On the Move

Youthful California motorcycle culture combines with existentialism to create a poem lauding the absolute human freedom to shape itself according to its own will and desires. Nothing is preformed or predestined: It is all up to what people can create for themselves. The primary requirement is to keep moving; one should never be content merely to stay still. The motorcyclists constantly on the move are therefore extended metaphors for a certain existential attitude about life. The original epigraph to the poem, not found in later editions, was “Man you gotta go,” which was taken from the 1953 film The Wild One, starring Marlon Brando. The epigraph is an expression of the rebellious, free-spirited motorcycle culture as Gunn found it in California.

In Stanza 1, the uncertainty and unpredictability of human life is contrasted with the instinctual life of birds—both individually and as a group. The blue jay in the bushes has a purpose known only to him, as does the group of swallows nesting in the trees. Birds know exactly where they are going; they have an instinctual purpose, so they always embody a kind of “poise” (Line 5). They offer a contrast to humans, for whom instincts are not enough. Lines 5-8 express the challenges humans must try to overcome. Humans move with “uncertain violence” (Line 6) in contrast to the poise of the birds; they are “baffled” (Line 7) by aspects of their sensory experience (or perhaps just baffled by the whole experience of being alive), and the words they use to describe and understand their experience are merely “approximate” (Line 8).

Stanza 2 is entirely devoted to the motorcyclists. At first, they are seen only in the distance and look small, “like flies hanging in heat” (Line 10)—an image suggesting a hot summer day, the sexual activity of insects, and the sound of their motorcycles as a hum. As they get nearer, however, the hum becomes a sound like thunder, as the cyclists grip their machines between calf and thigh. The significance of the motorcyclists is suggested by the capitalization of the word “Boys” (Line 10); they may be young but they are harnessing an awesome kind of power and are not timid about using it. As group riding together, they have transcended individuality through their choice of outfit: Goggles and black leather jackets make each rider indistinguishable from the next, thereby creating an even more powerful expression. Line 15 indicates that if they have any doubts about life or what they are doing, they disregard it, so caught up are they in their robust physical energy. Line 16 suggests that the noise of the bikes is itself “almost” enough to give their lives a meaning. The three stanzas that follow show how meaning fully emerges from the fact that the bikers are always “On the Move,” as the title indicates. That they are constantly on the road is a metaphor for the way life should be lived by all humans.

Stanza 3 goes beyond the visual imagery of the motorcyclists in the previous stanza to introduce the existentialist theme: Man has the freedom to shape his own destiny. This is symbolized by the fact that the bikers do not have a route mapped out in advance. They are, essentially, aimless. There is “no shape yet” (Line 18). They just start from where they are and ride in the “direction where the tyres [sic] press” (Line 19). It is all unstructured, spontaneous, and full of possibilities. Even nature must sometimes bend to their will, like the flight of birds in Line 20 that are scared across a field by the sight and sound of the motorcyclists. It is through this constant movement and exploration that the bicyclists—and humans, overall—create their identity or their self, even though they only “imperfectly control” (Line 23) the outcome. Control is not the point: The point is to forge ahead to an unseen and unknown future, and to do it in a daring manner, creating a destiny by means of the roads in life a man chooses—rather literally for the motorcyclists, metaphorically for others.

Stanza 4 says much the same thing from a slightly different angle. It suggests that what has been said so far is at least part of the "solution" (Line 25) to how a human being is to live in a difficult world. Just because he is only “half animal” (Line 27) and therefore cannot solely function on his instincts does not mean he is doomed to experience a life of suffering. He must learn to harness the nature of life, which is constant movement that “divides and breaks” (Line 29). He must fully embrace it, ride with it, and consciously choose it, even though the world itself is “valueless” (Line 30). The use of this term strongly implies that in this worldview, there is no god and no universally applicable code of ethics on which one might rely—a decidedly existentialist perspective. The human need, the speaker states, is to be both “hurler and hurled” (Line 31); that is, one must both shape life as a free individual who imposes his will on the chaos and essential meaningless of life, and yet also be ready to respond to the shocks and disturbances the world will inevitability inflict on him.

The final stanza returns to the motorcyclists, who have arrived merely to depart once more; they have grasped that the essence of life is movement, and in embracing it they define themselves and what their life is to be (Lines 33-34). Sitting astride their machines they roar away in a burst of speed that is also an expression of masculine energy. They travel “through” (Line 35) towns; they do not linger there, and in this they have something in common with “birds and saints” (Line 37) who also do not rest in one place but have a purpose they must fulfill—a purpose that involves always being on the move. Movement is the whole point. There may be no “absolute” (Line 39) goals for which to aim. There is only and always the restless movement toward an undefined something: If one keeps moving, one is likely to get closer to it than they otherwise would ever be.