Analyzing "All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" by Richard Brautigan

             In Richard Brautigan’s poem “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace”, Brautigan shows his anti-technology tone and message through the small parenthesized statements that are spread throughout the poem. He adds exclamation points to the ends of these statements to create a somewhat sarcastic tone and this helps the reader understand that although it may seem these quotes sound pro-technology, their meaning is in fact the opposite. These quotes seem to be misplaced and they felt as though they were mocking the rest of the poem. Brautigan places these small statements after the first line in order to give a clue to the reader that this is what he believes and does this in every stanza, indicating that he really doesn’t agree with nature interacting with technology. Another example of how this would seem as anti-technology poem would be Brautigan’s description of humans being able to return to nature, only to be “watched by over by machines of loving grace” meaning we could lose control of technology, causing it to take over.

            This poem also shows a pro-technology tone and message because of Brautigan’s word choice and phrases used to describe the interaction between technology and nature. He uses words such as pure, free, harmony, loving, peacefully, and grace throughout the poem which all seem to create an image of goodness that will be brought through the interactions of nature and technology. The images of nature and technology being in harmony with one another create this sense of peace, as described in the phrases “programming harmony” (line 6), “cybernetic meadow” (line 3), and “machines of loving grace” (line 25). These images all have positive and natural meanings to them and Brautigan’s choice to use these images of things being pure and natural can cause the reader to think that technology should be natural and society should welcome this for its own benefit.

            I believe that this poem should be seen as anti-technology because the combination of the first three lines at the beginning of every stanza creates many different contrasts to the feel of the entire poem. The importance of the first three lines doesn’t seem to agree with the tone of the poem, and this is what causes the sense of mockery with the rest of the poem. Brautigan’s use of the small quotes causes the reader to create a tone of sarcasm, which causes the natural word choices to seem all sarcastic as well. The tone of the poem creates the understanding that he is mocking this idea of technology instead of agreeing with it.