Tuesday, September 24, 2013

City Eclogue Part 1

Ed Roberson talked about many issues in society through his poetry. Some issues he explained in different ways through the poems were the issue of segregation and pollution of the land. In most of the poems he didn't use a lot of punctuation, excluding just a couple in the first half. Instead he used odd spacing that had the reader pausing. I believed that the spacing was to add emphasis on the part that was to come after, or it could have been for the reader to think through what they had just read. Another thing that I realized is that he doesn't always put a title on the poems, but instead uses a number or doesn't use anything to recognize what poem it is. As we discussed in class, some of the poems were hard to tell if they continued onto the next page or if they ended, and the two pages were different poems.

The song that I looked into further during class was titled Height and Deep Song. I believe that Roberson was trying to explain child birth and the process of in this certain poem. This poem also contained the weird spacing that had the reader stopping and processing what they had just read and anticipating what was to come next. There was no punctuation at all throughout the whole poem, which could be why the spacing is present. 

One line that describes part of the child birth process is when it says, "with the wonder the words can come up with stripped   in the scramble of birth spill--        the speechless" This reminded me of how when the women goes into labor, the pain can leave her speechless. Not being able to bear the pain, but also not having words to explain the pain she is experiencing at the moment, leaving her speechless. Another line that refers to the birthing process is "the body arrives screaming    written all over it" I believe that this refers to the child being born, and already having "things" written on it by the society and family values. The second that a child is born society and values start to develop that child into the adult that they will be in the future. The process starts the second that child is born and the parents start shaping their child. 

1 comment:

  1. great responses here the past 2 weeks, thoughtful and well done!

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