This excerpt is the final stanza in Peter Porter’s poem, ‘Annotations Of Auschwitz’. The main text of the poem deals with the Holocaust and the way that people reacted to Auschwitz. In the final stanza, the focus shifts abruptly. The narrator describes chickens on spits in London. The change in focus seems jarring, but the narrator is comparing the chickens on a spit to the victims of the holocaust. Images of Auschwitz are replaced with the image of chickens on a spit, and the narrator puts forward the idea that, for chickens, this is their own personal holocaust.
Before reading this poem, it is a good idea for the reader to familiarize themselves with the events that took place at Auschwitz during World War II. This will help to give some context to the poem. Reading the full text of the poem will also serve as a good introduction for this passage. This passage is a bit of a tonal shift within the larger context of the full verse, but it links with the rest of the poem through theming and tone.
London is Full of Chickens on Electric Spits Peter PorterLondon is full of chickens on electric spits, Cooking in windows where the public pass. This, say the chickens, is their Auschwitz, And all poultry eaters are psychopaths.
Summary
‘London is Full of Chickens on Electric Spits’ is the concluding passage of the poem ‘Annotations of Auschwitz.’ It serves as a conclusion to the rest of the poem while also working as a standalone poem, looking at the fate of chickens.
The earlier parts of the poem have already detailed the way that people reacted to the tragedies which occurred within Auschwitz during World War II. The narrator describes a scene of chickens in windows. When describing this scene, the narrator claims that London is “full” of the roasting bodies of chickens. They claim that these scenes are so common that people pass them by without thinking anything of it: it is something that is presented publicly for all to see. At the end of the stanza, the narrator explains how chickens perceive this scene. The idea of chickens being displayed, cooking on spits, is seen as something horrific for their brethren. The shift of focus in the poem is now explained, as the narrator claims that chickens would view this as their own Auschwitz, and they would judge the people responsible.
Expert Commentary
Insights by Giles Towler
BA (Hons) in History and English Literature from Manchester University
Structure and Form
This poem is a simple, four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, that is featured at the end of a longer poem. It employs a rhyme scheme of ABAB, which contributes to the straightforward tone and message of the poem. The language utilised by Porter is quite blunt as well, which is something that helps to emphasize the horrific nature of the scene portrayed within the four lines.
This stanza is particularly blunt: having been presented with aspects of the holocaust earlier in the poem in a very descriptive manner, the simplistic language of this stanza forces the reader to consider something that they take for granted in a different way.
Literary Devices
Although this is only a short passage, there are still a number of literary devices that help the narrator express their idea of the way that chickens view those who eat poultry. The narrator uses imagery, metaphor, personification, and hyperbole.
The poem opens with vivid imagery that creates a shock factor as the speaker describes the suffering of chickens. An image of a city with masses of chickens on display for the public to see as they pass is unsettling, allowing for a more dramatic conclusion. It is presented as something unnatural, but also as something that has been normalized, which raises questions about morality.
By likening this scene to Auschwitz for chickens in a metaphor, Porter attempts to elicit an emotional reaction from the reader. It is a shocking comparison. It is also an effective way to highlight the suffering that the chickens endure. This could be seen as a controversial metaphor, and presenting it at the end of the poem gives a shocking conclusion.
To help explain the metaphor, the poet uses personification to show the way that the chickens view the situation. The chickens, of course, do not really say anything about the chickens on spits. They also have no conception of Auschwitz. However, by using personification here, the poet is comparing the mass slaughter of the chickens to the mass genocide of people. The poet then concludes with hyperbole, claiming that all poultry eaters are “psychopaths.” This exaggeration is designed to challenge people and make them consider the idea of how chickens are treated.
Themes
The overall theme of the poem that this passage is taken from is the Holocaust. The poem deals with the way that the Holocaust was viewed by people. This passage expands on that idea and looks at the way that animals are treated. Moving away from the Holocaust, this passage becomes about animal cruelty as the narrator compares the mass killing of chickens to the Holocaust. Therefore, in this passage, animal cruelty becomes the main theme. The narrator considers how animals would feel about what happens to them as their species are butchered for human consumption. This shows empathy as the narrator considers the feelings of the chickens.
Mass consumerism can also be seen as one of the themes of this poem. The narrator describes the way that chickens are consumed on a huge scale. They exaggerate to show just how widespread this method of consuming chickens has become. By comparing this to Auschwitz from the chicken’s perspective, the narrator tries to humanize the suffering of the animals.
Detailed Analysis, Line by Line
Line 1
London is full of chickens on electric spits,
The stanza opens with the setting, placing the following horrors firmly within urban, civilised London. By picking a large city, Porter contributes to the sense of hyperbole throughout the poem. It is not just any city, but one of the largest in Europe: as it is somewhere which is considered to be civilised, this makes the conditions suffered by chickens more shocking.
In the wider context of the poem, which ruminates on World War II, Auschwitz is presented as something that the Allies – represented here by London in a form of synecdoche – fought against. Yet, now they are suggesting hypocrisy in that by comparing the chickens in London to the Holocaust.
The hyperbolic idea of London being “full” of chickens on spits gives the reader the impression of a vast number of chickens being subjected to this treatment. Of course, this isn’t a realistic idea of the situation; it is just a way to indicate the high number of chickens that are on spits.
The idea of the spits being electric also helps to make the slaughter seem as though it is something that had been made efficient through technology, something that could also be said of the manner in which the Holocaust used technology to enable mass slaughter.
Line 2
Cooking in windows where the public pass.
The way that the chickens are being treated is not kept secret. Instead, they are put on display: the lack of shame in this act is emphasised by their placement in “windows”.
The narrator uses plosive alliteration in the phrase “public pass” to emphasize the casual nature with which people pass by the chickens. The public are accustomed to the treatment of chickens – they do not even stop to look at what is happening. Instead, they just pass by.
Line 3
This, say the chickens, is their Auschwitz,
The third line starts with the word “This,” demonstrating that the chickens are highlighting the imagery that has been presented in the first two lines.
Through their speech, the chickens are personified, adding to the shocking nature of their treatment. This also draws further parallels between them and victims of the Holocaust, who were dehumanised in the same way the chickens are personified. This image of the mass killing of chickens and being presented in this manner is “their Auschwitz.”
Line 4
And all poultry eaters are psychopaths.
At the end of the poem, the narrator uses hyperbole again to level an accusation at those who eat poultry. Using the imaginary voice of the chickens, the narrator claims that all those who eat poultry are “psychopaths”. Their anger and disgust are highlighted through the plosive alliteration of “poultry” and “psychopaths”.
By describing them as “psychopaths,” the narrator is accusing every single person of perpetrating genocide because they treat this situation as normal. In doing this, the narrator highlights the idea that what they are doing is far from normal.
FAQs
This poem is metaphorical. It draws on the idea of chickens being displayed on spits in London, but the poet exaggerates it to the point that the image of London being filled with spits becomes a metaphor for the situation, rather than describing a city that is literally filled with chickens on spits. The poet uses this exaggeration to help explain how they feel about seeing these chickens on spits.
‘London is Full of Chickens on Electric Spits’ is written in a darkly satirical style. The narrator describes a scene that seems to be ridiculous and then gives the chickens themselves human qualities as a way for them to express how they would feel about what they are seeing. This image manages to be both ridiculous and somewhat horrifying. The comparison to Auschwitz adds a further dark element to the poem.
In many ways, this poem seems to support animal rights. Following on from the poet’s descriptions of Auschwitz in the previous parts of the poem, this part then makes the comparison with the way that animals are treated, forcing people to look at the things that they take for normal. The reader is made to look at things from the perspective of the animals.
There could be two reasons for the location in the poem. Firstly, London was symbolic of the Allied side in World War II, so the claim that there are situations there that match what was taking place in Auschwitz, only for chickens, makes a contrast between the way that the city is perceived. Another reason could be that, by naming a famous city, the narrator shows that these images of chickens on spits are common across urban centers.
This passage could be seen as offensive by some people. By comparing eating meat to Nazi concentration camps, it could be seen as disrespecting the suffering of the people who were sent to these camps. It is also possible that it could be seen as offensive by meat eaters who feel as though it is insulting to them.
