This week I read the poem "Song to Celia" by Ben Johnson. He was a renowned poet of 17th century England, known for his poetry an stage comedy.
The poem is two stanzas comprising of eight lines each and each stanza follows an "ABCD ABCD" rhyme scheme. In the first stanza, the poem is addressing his lover, assumed to be named Celia. He tells her to "Drink to me only with thine eyes", implying that all she needs to do is glance at him for her to express her love for him. He then says that if she does not want to toast to him to just "leave a kiss, but in the cup". The speaker is obviously smitten with Celia and thinks of her as a "divine" soul. He goes on to say that his "thirst" is not one of literal meaning, but a thirst "from the soul" that can only be quenched by a "drink divine". He even goes as far to say that is he was presented with the opportunity to drink nectar from Jove's cup (Jove being another name for the Greek god Zeus who is the king of gods) he would decline it and drink from his love's, Celia. From the end of the first stanza to the beginning of the second is where the big shift in the poem occurs. The tone goes from admiration and declaring his love to a feeling of loss and desperation. In the second stanza, the speaker recalls how he had sent a bouquet of roses to Celia, not to show admiration, but rather in the hopes that her divineness will keep them fresh and alive forever. The speaker is so in love with Celia that he seems to think she is a divine being who has the power to give life to everything around her. This could be similar to how the speaker feels when he is around Celia, happy and alive. The roses, however, were returned to the speaker. He is especially distraught by this because Celia "didst only breathe" on the bouquet, resulting in the flowers smelling "not of itself" but of Celia. "Song to Celia" is ultimately a love poem with the attempt to win back the speaker's love interest. He loves Celia but she doesn't love him back. Johnson uses strong metaphors and a major shift in he poem between the two stanzas to express his rocky love story.
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A while back, I read Brandon Amico's poem "Shadow Puppets". While being technically only one sentence long, the poem tells a captivating love story. It is narrated by a person who is observing a girl reading by a fireplace. The rushed movement of her fingers tracing the words on the pages reminds him of someone reading Braille.
This piece creates a scene that, though short, is filled with emotion and tension. In only forty-four words, Amico paints a picture. You see the girl cozied up by the fire and the hopeless romantic admitting her every move from across the room. The structure of the poem, when read, mimics the pace of the narrator's thought process. spacing out parts of the sentence replicates the narrator's brain coming up with the perfect words to describe his love interest. This particular poem by Amico tells a story, rather than works to get a specific message across to its audience. You can feel the intensity of the narrator's feelings, the tone is almost one of desperation. My favorite part of the poem that really showcases this longing is, "you'd give an eye of your own to have her see you seeing her". All the narrator wants is for the girl to see him admiring her, the slightest bit of acknowledgement from her would send him over the moon. The feeling of tension between the two characters is what appeals to me most. I am definitely one for a good love story, and Amico tells the tale of these two characters in a unique way. Elocution is a word used to describe a precise and clean-cut way of talking. One who is an elocutioner would be extremely articulate and expressive in their speech. When I think of an elocutioner, I think of musicians. Musicians have to find a way to get whatever emotion they are feeling across precisely, so as not to confuse their listeners, using sound and not words. That's one thing I like so much about Brandon Amico’s poem.
In “The Elocutioner’s Son”, Amico connects the son to music in more ways than one. The buttons on his shirt are an arpeggio, his collarbones are bursting with gospel. At one point he is described as “sheet music static-clung to a subway car”. Everything about this man is fluid and precise. His father, however, is haunted. He never accomplished what he truly wanted to. His son knows the struggle that he went through and all of his memories. In his mind, however, he adds music. The drama and suspensefulness fills the gaps where the true emotions of his dad once were. The son is positive and seems to know all the answers. The way Amico structures this poem breaks it up. It forces the reader to keep moving his or her eyes down the page in an almost jagged-like manner. To me, this is sort of ironic, given the clean cut name of the poem and the main character in it. It represents, more so, the father. This week I read Brandon Amico's "Self-Portrait with an Oncoming Storm". The poem, so far, is one of my favorites. It is very chaotic with elements strategically listed to evoke a rushing sense through the reader. While reading this poem, the tempo that I set for myself was rather fast. In my mind, this was due to the fact that, like the storm, the poem is written in a frantic way.
I feel like I can relate heavily to the meaning of Amico's poem. The work is the thought process of someone with heavy anxiety. One thing that is different or surprising can set off that person's mind into a frenzy of thoughts and emotions. Amico does a wonderful job of recreating the frantic thought process of an anxiety-induced episode. One of my favorite lines from the poem is "nights when the stars crowd every window and mock us". The taunting stars in an endless sky compared to the crowded apartment of Earth evokes a sense of claustrophobia. The line actually makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I think that is why I like it so much. It makes me feel. This whole poem is filled with urgency which gives me a sort of rush where I feel almost tired after finishing it. In our AP Literature class, we were assigned to choose a poet and study their work for the entire school year. I chose Brandon Amico, who is a poet from North Carolina known for his spoken-word style poetry. His poetic style is what had drawn me to learn more about him.
Recently I read his poem "Beekeeper's Veil" (link: http://www.theadroitjournal.org/issue-fourteen-brandon-amico/). I'm going to be completely honest: it confused me quite a bit the first couple of times I read it. Eventually, I came to the conclusion of what my interpretation of Amico's words were. The beekeeper starts off describing his thoughts about taking care of his bees. He's so worried about getting stung because of his instincts to swat away at them when they approach. As the poem progresses, Amico switches between reality and speaking in analogies. This creates multiple dimensions to the work. Amico uses this as a chance to get the point of the poem across which I believe is to let life happen and go with the flow, but not to waste time by taking a passive approach. I definitely agree with this philosophy and believe that it's a good rule of thumb to live by. Like most spoken-word poems, "Beekeeper's Veil" is a metaphor-fest; my favorite being, "fish tip out of the boiling oceans and drop into the sky". Something about this phrase made me giggle a bit when I read it. The thought of this sort of paradoxical world painted a very funny picture in my mind. Amico's use of personification also plays a big role in this work. He uses one after another, sculpting image after image in the reader's (or at least my) mind. One that stood out to me the most was, "Nor’easters stalk the autumn coast, drunk through startled-bare forest." This line gave me some goosebumps. I just love Amico's word choice in this sentence. I'd love for you to read "Beekeeper's Veil" and let me know what you thought about it. I am very excited to read more of Amico's work and get to know him as a poet. Hopefully the rest of his poems are as good as this one and leave me with the same feeling. |
ThoughtsOnly one more semester until graduation! |