So many poems, so many different authors, stories, feelings, meanings but yet they are all similar to one another in various ways. Each poem/author tells their own stories; some having similar themes, morals, using same type of rhetorical devices and emotions. Yet there are others that can be compared by what is occurring, different tone, point of view, and or anything stating the opposite of the other poem. Out of the many poems in this book, two poems that caught my attention and thought about a lot were, “Ever After” by Joyce Sutphen and “What I Want” by George Bilgere.
These two very interesting poems may have very distinctive titles but they both express their feelings over heartache, a recent break up and how they express it. My first impressions to both poems, from just reading their title were totally different to what I thought. Reading the title “Ever After,” I thought of happiness, fairy tales, love and romance, basically someone being extremely happy to be with the one they love for the rest of their lives but it is exactly the opposite of what I thought. Joyce Sutphen’s poem was not a fairy tale princess romance, it was nothing at all like it. Now my first impression for “What I Want,” well honestly I did not have a first impression about it. I did not have a clue of what it was about, I was clueless.
In the poem, “Ever After,” the narrator is a female going through a divorce with her husband. She uses rhetorical questions questioning, asking him, “What am I to you now that you are no / longer what you used to be to me,” (Sutphen 1-2) showing that an event had to happen, giving the reader a sense that there is a break up involved. She continues to ask questions as of who they are to each other now (3), making it official that they separated. She uses the words, “Now,” “divided,” “me and you,” “two separate,” “ex-,” “once,” “yours and mine,” giving huge clues showing that there is a divorce occurring. She uses these words to express to her audience that they were once one, and now they are two different and separate individuals. Also using imagery to express a flashback of the day of their wedding, “..with our hands (yours,mine) clasped on the knife / that was sinking into the tall white cake” (12-13), giving a clear image to her audience/readers of them cutting their cake. Her tone from that quote gave me a impression of her going back to when they were happy and now she is devastated and heartbroken. She does not hate him, but she is broken.
George Bilgere poem, “What I Want,” was a bit more out there. The narrator, a man makes it obvious he just went through a break up/divorce, compared to “Ever After.” He is not devastated about it at all, he is more happy and makes his poem quite humorous. “I would like for my ex-wife to get leprosy,” (Bilgere 14), “I want to wake up in London on a spring morning / And read in the paper that my ex-wife / Has received a lethal injection, courtesy of the state / Of Ohio.. “ (59-62), his way to portray his humor in this poem is quite mean and hurtful but yet it is extremely funny to his audience because he just throws it out there. He repeats himself throughout the poem stating,” I want...” showing he wants many things. He wants bad things to happen to his ex-wife, he wants to travel, “Rocky Mountains” (6), “Denver” (10), “London” (59), “Madrid” (71), naming various places he wants to go and explore, but not alone. Each place the narrator wants to travel to naming various women he wants to go with, stating different ones every place he names, showing how he does not plan going by himself. He talks about “sex,” (39) and how he wants other women, maybe naming those from his past, expects to meet many more in his present and his future. His tone throughout his poem is humorous, secretly heartbroken, angry and depressing. He is heartbroken and depressed but tries to hide it through his thoughts and humor, angry at his wife about their separation but still loved her, but still wishing those things to happen to her.
“What I Want,” was much more extreme and wicked compared to “Ever After.” “Ever After,” was much more sentimental because of the fact that the narrator, being a woman, does not hide what she feels. She writes away her feelings through paper and gives the reader that kind of emotion she is feeling. From that being said, that is why these two poems were perfect to compare to one another.
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