Analysis
The purpose of Language Poetry is to put complete emphasis on the words and have the reader find a way to interact with the poem. Charles Bernstein does that have different definitions or meanings. In this poem Charles asks himself about word phrases and vocabulary words wondering when is the right time to use them and if they have more than one meaning. Using literary devices such as Paradox and Pun made the reader think a different way about certain words and took in a different aspect on the language that we use. It also brings out Charles mood of being confused and his questioning state about trying to understand certain words and their many definitions. |
Literary Devices
Paradox- "How can the walls be floors if the refer to the part of the room which forms its enclosing surface and upon which one walks?" Using paradoxes like this forced the reader to think differently and see things from a different viewpoint. Pun- "Balls refer to nonsense or to any ball like a basketball or to guys? Using this literary device adds a little humor to the poem. It also supports the author's mood of being confused about/ language. |
Poem
A Test of Poetry BY CHARLES BERNSTEIN What do you mean by rashes of ash? Is industry systematic work, assiduous activity, or ownership of factories? Is ripple agitate lightly? Are we tossed in tune when we write poems? And what or who emboss with gloss insignias of air? Is the Fabric about which you write in the epigraph of your poem an edifice, a symbol of heaven? Does freight refer to cargo of lading carried for pay by water, land or air? Or does it mean payment for such transportation? Or a freight train? When you say a commoded journey, do you mean a comfortable journey or a good train with well-equipped commodoties? But, then, why do you drop the ‘a’ before slumberous friend? And when you write, in “Why I Am Not a Christian” You always throw it down / But you never pick it up—what is it?? In “The Harbor of Illusion”, does vein refer to a person's vein under his skin or is it a metaphor for a river? Does lot mean one’s fate or a piece of land? And does camphor refer to camphor trees? Moreover, who or what is nearing. Who or what has fell? Or does fell refer to the skin or hide of an animal? And who or what has stalled? Then, is the thoroughfare of noon's atoll an equivalent of the template? In "Fear of Flipping" does flipping mean crazy? How about strain, does it mean a severe trying or wearing pressure or effect (such as a strain of hard work), or a passage, as in piece of music? Does Mercury refer to a brand of oil? In the lines shards of bucolic pastry anchored against cactus cabinets, Nantucket buckets could we take it as—pieces of pies or tarts are placed in buckets (which are made of wood from Nantucket) anchored against cabinets (small rooms or furniture?) with cactus? What is nutflack? I suppose the caucus of caucasians refers to the white people’s meeting of a political party to nominate candidates. But who is Uncle Hodgepodge? And what does familiar freight to the returning antelope mean? You write, the walls are our floors. How can the walls be floors if the floors refer to the part of the room which forms its enclosing surface and upon which one walks? In and the floors, like balls, repel all falls—does balls refer to nonsense or to any ball like a basket ball or to guys? Or to a social assembly for dancing? Falls means to descend from higher to a lower or to drop down wounded or dead? But what is the so-called overall mesh? Is the garbage heap the garbage heap in the ordinary sense? Why does garbage heap exchange for so-called overall mesh? Since a faker is one who fakes, how can arbitrary reduce to faker? Who or what are disappointed not to have been? Does frames refer to form, constitution, or structure in general? Or to a particular state, as of the mind? In the sentence, If you don't like it colored in, you can always xerox it and see it all gray --what is it? What does colored in mean? A few lines later you write, You mean, image farm when you’ve got bratwurst-- Does bratwurst refer to sausage? Does the line mean—the sausage you saw reminded you of a farm which you imagined? Does fat-bottom boats refer to boats with thick bottoms? Is humble then humped used to describe the actions of one who plays golf? In the phrase a sideshow freak-- the freak refers to a hippie? Sideshow refers to secondary importance? Or an abnormal actor in the sideshow? Then, who or what is linked with steam of pink. And how about the tongue-tied tightrope stalker-- does the stalker refer to one who is pursuing stealthily in the act of hunting game? The stalker is a witness at first and then a witless witness? You write The husks are salted: what kind of nut husks can be salted for eating? What does bending mean—to become curved, crooked, or bent? Or to bow down in submission or reverence, yield, submit? Does bells refer to metallic sounding instruments or a kind of trousers? Just a few lines later you have the phrase Felt very poured. Who felt poured? Toys? Is humming in the sense of humming a song? Stepped into where? Not being part of what? In “No Pastrami” (Walt! I’m with you in Sydney / Where the echoes of Mamaroneck howl / Down the outback’s pixilating corridors)—does the pastrami refer to a highly seasoned shoulder cut of beef? Is Mamaroneck a place in the U.S. where wild oxes howl? I take it corridors refers to the passageway in the supermarket? Could I read the poem as-- The speaker is doing shopping in a supermarket in Sydney; he is walking along the eccentric passageways among the shelves on which goods are placed; he does not want to buy the pastrami as he seems to have heard the echoes of wild oxes howling in the U.S. while he addresses Walt Whitman? In “No End to Envy”, does the envy refer to admire or in the bad sense? |
Language Poetry
Language Poetry came up from other movements such as Black Mountain and New York School. It started in the late 1960's to the early 1970's. Language poetry's purpose is to involve the reader in the text and to put complete emphasis on the language in the poem. A Language poet named Charles Bernstein used to publish magazines using language poetry in New York in the 1970's. Soon other poets got involved such as Barrett Watten, Bob Perelman, Erica Hunt, and Clark Coolidge.