DDCPoetry

Original Analysis found here:  Analysis of "Here" by Bill Knott " Poem found here:  "Here" by Bill Knott Short poem, but it plays so well with opposites.  The first line, "it's dark in the asylums dayroom" is a continuation of the title.  What's so interesting about the line are two things.  First, there's the opposite of exceptions and language-- darkness in a day room, but also look at the space between the first line and the title: white space.  This white space seems like a darkness or a nothing which is a theme throughout this short poem. "where the insane count me on their fingers'  I'm not sure what this lines mean.  It does add to the setting, and adds play to the ambiance. "Though I still add up to nothing,"  Once again a play of language of expectations.  Now this is taken from the perspective of the insane to "here" -- the current.  But what does here mean? "Therapeutically speaking."  ...

Poem Found Here:  "Singlehanded" by Matt Salyer So I'm going to approach this a bit differently -- more reader response than new criticism.  So the first line, "Black apertures in a field of ghost," sets up a dark and creepy atmosphere and ambiance.  Not so much with the term, "field of ghost" but with black apertures which, "they come to me when the winter will be / their last." The noun is specific but the scene is so broad.  Also who is the speaker?  Why do these figures go to him?    What makes this poem wonderfully creepy is the language -- so specific, but so vague.  There's a play of suspension -- wanting to know more. But the poem reads as though we're too late, "When we collapse, we collapse by the common law / of us."  What is this common law of us?  It's how the speaker is connected to this aperture.  Well the following images of separating the speaker from body parts kind of leads me to this direction     ...

Poem found here:   "To Make A Dadist Poem"  by Tristan Tzara This is a recipe to make a Dadist poem.  Simple as that.  Right?  Well, to look further into it is against the dadist mantra -- trying to be logical and reasonable about art.  But, ironically enough, the recipe style of this poem leads to a false of logic and reason with the exception of the outcome. "Take a newspaper / Take some scissors / Choose from this paper an article the length you want to make your poem."  Note that when choosing the article, don't focus on content, focus on length -- no meaning, no focus. "Cut out the article / Next carefully cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them all in a bag."  Steps that lead one after the other where there are only words left. "Shake gently" The adverb here makes me laugh because I think of this poem at this point as one about what's not being stated.  The meaning, the focus.  So to have a direction is ou...

Poem Found Here: "Arrowhead" by Tasha Cotter "To understanding the word enemy , imagine"  The first line proposes to the speaker that the understanding of "enemy" is what the poem is going to explore.  Note not the definition, since definition doesn't mean understanding.  It's where the audience has to experience vicariously in order to understand.  And at first the audience is imagining, "The buffalo grazing while listening / For the stir of men approaching/ The hill" Note that the grammar in this part indicates that the men do or do not exists.  The focal point of the buffalo listening out mirrors our own expectations as readers for something out there that might attack us, "sharpened flint in their palms." Then the poem shifts from the buffalo's perspective to the men -- imaginary men:      Each of them, ready to die for the same      Thing: the hush of a limestone cave,      The rise and fall of sinking creeks. Th...

Original Analysis found here:  Analysis of “The Day After My Father’s Death” " Poem found here:  "The Day After My Father's Death" by Bill Knott There’s multiple things at play here: expectation, form, narrative, perspective.  The speaker as a child, who is in an orphanage, is told that his father has died, is placed into an office to grieve.  The child reads comic books as more of a distraction but comes around back to the situation.  And even though the poem reads as a narrative of the moment, the end has a slight acknowledgement of the speaker now. The opening line of the poem, “It’s too complex to explain,” might seem a bit on the nose, but for me, it’s a refreshing continuation of the title, “The Day After My Father’s Death.”   The opening line doesn’t try to romanticize feelings or hyperbolize the situation — the speaker automatically tells the audience, it’s complicated — maybe the death, maybe the feelings, but the following lines, “but I was alread...

Original Analysis found here:  Analysis of "Poem (How I lost My Pen-Name)" by Bill Knott " Poem found here:  "Poem (How I lost My Pen-Name)" by Bill Knott The pen-name serves as another identity focused on writing.  However the focus is on writing the pen name: I wrote under a pen-name One day I shook the pen trying to make the name come out But no it’s Like me prefers clinging to the inner calypso What stands out in stanza is how erratic the line lengths are for this exposition.  Where is the focus?  The short line stating no?  Could it be the long action line.”  At this point I feel the speaker is trying too hard to show how sporadic the exposition is through the line lengths, but, in doing so, separates identities — the focus is on this pen-name as an identity. So when the speaker tosses the pen to his “pet” the wastebasket with intentions for the name to come back to him, the shock is shown in individual lines, “But no again” “It stayed down.” ...