INTRUSION!

INTRUSION! Margaret Atwood is rudely intruding on my blog and I can't make her stop. If any tech-savy lads know how to get the unwanted words off my blog, please share your wisdom. I'm not too fond of the word "sh!t-kickers" being in the middle of an academic blog that has nothing to do with soccer or poop.

A Hobbit -ual Metaphor.

This basically describes how I felt the past two weeks concerning poetry.

Just think of yourself as Thorin and Azog as poetry.
Confident and courageous, only to be struck down and seemingly defeated.


Then, on other days I feel like Bilbo.
"YOU WILL NOT DEFEAT ME POETRY!"
But then I wave my sword aimlessly hoping for some good to come about it.

I hope you enjoyed the clip! Have a great break friends.

*All things are metaphors to LOTR/The Hobbit and are subject to severe dramatization.

Epic Proportions

Dude. Ezra Pound, chill out with all that anti-Semitism. You're making me a bit uncomfortable with all that degrading talk about Jews and women. You're quite the jerk ya know... Taylor Swift wrote a song about you (see above).

The great Ezra Pound was a little more than my little brain could handle all at once. I felt super dumb for not knowing all of the references and found it quite frustrating to have to stop and read three paragraphs of footnotes after every other line. But I was determined to enjoy Pound this week, to some extent at least. So I did a little research and found that I was not alone in my frustration with the Cantos. Even the famous poet William Carlos Williams had some concerns. In the New York Evening Post Literary Review he laments, "Pound has tried to communicate his poetry to us and failed. It is a tragedy, since he is our best poet" (www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ezra-pound).

We are not alone. But nevertheless, his poetry made it big, so there must be something awesome about it. Maybe its Epic. As in, the poem fits into the epic genre. But this epic, unlike others, is not shackled by any one place, generation, or person but is omniscient. (and maybe epic in the 21st century definition of the word too, but that's a bit more subjective.)

Pound pounds absolute power permanently into our permeable brain pattern. 

That was fun and has nothing to do with what follows... :) 

In Canto XLV Pound directly attacks the Jews and their use of usury. He compares and contrasts all of the good things that came about "not by usura" and depicts "usura" as a force that "blunteth the needle in the maid's hand/ and stoppeth the spinner's cunning." I can't help but be reminded of Shakespeare's comedy The Merchant of Venice whereby a Jew by the name of Shylock is known for his usury and bad character. Through this play, Shakespeare plays with the stigma that Jews are inferior and Christians are superior. He subtly suggests that maybe a deeper inspection of motives is needed to get a clearer picture of the differences-- that Christians aren't any better than Jews. Pound must have overlooked that part. Anyway, the way Pound contrasts what happens when usury is not used verses when it is used makes this poem stand out. Rather than just saying "when usury isn't involved we have Duccio, Pier della Francesca, etc" he contrasts the good things directly with the absence of usury-- "Not by usura St. Trophime/ not by usura Saint Hilaire."

Is/Not, a poem by Margaret Atwood takes a similar idea of comparison and contrast and applies it beautifully.

"Love is not a profession

genteel or otherwise

sex is not dentistry

the slick filling of aches and cavities

you are not my doctor

you are not my cure,

nobody has that

power, you are merely a fellow/traveller

Give up this medical concern,

buttoned, attentive,

permit yourself anger

and permit me mine

which needs neither

your approval nor your suprise

which does not need to be made legal

which is not against a disease

but against you,

which does not need to be understood

or washed or cauterized,

which needs instead

to be said and said.

Permit me the present tense"

While content vastly differs between the poems, the conduit by which they communicate has some similarities worth noting. Atwood even incorporates the use of absence in her poem by not saying what love/sex is, but only what is it not. Both could have said it differently, but chose to say it through comparison and contrast to make you think and feel the tension between the objects of the poem. A tension of Epic Proportions...

lame joke.

A typical restraint

Better late than never, right?

Paul Lawrence Dunbar is a poet who was only one generation removed from slavery. As his poetry often reflects, slavery affected his perspective and presuppositions despite it never directly touching him. Just by reading "We Wear the Mask," "When Malindy Sings," "Sympathy" and "The Haunted Oak" I felt a range of emotions. While "When Malindy Sings" was my favorite of the four, I am focusing on "Sympathy." The picture that is painted in our minds is one of a bird in cage, who can see his freedom, but can't quite get there. The bird "beats his wing till its blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back to his perch and cling" (Dunbar 8-9). The restraint of the cage causes the bird agony, and the readers to sympathize. Most everyone has been restrained in one way or another and can understand what Dunbar is getting at. The repetition of the line "I know why the caged bird sings" adds to the brevity of the poem. And the contrast of freedom and a cage, of sadness and of joy, makes it easier for the reader to sympathize with the bird. The weight is heavy. The weight of knowing how much torture that slaves went through in order to just get a taste of freedom is relentless. It changes people. 

Restraints change people. And the people eventually change the restraints. Aaron Belz makes a more lighthearted poem about restraints, although he uses the word constraint. "You Can't Pick Your Friend's Nose" takes the idea of restraint and shows how people change them based on morals and nature. While Dunbar makes us feel like we are restrained, Belz helps us see the outside perspective of restraints and the causes of them. The lightheartedness continues throughout the poem, but at the end of  it, you are left asking a question about the bigger picture: "Why are they changing?" Belz playfully uses a common phrase "You can't pick your friends nose" to ask a deep question, the same way Dunbar uses the common idea of a caged bird to evoke a deep emotion --Sympathy. 

What. The. Blank

I was thoroughly enjoying Modern American Poetry. Despite my severely misunderstood idea of modern poetry and its use I started reading these poems with an open mind ready to learn. And I actually enjoyed poetry for the first time in a VERY long time.

But, as they say, all good things must come to an end. And while I hope that my finite mind can one day appreciate the gravity of some poetry, I have to admit that I was incredibly frustrated, confused, and highly disappointed this week. And yet...

Gertrude Stein. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? WHY?!

And yet, that's exactly what she wants her reader to feel, to question. In her poem "Patriarchal Poetry" Stein plays with the order of words and uses words that sound similar or have dual meanings in order to create a rhyme or alliteration. She wants people to be frustrated at her poetry, because she wants people to be frustrated with the common and accepted order of things and ask questions like "WHY?" Why do we accept the order of a sentence. Why do we accept the Patriarchal way of life?

Brilliant.

"For before let it before to be before spell to be before to be before to have to be to be for before to be tell to be to having held to be to for before to call to be for to be before to till until to be till before..."

Seriously. Come ON. Aren't you just frustrated and confused trying to read this? At first it was frustrating, then it was funny, then 10 pages in, it was SUPER frustrating. I would read a sentence of a paragraph and just say "No. No. NO." This, I believe, was her intended reaction.

The lack of sentence structure and coherence is seen also in Evie Shockley's poem "Canvas and Mirror" Rather than just quoting an excerpt, here is the poem in entirety:

 "self-portrait with cats, with purple, with stacks
      of half-read books adorning my desk, with coffee,
                  with mug, with yesterday's mug. self-portrait
            with guilt, with fear, with thick-banded silver ring,
      painted toes, and no make-up on my face. self-
            portrait with twins, with giggles, with sister at
                  last, with epistrophy, with crepescule with nellie,
with my favorite things. self-portrait with hard
head, with soft light, with raised eyebrow. self-
      portrait voo-doo, self-portrait hijinks, self-portrait
                  surprise. self-portrait with patience, with political
            protest, with poetry, with papers to grade. self-
      portrait as thaumaturgic lass, self-portrait as luna
            larva, self-portrait as your mama. self-portrait
                  with self at sixteen. self-portrait with shit-kickers,
with hip-huggers, with crimson silk, with wild
mushroom risotto and a glass of malbec. self-
      portrait with partial disclosure, self-portrait with
                  half-truths, self-portrait with demi-monde. self-
            portrait with a night at the beach, with a view
      overlooking the lake, with cancelled flight. self-
            portrait with a real future, with a slight chance of
                  sours, with glasses, with cream, with fries, with
a way with words, with a propositional phrase."

While Shockley's poem has a bit more coherence, there really isn't much more than in Stein's poem. And once again, I'm left quite frustrated and confused and thinking "What is this?" The chaotic structure, random pauses and words broken mid-pronunciation aid in the confusion and frustration, the same way Stein breaks up her words into small syllables and then repeats them 10,000 times in a different order. 

I would have probably challenged the status quo a little differently, okay, MUCH differently, but that's the beauty of diversity. 

self-portrait with cats, with purple, with stacks       of half-read books adorning my desk, with coffee,                   with mug, with yesterday's mug. self-portrait             with guilt, with fear, with thick-banded silver ring,       painted toes, and no make-up on my face. self-             portrait with twins, with giggles, with sister at                   last, with epistrophy, with crepescule with nellie, with my favorite things. self-portrait with hard head, with soft light, with raised eyebrow. self-       portrait voo-doo, self-portrait hijinks, self-portrait                   surprise. self-portrait with patience, with political             protest, with poetry, with papers to grade. self-       portrait as thaumaturgic lass, self-portrait as luna             larva, self-portrait as your mama. self-portrait                   with self at sixteen. self-portrait with shit-kickers, with hip-huggers, with crimson silk, with wild mushroom risotto and a glass of malbec. self-       portrait with partial disclosure, self-portrait with                   half-truths, self-portrait with demi-monde. self-             portrait with a night at the beach, with a view       overlooking the lake, with cancelled flight. self-             portrait with a real future, with a slight chance of                   sours, with glasses, with cream, with fries, with a way with words, with a propositional phrase. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22038#sthash.73zfqTnv.dpuf

self-portrait with cats, with purple, with stacks       of half-read books adorning my desk, with coffee,                   with mug, with yesterday's mug. self-portrait             with guilt, with fear, with thick-banded silver ring,       painted toes, and no make-up on my face. self-             portrait with twins, with giggles, with sister at                   last, with epistrophy, with crepescule with nellie, with my favorite things. self-portrait with hard head, with soft light, with raised eyebrow. self-       portrait voo-doo, self-portrait hijinks, self-portrait                   surprise. self-portrait with patience, with political             protest, with poetry, with papers to grade. self-       portrait as thaumaturgic lass, self-portrait as luna             larva, self-portrait as your mama. self-portrait                   with self at sixteen. self-portrait with shit-kickers, with hip-huggers, with crimson silk, with wild mushroom risotto and a glass of malbec. self-       portrait with partial disclosure, self-portrait with                   half-truths, self-portrait with demi-monde. self-             portrait with a night at the beach, with a view       overlooking the lake, with cancelled flight. self-             portrait with a real future, with a slight chance of                   sours, with glasses, with cream, with fries, with a way with words, with a propositional phrase. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22038#sthash.73zfqTnv.dpuf

self-portrait with cats, with purple, with stacks       of half-read books adorning my desk, with coffee,                   with mug, with yesterday's mug. self-portrait             with guilt, with fear, with thick-banded silver ring,       painted toes, and no make-up on my face. self-             portrait with twins, with giggles, with sister at                   last, with epistrophy, with crepescule with nellie, with my favorite things. self-portrait with hard head, with soft light, with raised eyebrow. self-       portrait voo-doo, self-portrait hijinks, self-portrait                   surprise. self-portrait with patience, with political             protest, with poetry, with papers to grade. self-       portrait as thaumaturgic lass, self-portrait as luna             larva, self-portrait as your mama. self-portrait                   with self at sixteen. self-portrait with shit-kickers, with hip-huggers, with crimson silk, with wild mushroom risotto and a glass of malbec. self-       portrait with partial disclosure, self-portrait with                   half-truths, self-portrait with demi-monde. self-             portrait with a night at the beach, with a view       overlooking the lake, with cancelled flight. self-             portrait with a real future, with a slight chance of                   sours, with glasses, with cream, with fries, with a way with words, with a propositional phrase. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22038#sthash.73zfqTnv.dpuf

self-portrait with cats, with purple, with stacks       of half-read books adorning my desk, with coffee,                   with mug, with yesterday's mug. self-portrait             with guilt, with fear, with thick-banded silver ring,       painted toes, and no make-up on my face. self-             portrait with twins, with giggles, with sister at                   last, with epistrophy, with crepescule with nellie, with my favorite things. self-portrait with hard head, with soft light, with raised eyebrow. self-       portrait voo-doo, self-portrait hijinks, self-portrait                   surprise. self-portrait with patience, with political             protest, with poetry, with papers to grade. self-       portrait as thaumaturgic lass, self-portrait as luna             larva, self-portrait as your mama. self-portrait                   with self at sixteen. self-portrait with shit-kickers, with hip-huggers, with crimson silk, with wild mushroom risotto and a glass of malbec. self-       portrait with partial disclosure, self-portrait with                   half-truths, self-portrait with demi-monde. self-             portrait with a night at the beach, with a view       overlooking the lake, with cancelled flight. self-             portrait with a real future, with a slight chance of                   sours, with glasses, with cream, with fries, with a way with words, with a propositional phrase. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22038#sthash.73zfqTnv.dpuf

self-portrait with cats, with purple, with stacks       of half-read books adorning my desk, with coffee,                   with mug, with yesterday's mug. self-portrait             with guilt, with fear, with thick-banded silver ring,       painted toes, and no make-up on my face. self-             portrait with twins, with giggles, with sister at                   last, with epistrophy, with crepescule with nellie, with my favorite things. self-portrait with hard head, with soft light, with raised eyebrow. self-       portrait voo-doo, self-portrait hijinks, self-portrait                   surprise. self-portrait with patience, with political             protest, with poetry, with papers to grade. self-       portrait as thaumaturgic lass, self-portrait as luna             larva, self-portrait as your mama. self-portrait                   with self at sixteen. self-portrait with shit-kickers, with hip-huggers, with crimson silk, with wild mushroom risotto and a glass of malbec. self-       portrait with partial disclosure, self-portrait with                   half-truths, self-portrait with demi-monde. self-             portrait with a night at the beach, with a view       overlooking the lake, with cancelled flight. self-             portrait with a real future, with a slight chance of                   sours, with glasses, with cream, with fries, with a way with words, with a propositional phrase. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22038#sthash.73zfqTnv.dpuf

self-portrait with cats, with purple, with stacks       of half-read books adorning my desk, with coffee,                   with mug, with yesterday's mug. self-portrait             with guilt, with fear, with thick-banded silver ring,       painted toes, and no make-up on my face. self-             portrait with twins, with giggles, with sister at                   last, with epistrophy, with crepescule with nellie, with my favorite things. self-portrait with hard head, with soft light, with raised eyebrow. self-       portrait voo-doo, self-portrait hijinks, self-portrait                   surprise. self-portrait with patience, with political             protest, with poetry, with papers to grade. self-       portrait as thaumaturgic lass, self-portrait as luna             larva, self-portrait as your mama. self-portrait                   with self at sixteen. self-portrait with shit-kickers, with hip-huggers, with crimson silk, with wild mushroom risotto and a glass of malbec. self-       portrait with partial disclosure, self-portrait with                   half-truths, self-portrait with demi-monde. self-             portrait with a night at the beach, with a view       overlooking the lake, with cancelled flight. self-             portrait with a real future, with a slight chance of                   sours, with glasses, with cream, with fries, with a way with words, with a propositional phrase. - See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/22038#sthash.73zfqTnv.dpuf

Frost-bitten to death in the middle of a lonely Winter.

Loneliness.
Sadness.
Winter.
Death.
Decay.
Frost- bitten.

An inspirational message was never the goal for Robert Frost. No, this man and his deep emotions sat in a lonely house in the woods right off of a road less traveled because he wanted to keep it that way-- lonely. While this narrative isn't suggesting the true life of Robert Frost, it is suggesting a theme for his poetry. He went through death, depression, and madness and his poems reflect and evoke those awful emotions on their readers. As a rule (as with all rules, there are exceptions), Frost's speakers are either alone physically and/or mentally. One such poem is "An Old Man's Winter Night." In this poem, an older man who lived on a farm by himself was being observed by the nature outside who "looked darkly in at him." Words such as "empty, "loss" "darkly" "no one but himself" "frost" "snow"  evoke immense emotions, which Frost clearly wants his reader to feel. You see a lonely man looking out, and nature looking in.

A. E Stallings wrote a poem titled "Whethering" that carries many reminiscent themes from Frost. The speaker of the poem is "Haunted" from "something formless that fidgets beyond the window's benighted mirror." Although she has kids, they are asleep and she is clearly alone, thinking of "choices that we didn't make and never wanted, as though by the dead and misbegotten." A similar emotion of loneliness and frailty is exposed. A frost-bitten poem of lonely, miserable death and regret.