As an avid poetry reader, I was very excited to receive this book as a gift. One thing that I learned about writing from the book was that by creating a numbered list in a poem, the author can show a sense of anxiety that a speaker is feeling. Lovelace uses this concept as she creates a list of fifteen things that the speaker continually counts, “1. the scabs on her knees. 2. the number of sky-high swings. 3. the books on her shelves. 4. the loose threads on her shirt. 5. the letters in her words.” The list shows the speaker’s anxiousness and a side of darkness as the list continues that eventually carried throughout the book.
A second thing I learned from the book about writing is that instead of using a title at the beginning of a poem is to use a line in italics spaced after the bottom line to sum up the poem. Lovelace uses this a lot throughout her poems but one that stood out to me was after a poem describing how the speaker’s new lover refills her with poetry like an open book, the line followed is, “-my personal pen & paper.” The punchline gives the reader food for thought and leaves them with an idea to grasp from the poem instead of a traditional title.
One last thing that I learned about writing from the book was that the use of repetition throughout a poem can reinforce emotions and feelings, good and bad. The use of repetition can be found a lot in the book but one of my favorites is this from a poem to the speaker’s dead mother, “you will never get to start or finish another book ever again. you will never get to see me graduate from college. you will never meet the love of my life.” The repetition shows the punctuality of death through the speaker’s use of “you will never.”
A second thing I learned from the book about writing is that instead of using a title at the beginning of a poem is to use a line in italics spaced after the bottom line to sum up the poem. Lovelace uses this a lot throughout her poems but one that stood out to me was after a poem describing how the speaker’s new lover refills her with poetry like an open book, the line followed is, “-my personal pen & paper.” The punchline gives the reader food for thought and leaves them with an idea to grasp from the poem instead of a traditional title.
One last thing that I learned about writing from the book was that the use of repetition throughout a poem can reinforce emotions and feelings, good and bad. The use of repetition can be found a lot in the book but one of my favorites is this from a poem to the speaker’s dead mother, “you will never get to start or finish another book ever again. you will never get to see me graduate from college. you will never meet the love of my life.” The repetition shows the punctuality of death through the speaker’s use of “you will never.”