Anne Carlson's Ode To Man

The “Ode to Man” is a famous section of Antigone that, as its name implies, praises to mankind. It ,however, dwells into the deeper meaning of mankind's inability to transcend limits. Anne Carlson also includes her own twist in her adaptation of the “Ode to Man” that displays a harsh social commentary. The poem “Ode to Man” is recited by the chorus after the civilization of Thebes put themselves together after the civil war. This is an exemplification of the accomplishments of mankind to put themselves together after being torn apart. However, quickly afterward, as Robert Fagles, points out in his author’s note, the chorus condemns the traitor who buried Polykrikos. The point is shifted from human advances to mankind's inescapable darkness that inevitable …show more content…
She describes mankind’s ability to conquer nature by describing how we make “the bulls head, the horse to its knee” to the point every “human exigency cradles as he plugs” in the electricity. However, concurrently, mankind is a customer that exploits the earth. She defines the greek work tremevos, that could be either translated to be awesome or terrible, to be terrible to describe mankind’s actions. She thinks as humans are advancing in civilization, by neglect and exploitation we are also warming up and destroying our planet. Though humans promote ourselves to be deserved to be extol in the form of an ode, as humans we are the most neglecting customer that has ruined the planet. Like death, this cycle of human atrocities is unavoidable as with “good, god law and laws” however, as she points out, as humans we are still exploiting, still waiting for the day that the heat will exceed a limit and devastation will come. Does this make Anene Carlson an Environmentalist? Maybe, but her action was more of a reaction to the global temperature being the highest on record and point out the neglect that humans have done to cause