Friday, April 25, 2008

My favorite poem was "Evaluation of an Unwritten Poem". This was completely different than any other poem we read by Szymborska, and it was completely different than any other poem I have read in the past. In many poems, we receive insight into what the poet is thinking and also expressing through her/his writings. "Evaluation", however, provided insight into the thoughts of one poet through the perspective of another. The narrating poet (the one writing this poem) is clearly critical of the "authoress" she is talking about in the poem. In the second stanza, she says, "That's poetry for you." I interpreted this as clear sarcasm, where the narrator is criticizing the thoughts of the authoress. The last stanza provides even clearer evidence that the narrator is critical: "Her fundamentally unpersuasive thesis/ combined with her lackadaisical style/ forces the question: Whom might this piece convince?/ The answer can only be: No one." Our discussion in class confirmed my initial thoughts when reading this poem that the "authoress" being criticized could in fact be the narrator, or Szymborska herself. When writing papers or poetry (which I will admit is a rare occurrance compared to writing papers), I often doubt my arguments, and I constantly change my sentence structure. I have undergone this same critical response to my own writing. Overall, this was a very unique poem that shows the struggle of the poet to create their own work that is acceptable not just to others, but also to herself.

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