McClure- Ghost Tantras Minji

Ghost Tantras written by Michael McClure is written in mixture of ordinary English language and beast language. Beast language is an invented language or words based on the sounds of animals. Due to the integration of beast language and ordinary human language in the poems, Ghost Tantras is known as McClure’s most ingenious and innovative piece. Poems in this collection written in beast language consist of fearful howls, affectionate hissing, and anguished screaming; therefore, readers would find themselves they are enjoying this poem when they are actually reading aloud. One of the most interesting things can be found in the picture in the cover of the book. The picture shows a creature, which looks like a mixture of both human and animal or beast. That half human and half beast creature resonates the structure and content of poem because the poem is also written in blend of ordinary language and beast language. One example that illustrates this can be seen in poem 6,

GRAHGG! KROOOOOOPROOOO

GROOOOOOOOOH

Profiles of beautiful women making a veil

of shimmers and features of smiles upon all beings.

ME!

ME! ME! ME! ME! GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!

MEGROOOOOOOOOR, ME SERMON GROOO.

Me from everything to gray. Me see

nooooooor that kiss me groooooor.

Here is a groo finger.

The mixture of beast language and ordinary language symbolizes human beings in our society. Even though people in present society are civilized and know how to behave differently than animal there are sill primordial aspect, which is similar to animals, in people. Another important aspect of this poem is that the beast language and the ordinary language have different function and effects. Ordinary language is for the representation of rationality of human being and the beast language, which is mostly consisted of screaming and howling, is serving as a sound of the emotional center. Also, the order of appearance of ordinary language and beast language is pretty consistent: beast language and ordinary language alternate each other. This alternation gives a feeling that a beast is using ordinary language when it is saying in its mind but it ends up using beast language when it actually expresses its feeling and thought a loud. Finally, the screams used through out this collection of poems are different from than the screams that are derived from something that is not aggressive components. Screams and howling are opening up the spiritual kind of capacity of the scream. These screams, emotions, and the body represented in poems are letting a certain type of attachment go. The poem illustrated above also shows this aspect. The beast is talking about a beautiful woman and shows his feeling that it wasn't the smile of the pretty woman; however, by screaming and howling, it tries to depict the primordial aspect of human being which is obsession and excessive attachment. Overall, Ghost Tantras is a very interesting and different from poems that we have learned so far because it is focusing more on the sound and the interpretation of the sound could be different from individual to individual.