros Azlin & Chang Yuan

The beauty of manhole covers – what of that?

Like medals struck by a great savage khan,

Like Mayan calendar stones, unliftable, indecipherable,

Not like the old electrum, chased and scored,

Mottoes and sculptured to a turn,

But notched and whelked and pocked and smashed

With the great company names

(Gentle Bethlehem, smiling United States).

This rustproof artifact of my street,

Long after roads are melted away will lie

Sidewise in the grave of the iron - old world

Bitten at the edges,

Strong with its cryptic American,

Its dated beauty.

Manhole Covers By Karl Shapiro

We sculptured a manhole, the cover, buildings and fences accordingly to the poem. If one imagines the poem by the literal meaning, what the poem is doing is describing the manhole cover. By building the scene from the poem, we hope to get a clearer picture as well as gain insights to the deeper meaning of the poem.

• Metaphorically, the manhole cover is actually a ‘mask’ or a ‘cover’ to hide things that one does not wish to show. In this sculpture we actually placed a lump of brown plasticine, representing dung, underneath lid. The dung is a metaphor for those ugly or undesirable things that we do not wish for others to see. As proven in the picture itself, no one can see the dung! And that is because the manhole cover masked it well, so we only see a bright yellow coloured circular piece of plasticine instead.

• Coming back to reality, we never know what is underneath the manhole cover just as we never know what a person really thinks or feels. All we can see is the shape and structure of a manhole cover, similar to the looks and personality of a person that we can determine.

Looks may be deceiving

• Fences were intentionally decorated with different colours such that they appear more outstanding and further boosts the contrast intended for the manhole and the street. We wanted the manhole to stand out in this sculpture and the use of colour is the most effective approach.

• Manholes are usually dull in colour, blending into the surroundings and no one actually notices them. In contrast, we gave the manhole cover a bright yellow colour, with dirty brown as the road instead. This place the manhole cover under the spotlight as the main focus is now on it.

• We are creating a stark contrast between the general manhole covers and our sculptured manhole cover. So now is the question. Is a brightly, striking coloured manhole cover still a manhole cover? What happens if I were to beautify the manhole cover to perfection? Would it change the contents beneath it?

• The buildings are sculptured with a deformed shape, emphasizing on the effect of the passage of time has on the surroundings, as mentioned in the poem. The larger, blue building is leaning down whereas the smaller, orange building is standing upright.

• In the past, the bigger building is more imposing and overshadowed the smaller building. As time passes, the bigger building weakens but the smaller building stands strong. The buildings are metaphors for the character of people. Strong characters will always last in the long run, no matter the appearance of the person, be it tall or short, big or small. Size does not reflect one’s true self. Thus, this supports the theme of appearance may be deceiving.

• Somewhat of an appearance versus reality theme, this poem is trying to tell us to look beyond the scope and look for the inner beauty instead of just being one who looks on the surface of matters only. From the poem, similes such as, “Like Mayan calendar stones, unliftable, indecipherable.” actually praises the complexity of looking through one’s true colours.

• Mayan calendar stones were a tool the ancient prophets used to make prophecies and predictions.

• By describing the beauty of manhole covers as Mayan calendar stones, the writer is actually complimenting manhole covers for being of an equal status as an honourable tool used by the ancients Here, the writer’s intention is to bring across the message that being able to look into the inner beauty of things is a very sophisticated and highly appealing technique. The fact that an ordinary manhole cover is comparable to an ancient revered tool further highlights our lexicon- Looks may be deceiving.

• The writer uses unique diction such as “notched and whelked and pocked and smashed” to create certain effects.

• Firstly, the repetition of ‘and’ makes the phrase sound longer lasting and gives us a sense of continuation. It creates the effect that there is no end to the manhole cover’s wear and tear and also leaves an impression that the manhole cover is always being deteriorated.

• At the same time, the ‘k’ sound is repeated twice and the ‘ed’ sound repeated four times to create the effect of the sound of cracks. Through these two effects, we feel more sympathetic towards the manhole cover for having undergone so much weathering.

• This is reflected in our sculpture, as we have added obvious scratches and carvings onto the manhole cover that actually looks like the scars on our skin. Our intention is to link manhole covers to ourselves, our looks, that even with scars it does not mean one is less intelligent, or an evil man. Once again, we link back to our lexicon- Looks may be Deceiving.