The Glass
written by Sharon Olds, pg.501
This poem had amazing language. The entirity of the piece is describing the glass cup that her father spits his phlegm into every 10 minutes, which is on the account of a tumor that he has developed. The language in the poem is so glorifying and radiant, which is a stark contrast to what she is actually describing--a jar of mucus. This jar of mucus is what her Father's last days of life seemed to revolve around, like a "model of the solar system/turning around the sun". I truely admire Sharon Olds' poem, because it of such a unique topic. She is putting the slow death of her Father into words that are so delicately described that it forces you to wince at the absolutely foul images. She also evokes a certain sense of pity by the reader directed towards the Father. I saw him as a large gray man who showed signs of once being strong, but now is devoid of any sense of social relations and even the ability to eat a decent meal. Her simile of her Father to a "god producing food from his own mouth" is a rather foul, yet also gives a certain feeling of respect toward the decaying father. The language was so full of images and descriptions of this routine of events that it definatly stood out to me.
1 comment:
Interesting that we both blogged on this poem, but you took the amazing language prompt and I took the triggering vs. actual prompt. I like how you characterized the language as "glorifying and radiant." I had to go back and look at the poem one more time because it didn't feel that way to me, but I see what you mean now.
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