Surplus Value- David C. Ward

Message - a political statement and comment on the capitalist system in America that puts profit before people. A eulogy for a type of man and type of job - death of an industry and community.

Context - Ward born in 1952, would’ve experienced the ‘heyday’ of the auto-car industry and its subsequent decline firsthand. Ward is an American historian, however his poetry usually focuses on the average American life, across a broad sweep of history.

Poem is about the American auto industry in the 20th century. Early to mid 1900’s Detroit was the center of this and Michigan and surrounding states = major economic boom. However, this prosperity didn’t last and may suffered more when their trade unions fell apart (line 14 is reason why). Workers were exploited and foreign competition expanded into the south US (o trade unions allowed).

Title - concept popularized by Karl Marx. Surplus value = surplus that exceeds what is required to survive (PROFIT), given to employers and not the employed.

Form, meter, rhyme:

  • Prosaic form - suits the intent, to tell the straightforward Histroy of an individual, industry and region

  • 2 stanzas

    • 1st - tragic story oof speakers brother in law (long)

    • 2nd - symbolic epilogue showing the wider implications of the BIL’s industry

  • Free verse

  • Matter of fact tone - very few lyrical touches

  • The simple style and lack of poetic effects suits the down to earth subject. No lyrical effects mirrors the stripping of his life to the ‘essentials’

  • Plain narrative (no rhyme) - suits the main character and reflects poets training as a historian (not to embellish stories)

Language: matter of fact, prose like and colloquial - matches tone and character of the subject. Idioms such as ‘went south’ ’tool and die guy’ ‘the dole’ ‘wife and kids’ means we can connect with him easily.

Volta = ‘but the road ran out’, the poem becomes more impersonal here and focuses less on the individual life of the subject, and more on the industrial changes that were taking place. The days of happiness and prosperity are clearly behind the brother in law.

Synecdoche - this is one man’s story of the fall of the auto—mobile industry, but it stands for the the downfall and hardships that people across many states experienced.

Themes

  1. Capitalism and worker exploitation: the poem pants a damning portrait of American capitalism. The first half of the poem paints an ideal picture of the capitalist way of life and the bonuses it brings, but the poet writes that soon this road runs out, and the fall is much worse then the profit. The poem suggests the tragedy of the BIL is inevitable and the system itself is at fault.

  2. Human industry vs the environment: the last stanza gives a wider view on the effect that the auto-mobile industry has on its surrounding nature. This is the final blow of the poem showing the extent of the evils of a greedy capitalist society. The poem suggests that even though the working population received a degree of profit, nature constantly endured destruction - the effects of this still last after the factories have been removed, the region seems to freeze in a state of permanent capitalism.

  3. Profit/money: there is a very clear idea here that Human Resources and nature are expendable in the face of profit (an idea set out in the title). Loss of worker’s rights protection ‘the union went south’, and reduced compensation for their work ‘the work was sweated from the men’ means that ultimately the work force is exhausted, and when done so is left behind by the industry to fend for itself. This poem outlines the priorities of the American capitalist economy, using the detriment of nature as the final blow in his statement.

Poem