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Critical Analysis #2
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Bring The Family
| Critical Analysis #2 |
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Bring The Family |
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dracula68 Junior Member
since 2008-09-07
Posts 30Illinois |
The wheelchair was, at first, the winter summer spring and fall of her discontent. No more lines. No more weed. A prohibition made of paralysis and a temperance enacted by dead nerves. Funny how the myelin sheaths fed a tumor that looked like a nun’s hat as though righteousness was coming no matter what. Her body couldn’t shake but her eyes twitched up down here and there a silent plea for just one more drink And now it is all life and time regained Learning French and Greek myths out by the beach regaling us with argument anecdotes and family stories at a supper of dinner rolls and ham in a dining room where she never spent a minute in her former life. She gets us to smile with an idle joke about Baptists playing beach volleyball an old one we always laugh at. Each night, just before we put her to bed, she looks at the sky and smiles, says her thanks listens, nods her head and replies “Thank you for this forgiveness, thank you for all the kindnesses I never earned. Now I know I’ve got nothing to worry about.” |
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| © Copyright 2008 Michael Pacholski - All Rights Reserved | |||
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chopsticks Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888The US, |
Like justice Stevens said when ask to explain pornography, “ I can’t explain it, but I know it when I see it “ Drac, I can’t explain poetry, but I known it when I read it. The content of this poem is great. Btw, I’ve never heard that joke |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
You've set up a poignant beginning (if somewhat derivative), and that's where I think you've gotten yourself into trouble. It's very hard to see or believe the second part and you give us no explanation for the shift. Yes, movies seem to get away with this, but usually there's some clue. I don't see any here -- maybe I just missed it. Also, you don't give us, the readers, the joke. That's unfair. |
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chopsticks Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888The US, |
Brad , read the poem again. It is a very good poem . The first half shows a person in big trouble , can’t even talk.. The second half shows the same person with redemption either from God or her family. The prayer at the end was great . Starting the second stanza with ( And now ) ~~ Sometime later ~~ I thought was enough transition . I think it was one of the best poems I have read on here. |
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Brad Member Ascendant
since 1999-08-20
Posts 5705Jejudo, South Korea |
If that's the way you feel, Chops, I don't want to tarnish it. Still, I'm stuck with the incongruency of a third person point of view inner monologue and a tumor in the first strophe with an exterior description in the second. I don't doubt that such things happen, but I need a little more process to see the transformation -- otherwise, I find the way the poem is structured makes a far darker impression than you, I think, would have it. But, hey, it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong, would it?  |
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chopsticks Senior Member
since 2007-10-02
Posts 888The US, |
Brad, I see precisely what you mean by the shift of person from the first stanza to the second and why it don’t bother me is not a mystery , I’m just not that smart. I would have never seen the shift if you had not pointed it out, but the poem is still a gem for me. |
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