All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace

One of the issues that arises when you read something is people can have differing interpretations of what an author is trying to convey. This is especially true in Richard Brautigan’s poem, "All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace".

The author has an anti-technological tone where in the first stanza, Brautigan immediately pleas for the need for man and machine to co-exist together “(and the sooner the better!)”(1-2). His use of the term "cybernetic meadow"(3) gives an image of nature and machines living as one. Brautigan completes the first stanza longing for a return to the days of "pure water touching clear sky"(7-8). In the second stanza Brautigan goes on to plead, "(right now, please!)”(10) for the urgent harmony of nature and electronics. Brautigan uses the image of "deer strolling peacefully past computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms"(11-14) to convey the irony of being far from peaceful. In the end, Brautigan now demands, “(it has be!)”(16) that society discontinue it's dependence on machines "free of our labors"(18) and return back to a harmonious time where man and nature can co-exist "watched over by machines of loving grace"(22-23).

The way the poem is written it can also can be open to interpretation as having a pro technological stance. In the first stanza, Brautigan writes about "programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky"(6-8). This conveys the image of man and machine being able to make things perfect. In the second stanza, Brautigan sees the possibility for "(right now please)”(10) of machines and nature doing unbelievable things "computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms"(14-16). In the end, Brautigan demands "(it has to be!)”(16) that people accept technology and not be afraid of it "all watched over by machines of loving grace"(22-23).

My interpretation of Brautigan's poem is of an anti-technology stance. Brautigan begins every stanza with urgent pleas to look at the symbiosis of machines and nature. Brautigan's use of opposing images "cybernetic forest"(11) and "cybernetic meadow"(3), gives the feeling of two completely opposing ideas and how could they work? The tone of the poem implies sarcastically that if we as a society continue to let machines do our work "we are free of our labors"(20) that we will soon be taken over by machines "watched over by machines of loving grace"(22-23).