Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape - Take Two

"I've had all I can stand, I can't stands no more." - Popeye the Sailor Man

In John Ashbury's Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape, the characters come from the comic strip turned cartoon, Popeye the Sailor Man. In most of the Popeye cartoons, Popeye is usually saving his love, Olive Oyl, from different enemies. In this poem though, Popeye has been forced to flee the country and left Olive and Swee’Pea to sort of fend for themselves. Why? Because his father, Poopdeck Pappy, was jealous of him. Jealousy is one of the major themes in this poem

Where in a fight most people have back up, Popeye has spinach. After being clobbered, usually after someone hits on his ‘sweetie’ Olive, Popeye eats spinach which then gives him the strength he needs to kick some serious butt. Since Popeye has fled the country the Sea Hag and Wimpy decide to vacation in his apartment.

“Meanwhile the Sea Hag was relaxing on a green couch: "How

   pleasant

To spend one's vacation en la casa de Popeye," she

   scratched

Her cleft chin's solitary hair. She remembered spinach

And was going to ask Wimpy if he had bought any spinach. “

(Lines 4-7)

The Sea Hag may be jealous of Popeye’s strength. Wimpy replies with "M'love," he intercepted, "the plains are decked out in thunder Today, and it shall be as you wish." (Lines 8-9) The plains may refer to the fields where the spinach and other vegetables (like rutabagas) grow.

Another idea that backs up the theme of jealousy is Poopdeck Pappy. In lines 20-24, Olive Oyl sets up the reason why Popeye is M.I.A.  Popeye’s father is jealous of his apartment, which is odd because in line two it compares the apartment to a shoebox. Pappy isn’t jealous of the apartment itself, he is jealous of what it symbolizes. Popeye has a loving family that consists of Olive Oyl and their adoptive son Swee’Pea. Popeye’s mother has been out of the picture for a long time so Pappy is all alone. Poopdeck Pappy just wants a family of his own.

Popeye, the main character, doesn’t show up until the last tercet of the poem. The description of the thunder being domesticated refers to the fact that Popeye is a family man now, not just a sailor. The green thunder alludes to spinach. As long as Popeye has spinach to give him strength, the Sea Hag and Pappy are no match for him.

Ashbury sets up the poem in a sestina. The important end words of the poem are: thunder, apartment, country, pleasant, scratched and spinach. Thunder symbolizes the power that spinach gives Popeye. Apartment refers to the softer side of Popeye, the family man aspect of Popeye’s life. The apartment brings his family together. Popeye loves his country, after all in the cartoons he is enlisted in the navy. Country may also describe the place where Popeye grew up, raises his family, and farmed spinach. The use of scratched may hint at the minor setbacks in Popeye’s normally pleasant life, such as temporarily being forced away from his family and home.  Spinach is the source of Popeye’s power. It is the substance that gives him the strength to fight for his woman as he does so many times.

Ashbury writes many of his poems with the intentions of not caring whether or not it makes sense. It doesn’t matter if the reader understands the meaning of the poem because most of the time there is no one definitive meaning. John Ashbury was also a lover of the arts; so many of his titles allude to something that sounds like a painting. Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape is no exception to any of these things that characterize another of Ashbury’s masterpieces.