Page 37 - The Irony Board

Into the Body

Up out of our seats a tempting tune dares
The gambler in us to hazard a dance,
Forgetting we sit in musical chairs
Now being disbanded by sporting chance.

Ignoring the probabilities and consequences of losing appears to
Gluckman the principal flaw in human chance-taking. It leads, in
mild cases, to notions of “bad luck.” Those subscribing to a
principle of justice retain hope for a losing streak to be followed by a
run of good luck, but others may see a sinister underworld force
drawing them into gambling beyond their means. Here is the human
tendency to project emotional problems into theological visions;
Gluckman’s idea of temptation is considered further below.
The poem shows the devil at work, tricking half-innocent party-
goers into playing a children’s game. First they hear a siren song, like
the Pied Piper’s, to which they cannot help responding. Once on
their feet, expecting nothing riskier than to dance, they find
themselves playing a different sort of game. In a whirl of puns and
idioms relating to music and chance, literally musical chairs form a
band in process of breaking up, and the players themselves are
figuratively providing sport for chance itself. What is going on? Why
don’t the players remember that one of them will lose his seat?
Again, it’s the gambling instinct; loss, when it occurs, will be
attributed to evil influences.

35