Di Brandt's poem that begins "when i was five," is a poem that was not new to me last week. I had previously read the poem for a Critical Theory course in the spring of 2013. At first, I found that the poem was difficult to read in a number of different ways.
What's with the lack of punctuation?
Where's that capitalization of letters?
Quotations?
Who's talking?
Beyond being forced to correct the "errors" for an exam, I felt the need to do so that I could actually read the poem.
This time around, I loved it. I felt that Brandt offers her readers the words and then leaves the rest to them in hopes that maybe they can read the poem whichever way they happen to interpret it.
In fact, I think that I almost prefer the lack of punctuation when reading the argument between the daughter and the father. When read aloud, the lack of punctuation seems to make the words flow faster, actually sounding like an argument.
As someone who is still fairly new at writing poetry, I love seeing new ways writing styles. When done well, no punctuation could work. However, as a new poet, I'm not sure I'm ready to take on that challenge. But, thank you, Di Brandt, for showing us a unique style.
Dominique, I felt the same way about her lack of punctuation heightening the argument between her and her father. I also agree with you in that her poetry can be challenging to read without punctuation or capitalization, and personally speaking, I had to resist the urge to "correct" her myself. I almost think that you have to read her poetry several times to get over the lack of punctuation and appreciate what she's trying to communicate.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience with "when i was five," too! There is a lot of urgency in her work and I think the lack of punctuation, in this poem especially, is one the ways she creates that urgency and feeling of being rushed. In my imitation, I realized how much skill and thought goes into not using any punctuation because I found myself placing commas and periods throughout my poem without even realizing it.
ReplyDeleteActually, "when i was five," is a different poem. The one in which she argues with her father starts out with "but what do you think my father says." Untitled poems are difficult to identify!
ReplyDeleteHayley, I'm glad you pointed out how difficult it is to write without punctuation. What may look easy or even sloppy turns out to require a high degree of craft and skill.