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Explore the life and work of David Bottoms, an acclaimed poet known for his Southern settings and characters. Discover how his use of simple language and realistic portrayals illuminates the ordinary lives and landscapes of the South.
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David Bottoms By: Bob frapples
Biography Born September 11, 1949 Son of a funeral director and a nurse, his father was the inspiration for many of his poems Mercer University, B.A. in 1971 West Georgia College, M.A. in 1973 Florida State University, Ph.D. in 1982 (“David Bottoms”)
Biography First full-length book of poetry won the 1979 Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets Has had over one hundred poems appear in magazines such as the Atlantic, the New Yorker, and the Southern Review (Risser)
Critical Overview: Bottoms’ Trademarks Southern settings and characters that reflect his personal experiences Realism and simple language
Southern settings and characters Bottoms’ poetry depicts “raucous scenes of the everyday South—ordinary, yet somehow mystical and always wonderful” as they “capture eternal truth and beauty by crafting images of ordinary lives and landscapes” (Dunlap). “Bottoms is more than a regionalist” (Risser).
Realism and Simple Language Similar to the use of a simple setting, the use of simple language gives the more complicated themes a greater effect. Robert Penn Warren commented that "David Bottoms is a strong poet, and much of his strength emerges from the fact that he is temperamentally a realist. In his vision the actual world is not transformed but illuminated” (“David Bottoms”). “Bottoms describes concrete subjects realistically, often the subjects work on the level of metaphor as well” (Risser).
“Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump” Loaded on beer and whiskey, we ride to the dump in carloads to turn our headlights across the wasted field, freeze the startled eyes of rats against mounds of rubbish. Shot in the head, they jump only once, lie still like dead beer cans. Shot in the gut or rump, they writhe and try to burrow into garbage, hide in old truck tires, rusty oil drums, cardboard boxes scattered across the mounds, or else drag themselves on forelegs across our beams of light toward the darkness at the edge of the dump. It's the light they believe kills. We drink and load again, let them crawl for all they're worth into the darkness we're headed for. 1 5 10
Southern Settings and Characters “We drink and load again, let them crawl/for all they're worth into the darkness we're headed for” (13-14). Bottoms uses these ordinary characters and a distinctly Southern activity/setting– men on their way to shoot rats at a dump - as a canvas for a more intricate theme – death is inescapable.
Realism and Language Interest in realism evident in attention to specific details: “old truck tires” (8); “oil drums” (9) “It's the light they believe kills” (12) – Simple, informal voice of speaker highlights naiveté of rats/irony they cannot outrun death Metaphor: “darkness we’re headed for” (14) is representative of death
Works Cited Bottoms, David. "Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump." Armored Hearts. David Bottoms. Copper Canyon Press, 1995. 5. LitFinder for Schools. Web. 5 Apr. 2013. "David Bottoms." Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Biography In Context. Web. 22 Feb. 2013. Dunlap, Barry L. "Waltzing Through the Endtime." Christianity and Literature 54.3 (2005): 458+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2013. Risser, Lynn. "David Bottoms." American Poets Since World War II: Third Series. Ed. R. S. Gwynn. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 120. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 Feb. 2013.
