Johlas

Explication by Hannah Johlas of //And the Unclean Spirits Went Out of the Man, and Entered in to the Swine// by David Wojahn.
 David Wojahn’s **// And the Unclean Spirits Went Out of the Man, and Entered into the Swine //**** points out how evil subtly opposes God by retelling a Biblical story from evil demons’ point of view, which is in complete contrast to God’s perspective. On the surface, the demons seem wronged and innocent, but certain points in the poem show how that front is a calculated lie. Underneath the story that the demons present, they seem to be mocking God with their choice of words. They also oppose God at every opportunity, even using their style of language to make a point. Knowing the Bible verses about this particular story is the key to seeing how the demons deceive the listener. **  
 *  At first, the poem seems to be just an alternate version of an event, with both the poem’s version and the Biblical version telling the truth. In the Bible’s take on the incident, a swarm of demons named the Legion possess a man, causing him to become crazy and live in a filthy cemetery. One day, Jesus comes along and talks to the demons inside the man. They beg for mercy, and plead with Jesus to not kill them, but let them possess some pigs instead. Jesus lets them, but as soon as they enter the pigs, they run off a cliff into the sea and drown. In the demons’ version, Jesus makes a bargain with the demons so they can leave the inherently disgusting human and live happy lives in the pigs. After the bargain is made, Jesus supposedly betrays the demons by forcing the pigs to commit suicide, killing the demons too. Both versions seem to be true at first glance. The demons’ story could easily take place within the Biblical version because the sections that differ don’t contradict each other outright. This would make it appear that God wasn’t revealing the whole truth in the Bible to make himself look better, which would help the demons in undermining his authority . **
 * However, under closer scrutiny the demons’ version falls apart, revealing just how cunning and subtle they are in opposing God. The part of the demons’ story that exposes their dishonesty is “the cliff where we hurl ourselves on the breakers,” (line 8). This line conveys that the demons are throwing themselves off the cliff, but the rest of their story implies that Jesus is forcing them to die. After their story proves false, the demons’ version looks calculated to produce sympathy a listener. The tone of the whole poem is hurt, a little bit angry, and disappointed. Wojahn does a good job of choosing words that make the reader sympathetic to the demons at first. As the demons describe their life in the human with “Terrible to dwell within the body of a man/ who squats in his own shit among the tombs” (lines 1-2), the reader pities them because their home is so disgusting. Then, when they die, the demons complain that **


 * Here was our repose. But this God we bargained with, **
 * as Gods will do, had tricked us all. & to the precipice we came. **
 * We the exiled, We the betrayed. (lines 12-14) **
 * also causing the reader to sympathize with them and dislike God for breaking the agreement. However, after this all turns out to be a lie, it is clear how the demons manipulated the reader. **


 * In addition to lying and manipulating, the demons mock and insult God covertly. When the reader trusts the demons, the insults just seem like imaginative descriptions. When the poem is examined more closely, though, the insults become clearer. The main example of this is the combination of insulting humans as a living place and comparing pigs to a temple. In the Bible, humans’ bodies are depicted as temples that God lives in. The demons insult God’s living space (and God along with it) with “Terrible his raiment, hair matted wild. Terrible the man/ who wails his sorrow, scuttling in the grime” (lines 3-4). In addition to that, later in the poem the demons compare //their// home, the pigs, to a temple too. This is so insulting because pigs were considered unclean in Jewish tradition at the time this event took place. In describing the pigs as **

** the **** Temple **** of the Four-Legged Thing, nave of sow-teat, ** 
 * altar of snout & tusk, sacrament of bristle-hair, of penis bone **
 * & musk gland. (lines 10-12) **
 * the demons take several holy objects and pair them with vulgar pig body parts, which would be disgusting with any animal but doubly offensive to God with pigs. The demons also explicitly point out the reason why pigs are unclean (they have cloven feet) in “O better instead to scurry/ on these cloven feet,” (lines 3-4), which shows that they are aware of how rude they are being. **


 * In addition to these sly insults, Wojahn uses the style of language to portray the demons’ opposition to God. Unlike God’s diction, which is formal and complete, the demons’ style is very informal and loose. The formal title of the poem not only gives a context, it demonstrates the contrast between God in the title and the demons in the rest of the poem. In the main body of the poem, the demons talk in sentence fragments, don’t use proper punctuation or capitalization, and use completely unnecessary vulgar language. For example, the vulgar language in “squats in his own shit” (line 2) and “of penis bone/ & musk gland” (lines 11-12) could easily be replaced with more civilized words. Sometimes Wojahn uses symbols instead of words, like in the quotation above, writing just “&” instead of “and” to emphasize the informality of the demons’ speech. This poem’s style is about as casual as it can get. It is in free verse, with no rhyming pattern, no constant number of feet per line, and no clear reason for lines to end where they do. All of informal language in the poem works to show how the demons oppose God without being obvious about it. **


 * <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; msobidifontweight: bold;">Overall, Wojahn demonstrates in this poem how cunning evil can be in countering God. Beneath the cover story, designed to produce sympathy in the reader, the demons insult and mock God by perverting His own sayings. These insults are sly so that at first glance, they seem to be merely imaginative comparisons. Wojahn emphasizes the demons’ cunning defiance of God by showing the differences in speaking styles between the title (God) and the rest of the poem (the demons). Wojahn conveys all this meaning very subtly in the entertaining form of a story, echoing the demons’ slyness. The poem is interesting enough to catch a reader’s eye, yet upon closer study the true meaning, a warning against the subtle cunning of evil becomes clear. **

Poetry Explication page Back to And the Unclean Spirits Went Out... group page Brendan's Explication & Ryosuke's Explication
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