On the Move

“On the Move” is a poem by Thom Gunn, published in his second collection of poems, The Sense of Movement (1957). Written in California in the spring of 1955, it is one of his best-known poems. Gunn had recently moved to California from England, and “On the Move” presents a picture of the leather-jacketed motorcycle culture he discovered there—and which is depicted in the Marlon Brando movie The Wild One (1953). The poem celebrates free-spirited motorcyclists, forever on the move. It also presents them as symbols of existentialism, a philosophy Gunn discovered in the writings of the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.

Poet Biography

Thom Gunn was born in Gravesend, Kent, England, on August 28, 1929. His name was William Guinneach Gunn, but in childhood he was known as Tom. His parents were journalists. In 1938, the family moved to north London. Two years later, Gunn’s parents divorced, and in 1944 his mother died by suicide. In 1950, Gunn attended Cambridge University, where he studied English. The previous year, he changed his name to Thomson William Gunn (Thompson was his mother’s maiden name) and became known as Thom Gunn.

Gunn began to publish poetry while at Cambridge and came to terms with being gay. In 1952, he met American student Mike Kitay, and they became lifelong companions. Gunn’s first collection of poems, Fighting Terms, was published in 1954, one year after his graduation from Cambridge. Also in 1954, Gunn left England to take up a graduate fellowship at Stanford University, California, where he studied under the poet and critic Yvor Winters. His second collection, The Sense of Movement (1957), included “On the Move.”

The following year, Gunn became an instructor at the University of California, Berkeley, where he intermittently taught for 40 years. He lived in San Francisco, where, as a gay man, he enthusiastically embraced the counterculture and its hedonistic lifestyle, liberally sprinkled with drugs and sex. In 1961, My Sad Captains was published, followed in 1967 by Touch. Gunn was writing more experimental and free verse than the highly metrical work of his initial period, and this characterized his work for the rest of his career (although he continued to write metrical verse, as well). His later poetry collections included Moly (1971), To the Air (1974), Jack Straw’s Castle (1976), The Passages of Joy (1982), Talbot Road (1982), and one of his most famous collections, The Man with Night Sweats (1992). The latter collection contains many poems about the AIDS epidemic, including elegies to those who died. Gunn’s final collection was Boss Cupid in 2000.

Gunn won many awards, including the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the Levinson Prize, the Sara Teasdale Prize, the Rockefeller Award and the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Award, and the PEN (Los Angeles) Prize for Poetry.

Gunn died of heart failure following a drug and alcohol overdose on April 25, 2004, in San Francisco.

Poem Text

Gunn, Thom. “On the Move.” 1957. Poetry Foundation.

Summary

The poem is both a celebration of motorcycle culture in California in the mid-1950s and an exposition of how humans use their freedom to shape their identity.

In Stanza 1, Lines 1-5 describe the purposeful, instinctual flights of birds, such as blue jays and swallows. Lines 5-8 pose a contrast with human life, which does not progress with the same sureness and certainty. Stanza 2 introduces motorcyclists appearing on the road in the distance. Their motorcycles roar as they approach. The “Boys” (Line 10) who ride them wear goggles and black leather jackets that make them all look alike. They ride with power and confidence.

Stanza 3 elaborates on their mindset as they ride. They do not know exactly where they are going and do not care. Their constant journeying is a metaphor for how exertion of the human will can shape people’s lives: Men make not only the machines but also the “soul” (Line 21); that is, they are free to form themselves--to create their identity and future in a daring way.

Stanza 4 suggests that this is partially a solution to the human dilemma. Life does not have to be full of conflict or disharmony just because a human, unlike animals, cannot merely follow his instincts. Human life is constantly in flux, which creates the possibility for ruptures and divisions. The world is “valueless” (Line 30): without preset values. Humans must choose movement and through that, it is implied, create or express their personal values. They must always be moving toward something, although what that might be is left unsaid.

In Stanza 5, the motorcyclists do not tarry; they have arrived where they are only to continue riding. As they roar off on their motorbikes, they define themselves through their movement. They travel through towns but do not linger there; they must remain on the go; their purpose in life is to keep moving toward something. Motion is in itself a virtue and a necessity. Even if there is no final destination—no ultimate point of rest—that does not matter because men are “always nearer” (Line 40) to wherever their destination might be by staying on the move.