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Analysis of "Against Epiphany" by Fred Marchant

Original poem reprinted online here: "Against Epiphany" by Fred Marchant 
Originally read: December 15, 2012
More information about the Poet: Fred Marchant


 So I lack a sense of humor when it comes to poetry.  I think I wrote these lines before many times.  And in my analysis previously I wrote things like, "words of detachment, detrimental, down trodden" commenting on the simile of "poplars bent like / the fingers of an old man clutching / what he loved about the sun?"  In stanza two I wrote, "couples? partners?" when the pronoun of "our" is introduced.  And in the last stanza I wrote down, "the end is great."  My analysis doesn't account for humor, rather I try to break down what "works" in the poem, and what doesn't.

But a funny thing happened when I got to the end of this poem -- I chuckled.  Not because I saw that the lines was humorous or that I tried to configure humor into the lines.  This was going through my mind when I finished the poem again.

"The speaker in this poem gives no f**** at all."

Now, it's not apathy.  The speaker just doesn't give a f**** what anyone thinks or does.  I get from the poem the speaker living his/her life, then partying.  I don't even think the speaker is a douche;  I think the speaker wants to have a good time in a Dystopian future whether god exists or not.  And if god did exist and created this Dystopia, then why should god be trusted to have a good time along with the survivors.

It's a funny poem that has more to it than it's humor (or rather, I found something more in something that I find humorous).

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