Systematic Sampling

Very like a Whale by Brook Emery : The Poetry Foundation

Many of the dualistic tensions present in Dick's work are present here. This brings to light how very human these tensions are. Not only does Philip K. Dick struggle with constant, unending debates on the fate and nature of humanity, but so too does the rest of the world. Brook Emery is but one more example on the infinite list of humans who were dissatisfied and disconcerted by their own discoveries, observations, and inquiries. Emery brilliantly plays off the ideas of the centuries. He merges all the conflicting and disjointed ideologies of the past two centuries into a balanced portrayal of existence. The speaker of the poem encapsulates the human experience. The verses are wrought with the doubt and uncertainty of perception. Words like “seem,” “ambiguously,” “misconceive,” “unlikelihood,” “belief,” “imagined,” and “illusions,” set this tone of obscurity and confusion. Reality becomes fluid like the speaker's perception, within the context of the poem. This contrasts starkly with the theories and themes of Darwin and Dawkins, as Emery incorporates the resoluteness of science into the mix of human emotionality. The “peptides/ spelling out the phrase/ very like a whale” allude to a complex theory and practice invented and implemented by Richard Dawkins in order to prove and illuminate the nature of evolution in biological mechanisms, also known as Dawkin's weasel. The fact that Richard Dawkins chose to use Shakespeare in his experiments is mirrored throughout Emery's poem. The “clouds,” “camels,” “weasels,” and “whale[s],” of Hamlet's sky are all present within the text, and enrich its meaning. The idea that Hamlet was a character who could be both sane and insane within the context of the plot, and the fact that Richard Dawkins chose to use Hamlet to prove a wildly complex series of patterns, adds to this tone of surrealism and delusion. Emery uses these scientific discoveries to play off the notion that his words, the events that surround him, and his life have been naturally selected in a reality that is both wondrously illusive and positively concrete at the same time.