Poem Packet Explanation
Brandon Lazovic
Just to give a
brief explanation of what I’m writing about, in my creative writing class we
are reading a poetry packet with various poets of differing style in its
contents and are examining various aspects of the poems written. The first few
pages of the packet revolve around William Shakespeare. Compared to his play
works, I’m not a fan of the sonnets that he has written. My old AP English
teacher had some distaste for him in that regard and always talked about the ‘conspiracy
theory’ that revolved around Shakespeare. But I digress. In the sonnets that
Shakespeare wrote his main topic of discussion was love. He goes about it in
different ways, but he either points out the flaws in love or speaks of his undying
affection towards his lover. Regarding the former an example of this is in one
of his sonnets he speaks of his mistress’ features. “My mistress’ eyes are
nothing like the sun; Coral is far more red than her lip’s red: If snow be
white, why then her breasts are dun; If hair be wires, black wires grow on her
head.” In this excerpt he belittles his mistress, comparing her to objects that
would not flatter most in their comparison to her features.
Yet after 12 lines
of bashing her looks, he goes on to say, “And yet, by heaven, I think my love
as rare As any she belied with false compare!” After all of her faults, he
still loves her because she doesn’t try to cover herself with makeup and what
society deems to be beautiful. Moving onto the latter of the two methods he
uses in his sonnets (at least in this packet) is his undying affection for his
love. “With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently sway’st the wiry concord that
mine ear confounds, Do I envy those jacks, that nimble leap, To kiss the tender
inward of thy hand.” His description of his lover is that of a tender girl who
is gentle and modest in the poem. Now that I think about it, it’s kind of
ironic how he goes from bashing his mistress in the first poem to complimenting
her in the second poem. This might have to do with himself having two women in
his life (his wife and his lover outside of the marriage), but I could be
wrong. Regarding the sonnets themselves they are, well, Shakespearian in the sense
that they are in iambic pentameter with an ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme with a
resolution in the 13th and 14th lines. An example of this
would be the “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare As any belied with
false compare!” considering the direction suddenly shifted in those last two
lines, going from pointing out all the flaws in his mistress to saying he loves
her for her natural looks.
Continuing on in
the packet Harryette Mullen wrote the poem “Dim Lady.” This actually resembles
Shakespeare’s poem regarding his mistress in a modern format. “Today’s special
at Red Lobster is redder than her kisser. If Liquid Paper is white, her racks
are institutionally beige. If her mop were Slinky’s, dishwater would grow on
her noggin.” It continues on, but what I find unique about the poem is that it
matches up line for line with Shakespeare’s. Those first four lines give the
same descriptions of Shakespeare’s, regarding red lips, her breasts, and the
hair on her head. Even the resolution is the same, “Twinkie has as much sex
appeal for me as any lanky model or platinum movie idol who’s hyped beyond
belief.” Even though there are more beautiful women out there he still loves ‘Twinkie’
as she lusts after him. Both poems point out the standards of beauty in their
generations are overhyped and flawed and that women shouldn’t be following
society’s standard of beauty as it is unfair and just a ridiculous concept in
itself.
The only other
poem of recognition that we’ve gone over so far is Ted Berrigan’s The
Sonnets. What I like about it is that at first the entire poem is just a
jumble of fragmented sentences. I personally thought it was just a stream of consciousness
as the poem would jump from idea to idea without connection. But what some of
the people in my class realized was that there was more to it than just a
jumble of words. I learned that the sentences weren’t in order and that it was
like a jigsaw puzzle as you put the pieces together to uncover the bigger
picture. In that aspect it was unique as I hadn’t seen a poem like that before.
Our class got into the discussion of what it really means to be a sonnet. Ted
Berrigan’s title The Sonnets didn’t seem very fitting to be quite frank.
It didn’t have a rhyme scheme, or the iambic pentameter/10 syllables associated
with a sonnet. It had the 14 lines though. So my last comment on all of this is
what does it mean to be considered a sonnet? Or in a broader sense a poem? We
may delve into that today, but general thoughts on the matter would be
appreciated and welcomed!
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