Poetry Analysis of Nude Descending a Staircase
“Nude Descending a Staircase” Poem Analysis
X.J. Kennedy was born in Dover, New Jersey in 1929. Named Joseph Charles Kennedy by his parents, X.J. started writing at a very early age. At only twelve years old, he had published his very own sci-fi magazine titled The Terrifying Test-Tube Tales. At the age of 22, he had already graduated from Seton Hall University, and had earned a Master of the Arts degree from the University of Columbia. X.J. spent the next four years of his life enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Out at sea, he published a newsletter every day for the exhausted crew to read. X.J. went back to school after he returned home from duty, attending both Sorbonne University in Paris and the University of Michigan. He later went on to teach English to college students at UNC and Tufts U. in Massachusetts.
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As a distinguished contemporary American poet, X.J. refers to himself as “one of an endangered species: people who still write in rhyme and meter” (www.library.ubc.ca.edlib/kennedy.html). He was awarded the Lamont Award in 1961 for his original collection of poetry designated Nude Descending a Staircase. Composed in iambic tetrameter, the particular poem Nude Descending a Staircase was written while X.J. had a painting by Marcel Duchamp, entitled by the same name, fresh in his mind. X.J. is also the author of Dark Horses and Cross Ties, both that are other accumulations of his poetry. Partnered with his wife, X.J. now writes and publishes children’s books that are aimed to develop a love for poetry in a young reader’s mind.
The poem I chose is named Nude Descending a Staircase. This poem is an example of a narrative poem. Nude Descending a Staircase is a literary verse that tells a story. Although similar to a dramatic poem, the absence of any monologue or dialogue define it as a narrative poem. Typical of most other poems by X.J., this poem is written in iambic foot. Also, the poem follows the outline of a four-foot poem (tetrameter). The rhyme scheme of Nude Descending a Staircase is abcb in each of the three stanzas. I believe X.J. wrote this poem to be read in an anticipating tone. In the last couple of lines, X.J. leaves the reader wondering what the woman will do next. “And pausing, on the final stair, /Collects her motions into shape.”
describes her declination as a gradual process and leaves the woman pondering on the final stair.
X.J. demonstrates terrific usage of literary devices in Nude Descending a Staircase. In the final stanza, the author uses assonance. The repetition of initial vowel sounds is evident in line 9, “One woman waterfall.” Also in the final stanza, Kennedy compares the woman’s voyage down the stairs to a long cape. In the simile: “slow descent like a long cape,” the tenor is “descent,” and the vehicle is “cape.” This last metaphor I interpreted from the poem is easily arguable. I believe the woman’s beauty is being compared to the beauty and divinity of nature. The naked woman “sifts in the sunlight” and is described as a waterfall. In my eyes, naked women, sunlight, and waterfalls are all presentations of beauty through God.
On the list of poets provided by Mr. Jones, the name “X.J. Kennedy” stood out like a sore thumb. Although it is his pen name, I had never seen anyone with an initial “X.” I chose Nude Descending a Staircase because it was Kennedy’s most celebrated poem, and it had to do with a popular subject of mine… women. I enjoyed both the poem and the author I chose. I enjoyed the poem as soon as I read it because of its subject, and when I realized it was written in iambic tetrameter, I gained more respect for X.J. Kennedy. I liked the poet I picked because of his influences for writing, and his guidelines for writing in both rhyme and meter. In doing this project, I learned that contemporary poets write about a variety of things, but each poem by each author usually has one significant similarity.
For instance, in both Nude Descending a Staircase and Walking through Walls (both poems by Kennedy) there is an importance held in nature.
