17 pages • 34 minutes read
Thom GunnOn the Move
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1994A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Motorcycles and Riders
In poetry, a symbol is an object that is literally described but also has a meaning or significance beyond itself. In “On the Move,” the central symbol is the group of motorcyclists. The whole poem rides upon them. They symbolize a free-spirited, adventurous response to life. They do not accept the status quo passed to them by their elders, but instead forge their own path. Philosophically, the motorcyclists, in their freedom and insistence on defining themselves as they choose, symbolize the existentialist view of life, “astride the creative will” (Line 34).
Movement
The motif—a recurring idea—of movement needs little explanation. It is pervasive, in the title, in the original epitaph (“Man you gotta go”) and throughout the poem. The birds, for example, are characterized by carefully chosen verbs describing their movement rather than their appearance. The blue jays are “scuffling” (Line 1), the phrase “gust of birds” (Line 2) links the birds to a sudden burst of wind, and a group of swallows “spurts across the field” (Line 3); the “wheeling” swallows (Line 3) are “nested” in the trees (Line 4). There is not a single word used to describe their appearance.
While the appearance of the motorcyclists is described, as with the birds, the emphasis is on their movement. The “Boys” (Line 10) and their machines are at first seen in the distance, tiny like flies, but the sheer speed at which they travel “throws them forth” (Line 11) and they are viewed closeup. Soon, however, “They burst away” (Line 35). They are not made to stand still.
The abstract language in the poem is also all about movement, the need, as the popular song has it, to “Keep on keepin’ on.” It is movement that has the last word: “One is always nearer by not keeping still” (Line 40).
