DDCPoetry

Original poem reprinted online here: "Against Writing about Children" by Erin Belieu Originally read: May 2, 2013 More information about the Poet: Erin Belieu Humor.  The tercets really bring out a sort of angular bite with each line.  For example, when the speaker states that she is not surprised when people privately despise children the response is "I can't say I'm completely shocked, / having been one."  The sort of bite does two things  -- 1) centralizes the issue back to the speaker and 2) for the "others" there's the presumption that they forgot (or remember) their own childhood.  The humor is with expectations and the line breaks.  Added to this is the slightly cynical tone which switches between empathy between the "adults" and "childeren." Like this line break in stanza two "I was not / exceptional, uncomfortable as that is / to admit, and most children are not / exceptional."  Once again the twist goes b...