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Critical Analysis #1
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Fitting
| Critical Analysis #1 |
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Fitting |
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Kenneth Ray Taylor Member
since 1999-11-11
Posts 139Duluth, Minnesota, USA |
My first poem of the pseudo-millenium: Fitting cheap? yes, but fitting. who knows (with babies) how fat you would've eventually grown. I guess I never should have given you an adjustable engagement ring. That final adjustment pleased me none too well. |
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| © Copyright 2000 Kenneth Ray Taylor - All Rights Reserved | |||
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John Foulstone Member
since 2000-01-01
Posts 100Australia |
Brilliant, bloody brilliant! Took several reads to suck all the meaning out of it, but that's the way it should be with something so deceptively simple. Re 2000, just pretend it was a rehearsal for the real thing. |
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jbouder Member Elite
since 1999-09-18
Posts 2534Whole Sort Of Genl Mish Mash |
Kenneth: You've done it again, I see. (And John, watch your language ... there's a prissy Brit lurking around here who might get offended)  You're getting good at this, my man. Liked this much.Jim "If I rest, I rust." - Martin Luther |
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J.L. Humphres Member
since 2000-01-03
Posts 201Alabama |
Wonderful,biting, and cruelly unsentimental. |
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Kenneth Ray Taylor Member
since 1999-11-11
Posts 139Duluth, Minnesota, USA |
Thank you all. The poem (like most of my poems) is semi-autobiographical. Years back my fiancée had a dream that I had bought her a cheap, adjustable engagement ring. In fact, I never bought her a ring at all. Later I married another girl, a divorcee, whose first husband had bought her a fake diamond engagement ring and tried to pass it off as real, but it turned color before the wedding. So by combining the two trajic tales.... |
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haze Senior Member
since 1999-11-03
Posts 528Bethlehem, PA USA |
...by combining the 2 tragic tales, you created a contemporary master piece...Bukowski would love it! Lets just bump this up a bit... |
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roxane Senior Member
since 1999-09-02
Posts 505us |
i think i am in the mood to where this poem would actually make me sad. i hope that phrase concerning the fatness was never uttered to anyone. makes me, but it's a good poem. |
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warmhrt Senior Member
since 1999-12-18
Posts 1563 |
I agree with roxanne...this is a good poem, but just reading it brought out a terrible feeling of depression and hopelessness. I have not had an experience even close to this, so I'm not sure why I reacted in the way I did. It just made me feel very sad.  |
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simplyYRREHS Member
since 2000-01-03
Posts 162 |
KRT... I read your poem yesterday, and keep coming back to it. One read, it delights me, the next, it infuriates me. Of course, perhaps that's a reaction you like to see! Short. Hardly simple. I will read again tomorrow and interpret yet another time. Something about it has "sold" me.  sherry |
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jenni Member
since 1999-09-11
Posts 478Washington D.C. |
my initial reaction was the same as rox and warmheart. the poem's clever, no doubt about that, especially the use of "fitting" in the first stanza, and the way the stanzas are reduced each time. but the fat comment bothered me. but then i thought, well, maybe ken intends it that way, that it should be bothersome, or that the poem is meant to be a kind of prism, isolating and refracting different gendered perspectives. whatever. if that's what you intended, congrats. |
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Kenneth Ray Taylor Member
since 1999-11-11
Posts 139Duluth, Minnesota, USA |
An irony to the "fat" comment is that I'm fat. She's actually slimmer than when I knew her 20 odd years ago. As I was writing the poem I thought of a man who called into a talk radio show complaining that his wife was no longer interested in sex. He then added, "And the way she's let herself go, she should be grateful that anyone would want to do it with her!" Such a loving husband, a born romantic! |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
I enjoyed this poem. However, I'm a little confused with all the hubbub about being fat. What is so upsetting about that line? I mean, it's certainly not out of line with the speaker's personality. I know we've allowed some far harsher terms than that on the grounds that the language reflects some aspect of the speaker or is used ironically. Help. Brad |
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warmhrt Senior Member
since 1999-12-18
Posts 1563 |
Bradley, If you noticed all of the protestors of the use of the word "fat" were women, and you'd have to be one to understand. warmhrt |
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simplyYRREHS Member
since 2000-01-03
Posts 162 |
Wrmhrt... Keen assessment! And I completely agree with you! None-the-less, whimsical read. sherry |
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Poertree Senior Member
since 1999-11-05
Posts 1359UK |
Ken Loved the poem Loved "fat" and "adjustable" .. lol Loved "bloody" HATED "prissy" .. watch it you jumped up self important Yank (he heh) .. oh btw Jim "hi" .. I'm nearly back P |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
I'll leave the "You'd have to be one to understand" conversation strategy for another day but I still argue that fat is not as important as this 'Bradley' label thing that's going around right now. Come one, get your priorities straight!!!!! |
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Kenneth Ray Taylor Member
since 1999-11-11
Posts 139Duluth, Minnesota, USA |
Anyway, ever since Ellinor on "The Practice" fat is in. |
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