CONTENTS |
ABSTRACT |
|
Predominant themes in this collection speak not so much of innocence as of experience; however "The Visit" is the only poem with a counterpart, the Spenserian sonnet "Chronicle." The former speaks to the positive side of heritage, the latter the negative. "Chronicle" is not too unlike Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz," a serious, if not frightening circumstance told matter-of-factly. Hopefully, all of the poems are understated. They speak of experience and ultimately of enlightenment. The enlightenment and the challenge to gain from the experience are the affirmative ingredients of the poems. The poems dealing with death and loss attempt to be unsentimental, yet affirmative as in "Litotes," "For Others' Beliefs," and "The Visit." "Quarters Change" deals with the end of a relationship similarly, as an opportunity for growth, even as a beginning associated in the poem with Spring. Many focus on the parental relationship to the child. In the poems "Dixie Lee II," "Perfidy," and "For Others' Beliefs" the speaker is the inevitable link between the child and the experience; similarly in "The Visit" and "Chronicle" we should gain a sense of reverberance and relearning. Though they are intentionally understated in tone, hopefully there is a quality of high energy, as in "Litotes" or "Why I Write Poetry." In the latter, I'm suggesting that we bare ourselves primarily to cleanse ourselves and to make love. "Poetry" points out that baring ourselves is a form of self-expression when it involves others; in the analogy of stripping/writing poetry, it follows that in the baring of ourselves there is the greatest potential for learning. In addition, the poems should convey the message that life is too important to be taken too seriously.Litotes: \LIE-tuh-teez, LIT-uh-teez,
lie-TOH-teez\:(noun): an assertation of an affirmative by negating its contrary. A form of
exaggeration (syn.: understatement) and emphatic hyperbole. Rhetoric to emphasize
a certain aspect through moderate presentation. Sometimes referred to as a Trope: a figure
of speech, especially one that uses words in senses beyond their literal meaning. Litotes orig.:
from a Greek word meaning simple, and another, meaning linen cloth. for Chance |
Along history, forever