Re-Analysis of "Advent" by Rae Armantrout

 Original Analysis Here: https://ddcpoetry.blogspot.com/2013/02/analysis-of-by-rae-armantrout.html

And when I choose one, the meaning of the poem changes -- kind of like a choose your own adventure book. For example mother, god, nothing don't fit, so the focus is on the other two options: sheep, baby, girl, sky, fatherless, everything create a whole new experience for me.

 

When I reread my analysis, I feel that there was pretty good analysis of the first two parts of the poem.  But nothing about the last part of the poem -- the aftermath of making a choice.  

"Some thing" the item discarded. "close to nothing" if something doesn't belong, that something could be seen as nothing, but that something still exists.  Like a memory for example.  Once that impression is there, that impression in some shape way or form stays.  

"flat" with the drop down of flat, I feel this reinforces the idea of impression, a painting looks flat.

"fatherless," I feel the religious context from these lines. Kind of like how the something, the impression, is discarded.  "Everything has come."  This line makes me think of knowledge -- finally knowing what is valued when judged to be not belong.

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I thought I had this memory of Rae Armantrout getting into an accident on her bicycle a couple of years ago.  I asked Bard and it didn't happen.  I looked it up on google and there's no mention of it.  

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I've read Rae Armantrout's work for a while.  I like her sparse style and interesting turns of language.  I remember looking at her website and just moving on.  I asked Bard for a bio and it couldn't give me one at first because I think the name is famous or there's an error with AI.  In any case I didn't know this:

Armantrout is generally associated with the Language poets, a group of poets who experimented with language and form in the 1970s and 1980s. Her poetry is characterized by its use of language as a tool for investigation and discovery, and by its exploration of the relationship between language and meaning.

Oh, this makes sense now.  I couldn't put my finger on it at first stylistically because I don't read too many L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E collections.  Individual poems, mostly.   I

I don't know if I could write a publishable L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poem.  Or maybe I have. Shrug.