Throughout history, different species have dominated the earth for different periods of time, and their rise and fall have been well documented. The reign of earth has passed down from plants, through the hands of reptiles, dinosaurs and mammals, to human beings. But, like all reigns, the reign of humanity on earth is also bound to come to an end and the poem “Dinosauria, We” talks about this end and its causes. In this poem, Charles Bukowski uses a combination of anaphora, shift, symbolism, foreshadowing and parallelism to predict that this “end,” or apocalypse, will be in part due to the cycle of nature, and partly brought upon humankind by itself. As shown further in the essay, each of the above devices serves the dual purpose of building the argument for blaming the apocalypse either on the cycle of nature, or on the actions of human beings, and commenting on the various social issues prevailing in today’s society, including the blatant abuse of nature by human beings.
“Dinosauria, We” takes on an extremely cynical view of society and humanity as a whole. The tone is dark, desperate and disturbing. The flow is fragmented, with some lines being formed by single words. Bukowski begins the poem with the word “born,” which is ironic because he is talking about the end of humanity. Throughout the rest of the poem Bukowski addresses the futility of being born into a society which is unmistakably headed towards its end and not content with that alone, it takes down nature along with it too. The fact that in this poem the end of humanity equals the end of nature shows how badly humans have messed up by using greed to entwine their fate with that of nature’s.
Bukowski uses anaphora in his poem to convey that we cannot change what we are born into and that we have no control over the impending apocalypse. The repetition of “Born into this” several times in the poem is an example of this. Lines like “We are born into a government 60 years in debt” (47) and “Into these carefully mad wars” (13) point at the fact that we inherited this dysfunctional society from our forbearers and there is little we can do to change this fact. For example, the only reason why “wars” (13) would be “carefully mad” (13) would be that they were created by choice, carefully crafted by weaving human greed and ego with a false sense of identity and belonging. But the fact remains that this choice was made much before we were born, and all we can do is to remain puppets in the hands of the puppeteer whose actions were pre-decided a long, long time ago.
Further, the two main shifts in the poem are the shift from present tense to future tense and the shift in tone from dark to hopeful in the last four lines of the poem. The shift from present to future tense occurs at “We are born into a government 60 years in debt/ That soon will be unable to even pay the interest on that debt” (47-48). This shift conveys that our future is going to go from bad to worse and that the future will be an effect of the actions we take in the present. The second shift, the shift in tone from dark to hopeful in the last four lines of the poem, takes place when words such as “beautiful silence” (72), “born out of” (73) and “next chapter” (75) replace words like “explosions”(56), “born into this”(22) and “sorrowful deadliness”(46). This shift highlights Bukowski’s belief that the world is better off without human beings. Hence, both these shifts serve the purpose of holding humanity responsible for the apocalypse.
Bukowski uses several symbols in his poem; the more emphasized one is that of the sun, which acts as a constant and a reference point for his prediction of the various stages that the human race will undergo if it continues its current trend of progress. The strategic placement of the lines that use this symbol, on the other hand, divide the whole process of the destruction of human beings into clear cut stages, each of which are described in detail by the of use repetition, imagery and metaphors. The first reference to the sun is “as the sun is masked” (9). Here Bukowski uses the “masking of the sun” to highlight that human beings have started taking the first steps towards their own destruction. The repetition of “as” in the lines preceding this one describes these steps: “As the political landscapes dissolve/ As the supermarket college boy holds a college degree/ As the oily fish spit out their oily prey” (6-8), each of the lines also serving as a comment on politics and corruption, unemployment and the abuse of nature by human beings. “The sun will not be seen and it will always be night” (60) uses “night” to show that human beings have progressed towards violence and crimes such as “open and unpunished murder in the streets” (51); crimes which are unheard of in today's world. Accompanying extreme violence would be war and total annihilation of nature, which are portrayed using imagery and metaphor. Rich and dark imagery like “Dante’s Inferno will be made to look like a children’s playground” (59) and “The rotting bodies of men and animals will stink in the dark wind” (67) effectively manages to portray the despair and destruction surrounding this particular stage. The use of “rain” as a metaphor in the line “Rain will be the new gold” (66) highlights how something as basic as water will become precious as all resources are used up, polluted, or destroyed. “The sun still hidden there/ Awaiting the next chapter” (74-75) is the final stage where the entire human race is obliterated by war, greed and disease. This last line leaves an opening for the creation of another race, or the domination of a species that already exists, while the sun continues to exist and serve as a reference point and constant for them too. The use of the sun as a symbol points to how nature likes to work in cycles and that the apocalypse may be in part due to the cyclical quality of nature.
Other symbols like “unresponsive god” (42) and “space platforms” (58) address the social issues in today’s world. “Space platform” (58) denotes the space dwelling that the rich will be able to buy to escape the conditions on earth but connotes the social-divide between the rich and the poor. Similarly, “unresponsive god” (42) denotes the loss of faith in the existence of god (which, in turn, stems from the conditions around us) but connotes the social issue of drug-abuse and how drugs have come to replace god in today’s world. These symbols, unlike that of the sun, point an accusing finger at man.
The poem is divided into two parts by the tense used. The first half of it is in present tense, and the second half in the future tense. The poem is symmetric in structure because everything said in the future tense part of the poem is foreshadowed by the present tense part of it. An example of this is the line, “masses elevate fools into rich heroes” (21), which foreshadows “the rich and the chosen will watch from space platforms” (58). Bukowski uses foreshadowing to convey that part of the reason for the impending apocalypse are our actions. Because we choose to “elevate fools into rich heroes” (21), we further the social divide and in turn lead to fighting of man against man and finally to our own end. Also, “As the oily fish spit out their oily prey” (8) foreshadows “radiated men will eat the flesh of radiated men” (63), implying that man’s choice to harm nature (here through oil spills), will be returned in kind during the apocalypse. Lastly, “Money will be useless” (56) foreshadows “And the space platforms will be destroyed by attrition” (69). “Money” symbolizes social divide and this line foreshadows that all men will be equal in death; whether rich or poor, every man will have to die as a consequence of his actions. Therefore, foreshadowing builds up the argument for holding humanity responsible.
The last four lines of the poem tie in to the title “Dinosauria, We”. “And there will be the most beautiful silence never heard/ Born out of that./ The sun still hidden there/ Awaiting the next chapter” (72-75). Bukowski parallels the end of the reign of dinosaurs on earth to the end of the reign of humans on earth. The idea of cyclical nature of Nature is reinforced here again. Throughout the poem Bukowski uses “born into” but ends it with “born out of” (73). This neatly ties up the cycle of humanity and paves way for the beginning of another one. Parallelism pinpoints the cause of the apocalypse to the cycle of nature again.
By exaggerating his descriptions of the present state of the world in the poem Bukowski is asking us to take a look around us, and take action before conditions actually become that bad. Thus the argument is brought to an impasse, as Bukowski accuses the cycle of nature and humanity equally while describing the apocalypse. This impasse, in turn, boils down everything to one thing—choice. Even though we cannot control the beginning (what we are born into), and we cannot stop the end (brought about by the cycle of nature), we can control what we do about it in the interim and that makes all the difference. It is the difference between being dragged down to battle and walking into it with your head held high. We are more than what is around us, what we are born into. Even if the end of humanity is all that inevitable, the least we could do would be to try not to drag down nature along with us as well; we owe it that much. And we can do this only if we choose to. There is so much humans can choose to do. We can choose not to lose our humanity, even in the face of death. We can choose peace over war, compassion over disdain, gratitude over greed and most important of all, we can choose choice over helplessness.
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