Imagery
I've been thinking about what we discussed last class--why those two lines of poetry were considered to be such a good example of imagery. I think that one key is the lack of abstract words. We tend to think that using words like "passion, love, fear" etc. help create the "deeper" meaning. However, as we talked about, the most elusive (and sometimes the most rewarding) poetry lacks such abstract imagery. Paradoxically, more concrete imagery can be more difficult to figure out, because the author does not provide has with those abstract-word "clues."
This technique is certainly a characteristic of McGuckian's poems. Reading her poems, you'll be hard-pressed to find occasions where she uses abstract words. Her poems have a wide variety of images, and they are all very specific and concrete. For example, from "Apricot Ranch":
Dissolute leaves have become
the oath on my lips. In the mirror
Forming the backrest of my bed,
There is hardly a word that looks
Forward.
The last few lines of this stanza are especially interesting because of their juxtaposition. A mirror is the backrest of the bed. Usually, we think of a mirror as something that indicates reality, a reflection. Considering the fact that one reflects and processes while they sleep, I see the mirror headboard as a means of inner-reflection--hence the comment that the view is in the past, not the present.
Here is another image that I think is unusual(from "The Prince of Parallelograms"):
Light circled each side of the river
Like mouths into which grapes were pressed
It's a simile, but not a mundane one--how does McGukcian come up with these comparisons? They are so specific, so concrete--yet simultaneously abstract. They make her poems much more rich.
This technique is certainly a characteristic of McGuckian's poems. Reading her poems, you'll be hard-pressed to find occasions where she uses abstract words. Her poems have a wide variety of images, and they are all very specific and concrete. For example, from "Apricot Ranch":
Dissolute leaves have become
the oath on my lips. In the mirror
Forming the backrest of my bed,
There is hardly a word that looks
Forward.
The last few lines of this stanza are especially interesting because of their juxtaposition. A mirror is the backrest of the bed. Usually, we think of a mirror as something that indicates reality, a reflection. Considering the fact that one reflects and processes while they sleep, I see the mirror headboard as a means of inner-reflection--hence the comment that the view is in the past, not the present.
Here is another image that I think is unusual(from "The Prince of Parallelograms"):
Light circled each side of the river
Like mouths into which grapes were pressed
It's a simile, but not a mundane one--how does McGukcian come up with these comparisons? They are so specific, so concrete--yet simultaneously abstract. They make her poems much more rich.
posted by Lauren at 5:26 AM
1 Comments:
such carefully chosen imagery seems to prove why she is in fact a professional poet. The splashes of light that seems to glisten along a river are implemented and compared to the effect of squishing a grape inside your mouth-- almost like the sound and imagined look of squishing a grape in your mouth would resemble this image she sees on the river. That in itself is an interesting idea: we can't see grapes squished in out mouth but we can imagine what it would look like. in that way she is comparing something very visible to something only visible in the mind. very crafty. and im curious how this idea fits in, if at all, with the rest of the prince of parallelograms.
Post a Comment
<< Home