E.Go

Poetry—Birth of a Novel

by @thewritermonkey (Tumblr, Insta).

(What is this series? Poem analysis of poems centred around love, by a loveless aroace person. I am coming back to this after 4 years. Talk about finishing projects HUH.)

My Analysis:

Poetry is a free verse poem with no rhyming scheme. After the few introductory lines, the poem enters a repeating structure walking through three functions that a poem can perform, then closes out with an interesting question.

In a reflective mood sparked by their partner, the author thinks about what poems do. The dissonance in the author's mind seeps through as they offer three reasons for writing a poem. (1) A poem can capture a sensory memory of being present in the world—evidence of a lived life. (2) A poem can help reëxperience a time spent living life to the fullest, without fear or worry about responsibilities. Lastly, (3) a poem can mark the lows on the map of life, serving as guides for the future.

The author's dissatisfaction peeks through describing the time they'd want to reëxperience as "distant", suggesting they don't feel like they have their best life in a while. The final example directly points to the (perhaps) bitterness with the author's partner. I find this last example hard to parse. There are two possibilities: (a) If the relationship were ongoing, the author perhaps feels shamed by their partner. If the relationship were over, it adds a colour of indignation.

If poems do so much, then why does the author almost trivialise them as "some broken prose"? Considering the reflective mood and the nature of the examples, it feels like the author is asking themself why they spend effort writing poetry. Poems are ultimately just a bunch of words unable to stop time, unable to let you reëxperience your best life, and unable to actually leave behind a bitter past. In that comparison itself, though, the crux of the poems message is hidden (I think)—that if one had to transcribe an uncapturable moment in life, a poem would at least house its essence.

My thoughts:

It was clear that the poem talks about what poems do and why the author writes them. The wording also made clear what those reasons are. The last example ("To leave behind the skeletons of [the] questions you raise over my broken pieces"), I did not understand well. I chalk that to never having been in that situation, so I ended up thinking of a couple of possibilities of what could have been the case without having a notion of "this is usually the case".

The dismissive question at the end ("Aren't they just some broken prose?") suggests that broken prose isn't expected to be evocative. Yet this juxtaposition with the content of the poem indicates that poems can, in fact, hold and carry more emotional weight to them than expected prima facie. I thought this point 'hidden' behind the question was cool.