Poetry Essay

For my English class, I wrote an essay on Mark Twain's poem, "Genius".  Here it is.

Gustavo Guerrero
December 6, 2010
English 4
Stephanie Lytle

Genius?

In “Genius”, Mark Twain, otherwise known as Samuel Clemens, speaks about the defining qualities of a genius.  His poem describes the exact meaning of being a genius.  The speaker’s tone is one of contempt for geniuses.  While it is subtle at first, near the end it becomes much more powerful.  A gradual tone of contempt and the heavy use of satire make this poem extremely related to the writing style of Kurt Vonnegut, who also uses many of the same tones of satire.
            “Genius” is a satirical look into what a genius is, and a main way this is shown is by the tone Twain uses as the poem progresses.  In the opening stanza, the poem states that “Genius elevates its possessor to ineffable spheres/far above the vulgar world and fills his soul/ with regal contempt for the gross and sordid things of earth/It is probably on account of this/that people who have genius/do not pay board, as a general thing”.  This opening stanza, as written by Twain, seems to show a tone of contempt for geniuses, stating that, because they are smarter, geniuses think they are superior.  As the poem progresses, however, another idea opens up – geniuses are not smart at all.  Twain writes a section that says “If he is too proud to accept assistance/and spurns it with a lordly air/at the very same time/that he knows he can't make a living to save his life,/he is most certainly a genius.”  This statement is one that is repeated several times throughout the piece.  He uses different words, but the same general idea, points to the fact that for all their brains, geniuses aren’t necessarily the smartest people.
            Aside from his tone of contempt, the other overarching theme in “Genius” is satire.  For the first few stanzas he has minor and somewhat normal examples.  However, as the poem progresses, Twain says that the genius is so smart that he has become unintelligent, in the sense of connecting with the real world.  In the poem, he uses an extreme example in his second-to-last stanza: “If he throws away every opportunity in life/and crushes the affection and the patience of his friends………./persists in going up some infamous back alley/dying in rags and dirt,/ he is beyond all question a genius.”  Twain clearly has a mindset going on:  He thinks that a genius is indeed not as smart as they are perceived to be.  At least, until the very last stanza where he says that “But above all things,/to deftly throw the incoherent ravings of insanity into verse/and then rush off and get booming drunk, is the surest of all the different signs of genius”.  This last line, however, hints that he is simply describing himself, having just “thrown the incoherent ravings of insanity into verse”, referring to his poem.

“Genius” connects a few different writing concepts, most noticeably satire and tone, to create a truly unique piece.  This style of writing is also reminiscent of the works of Kurt Vonnegut, who is famous for using satire in many of his works. A genius is many things, and Twain’s analysis cannot be a complete definition of all geniuses.  This poem is extremely critical, although satirical.  Otherwise, one would be inclined to say that you cannot lump people into one category, something that this poem does.  Since it is satire, however, not meant to be taken seriously, it avoids this argument.  He seems to hint that the genius he is talking about is no one but himself, which exemplifies the satirical nature of this poem.