Villonous Intent

The Buddha's grand revelation was that all of life is suffering. Specifically, this suffering was born of desire of the material world, and the behaviors that fuel that, such as hatred, manipulation, and selfishness If indeed these traits are the cause of suffering, then what effect do they have on the world around us? That is one of the many things addressed in Phillip Levine's poem, "Baby Villon."

   Indeed, in this poem, we can see a theme of a quiet outrage from a life tainted by other's hatred and selfishness. We get a view of this in the first couple of stanzas, when the speaker describes the subject talking about all the discrimination he has experienced. It culminates with the speaker saying, "He holds up seven thick little fingers/To show me he’s rated seventh in the world"(Levine), showing his placement in the world, below all of the major cultures, below everything. And indeed this supports the theme of this quiet outrage, for the stanza follows with, "And there’s no passion in his voice, no anger/ In the flat brown eyes flecked with blood" (Levine). A person so discriminated, and so hated in this world just approaching it silently is not uncommon But rather they just hold it in, a quiet fury brewing under the surface, the calm before the storm.

We continue to see more of this person's tragic circumstances, and the world that shaped them. In the next stanza, we see that he has been part of a war, and the tragedy that came from it. "...he talks of the war/In North Africa and what came after,/The loss of his father, the loss of his brother" (Levine). We can see the speaker showing that the subject has lost his father and brother as a result, but how the speaker presents this is what is most important. He presents this very blandly, without emotion or embellishment  If the speaker indeed is relaying how the subject told about these circumstances, it ties perfectly with the theme of quiet outrage. When one typically looses a family member, they are utterly devastated, but the subject shows no discernible emotion when it comes to this.

The detail of how the subject relates to the speaker near the end of this poem is evident of the theme of quiet outrage as well. Near the end of the poem, during this meeting between the speaker and the subject of the poem there comes this touching scene of a personal interaction between the two. "Sadly his fingers wander over my face,/And he says how fair I am, how smooth./We stand to end this first and last visit" (Levine). This seems more sad and touching than filled with brewing anger,but we can step back and see that isn't quite so. It is at this point we seem to get a tone shift from outrage focused through the subject to focusing it through the speaker. We see the speaker meeting with the subject and seeing his absolutely horrid quality of life, and how terribly he is treated. We see this in such detail that anyone would be enraged at the world for treating someone this way, and giving them a life that no one deserves. This last touching gesture before their meeting ends is filled with sadness on both ends, and one can pick up a very subtle sense of outrage brewing in the speaker's heart after all he knows now. The speaker ends on a note that shows how we all can be forced into this state, ending the poem with, "Myself made otherwise by all his pain" (Levine). It's a fitting line, showing how excessive pain, can turn anyone into a rage filled monster.

From this, we can see the theme of quiet outrage is clearly evident in this poem, though it is subtle at times. This is important, because it not only shows how any perfectly normal person can be turned into a hate filled sub-human; but also how our actions, our collective actions as human beings can cause people to become this way. We must learn form the examples in this poem, and take a page from the Buddha. Do away with our selfish desires, and we do away with creating so much outrage and villons in our world.


"Baby Villon." By Philip Levine : The Poetry Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2012. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178145>.