City of Eclogue Post

What stuck out to me initially in some of the poems was the use of, occasionally unexpected, vulgar language. There are numerous instances of this. Such as on page 56, “our fucking jobs”, or page 15, “and fucked you woke.” The use of slang, particularly vulgar slang, helps gives the reader what perspective the author is coming from, a more personal one. The poems become a sort of diary for the author to vent through, giving much of the book a lot of emotional weight. Although much of the writing isn’t exactly colloquial, it isn’t formal or prose in any form, as there is little punctuation which gives the writing a more personal touch.

A common style used throughout most of the book is gaps between words or the organization of poems into unique stanzas. Both of these techniques can cause the reader to pause, which can add significance to the following phrase after the gap or individuate each of the stanzas so as to give more importance to the entire passage, as often a passage that is an unbroken wall of text can have trouble delivering meaning as well; more meaning is absorbed compartmentally than as a whole. A good example of the gaps is the poem “Beauty’s Standing” beginning on page 41.

Often the gaps in “Beauty’s Standing” can be substituted for dashes, commas, or semicolons etc, but the gaps give the impression that the poem is be read out loud, each pauses is the author giving emphasis, i.e., “re: the water              the heat       is out of control      the land toxic.” Commas or the word “and” could have been substituted but the separation pronounces each much more effectively. The lack of following proper grammatical rules also furthers the impression that this is a personalized account. This perspective needs to be effectively maintained if a genuine  and personal perspective of civil rights issues, city corruption, social issues and environmental issues is the goal.