Summary
The poem starts in the middle of a conversation between the speaker and his friend. He then asks him about how to deal with the darkness in the world he sees all around them.
Analysis
"I Know a Man" is a poem concerned with how to find meaning in the common parts of life. The speaker is struggling with feelings of despair towards a world he feels is suffused with emptiness. However, for all of these weighty concerns, the speaker maintains a relatively lighthearted tone throughout. It is a freewheeling discussion of serious subject matter, captured within the frame of a conversation between two friends.
The poem begins in the middle of a discussion. The opening lines immediately provide context and characterize the speaker as talkative: "As I sd to my / friend, because I am / always talking,—John, I." The speaker's comment about "always talking" implies that this dialogue is a habitual and ongoing one. This is an impression further deepened by the way the stanza breaks off at the end, and by the abbreviation of "said" as "sd." The interruption of the thought makes the conversation seem somewhat rambling, as the reader is made to work to follow the thread of the speaker's comments. In the same way, the use of "sd" makes the speaker's comments seem more urgent and hurried, as if he is trying to get the words out as fast as possible. This aligns with Creeley's efforts to condense his ideas effectively and focus on individual lines and utterances. By shortening a familiar word like "said," he frees up space for the poem to move along more directly. This section is notable for the way it situates the reader right in the middle of an ongoing action, giving a strong sense of the voice that will be used throughout the text.
The next section immediately contradicts the preceding lines ("sd, which was not his / name,") by stating that the friend's name is not John. This is strange given that the speaker just called him John, but it seems to imply that the speaker is struggling with definitions and labels. It also conveys that for all of his talking, the speaker may not be paying very close attention to the people and things around him. The speaker then voices his major concern about the world he lives in ("the darkness sur- / rounds us, what"). The use of the term "darkness" to describe the source of his dread is notable in its lack of specificity. Similarly, it is an interesting and abrupt shift in subject matter. The casualness of the first stanza does not prime the reader to anticipate the mention of such a serious subject. At the same time, the speaker refuses to spell out this concern concretely, only describing it as a generalized "darkness" that "surrounds" them. Once again, the break-up of the lines (which in some instances cuts through individual words) adds to the harried element of the speaker's speech. Like the conversation he is having, this concern is so urgent the ideas are tumbling out of him.
The style of the poem does a lot of work to convey and support the tone. This fits well with Creeley's goal of breaking away from "closed" poetic forms. The poem uses a great deal of enjambment, going so far as to split certain words between lines. This creates the feeling that the speaker is sharing thoughts and comments that carry a lot of personal urgency. His words fall through the stanzas in the same loose manner that they would in the conversation he is describing. His train of thought is only divided up by commas, which seem to function as the only organizing force in the poem. Once again, this feeling is also aided by the abbreviation of "said" into "sd" which makes it appear as though the speaker really needs to get his thoughts down quickly. The overall mood of the poem is one that is both casual in tone and urgent in content. The speaker is sharing these thoughts freely, but he feels them deeply.
