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Reactionary Essay on Applied Science | Introduction

“Reactionary Essay on Applied Science,” with its blend of light domestic humor and social satire, is characteristic of much of McGinley’s best poetry. First published in the New Yorker in 1951, it was included that same year in A Short Walk from the Station, as well as in Times Three, the 1961 Pulitzer Prize-winning volume of poetry which spanned three decades of her work. Many of McGinley’s poems were based on her experiences as a suburban housewife and mother. She used this perspective, one frequently scorned by more serious writers, to comment on the ironies she found in the world around her. In this poem, she presents a “reactionary” view of the world of inventions. The poem satirically compares several minor discoveries which have practical importance in the speaker’s life, such as the safety match, paper towels, and window screens, with highly praised inventions and inventors such as the Wright Brothers with their airplane and Eli Whitney and his cotton gin.

Like most writers of light verse, McGinley uses both complex rhythm and rhyme with technical virtuosity. Her language is clever and witty; in fact, she is sometimes compared to Dorothy Parker for her sophisticated use of humor. However, McGinley never employs Parker’s caustic, at times bitter, overtones. Underlying even her most serious social criticism is an optimistic thread.

McGinley’s work is accessible to a large and varied audience because her subjects and themes revolve around ordinary domestic life. In a 1965 interview in Time magazine, McGinley noted, “At a time when poetry has become the property of the universities and not the common people, I have a vast number of people who have become my readers. I have kept the door open and perhaps led them to greater poetry.”

Reactionary Essay on Applied Science Summary

Lines 1-4: The poem begins with a sextet introducing an ironic critique of modern technology, the “applied science” of the title. The speaker declines to join in the widespread praise of major scientific advances. The first four lines are balanced; one and three refer to the Wright brothers and their airplane, while two and four refer to Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor who sent the first transatlantic wireless signals. The poem’s description of his accomplishment as setting “the air waves in commotion” illustrates both McGinley’s brand of humor and the speaker’s attitude. While a commotion isn’t a catastrophic event, the statement pictures air waves crowded with a jumble of discordant sounds. Clearly, peaceful and undisturbed air would be more pleasant.

Although the poem uses the first person, a speaker who like the author appears to be a suburban housewife, McGinley adopts this persona to present a satiric view of the modern world. At times during the poem, McGinley even encourages the reader to view the speaker, as well as the subject, with humor.

Lines 5-6: Each sextet, except the final one, ends with a couplet. Here Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone join the Wrights and Marconi on the poem’s list of dubious achievers. The fifth line sums up the poem’s main idea: the world would do just as well without the tinkering of these men.

Lines 7-8: Much of the poem’s charm and humor comes in the use of conversational asides between each stanza. This is a technique McGinley has used in several poems. The chatty, informal tone introduces the type of invention the speaker finds truly useful: waxed paper, which was popularly used during the 1950s for wrapping up leftovers.

Lines 9-12: This segment illustrates both the poem’s wit and one of its weaknesses. Writers of light verse have often been accused of sacrificing meaning to the poem’s rhyme scheme or rhythm. The use of jitney in line ten is an example. A jitney is a small bus or informal type of transportation. Its main role in the poem is to rhyme with Whitney; the word’s meaning is irrelevant. However, the rhythmic flow of these lines allows McGinley to indulge in some of the most clever wordplay in the poem. James Watt developed an improved steam engine. McGinley connects the steam engine with a steam kettle, states her indifference to it, and then creates a play on Watt’s name, using “or Watt” instead of “or what.” The fact that watt is also a measurement of energy only adds to the complex wordplay. Line twelve continues this. Eli Whitney invented the cotton... » Complete Reactionary Essay on Applied Science Summary