Can You Feel What I Felt?
Poetry is a fascinating and marvelous form of human expression. Poets utilize distinctive styles, words, and verbal rhythms to convey to their audience a particular emotion or concept. This affords the poet a never ending spring of subject matter, as anything can be described figuratively to give the audience a hand in actually experiencing the text. I think poetry of witness is a form of poetry that chooses an experience, or feeling inflicted on the speaker while seeing a particular event as its subject matter. Poetry of witness expresses the speakers emotional paradigm given a set of circumstances, and proceeds to describe them for the mind's eye with sensitivity.
We see this proven in Carolyn Forche's "The Colonel." We know that the reason this story is being relayed by the speaker is to satisfy the query of the audience. "What you have heard is true. I was in his house." (Carolyn Forche, The Colonel line 1.) indicates that the listener has already heard of the brutal Colonel and his bag of ears. The relationship of the speaker and the audience in this poem was not intimate, purely platonic. The language being used is not one of endearment. It is more or less concerned with the re-telling of facts to the asking party in a fairly straightforward manner. Brief explanations of setting such as "His wife carried a tray of coffee and sugar" (Carolyn Forche, The Colonel line 2) and "we had dinner, rack of lamb, good wine, a gold bell was on the table for calling the maid" (Carolyn Forche, The Colonel lines 11-13) demonstrate that the speaker is not too interested in dressing up the story. There are no powerful or vivid adjectives to add polish to the tone of this poem. Figurative language is used sparingly such as "they were like dried peach halves" (Carolyn Forche, The Colonel line 23) as the writer admittedly has no other way to relate the event of having a cadavers' ear brandished in their faces except literally. I also feel that the author has a semi-strong belief in the right to freedom from torment and the right to live. Why else would the body language of the other dinner companion, stifle him? My belief is the speaker was about to convey his dislike for the Colonel's policies on governing, and this is why her friend gestures to be quiet. Carolyn Forche does an adequate job of keeping things concise and easy to follow. Her short, understated descriptions create a sense of normalcy, which affords a bit of excitement at the poems climax when the Colonel manifests his bag o' ears. I think "The Colonel" did an excellent job as a poem of witness. It adequately guided us on a journey of the experience the two subjects experienced that one evening with the Colonel.
Bruce Weigl's "Song of Napalm" is a much different poem of witness than Carolyn Forche's. Within the first stanza we already see a bit more description adding imagery to Bruce's poem. "After the storm, after the rain stopped pounding" (Bruce Weigl, Song of Napalm, line 1.) Its words like "pounding," that open our minds and invite us to imagine the sound of heavy rain. It is specified in the title that this poem of witness was composed for Bruce's wife. So it logically follows that Bruce is our speaker in "Song of Napalm." The audience being his wife, I'd say this poem is a poem of lament and confession. Bruce needs badly to describe his feelings with regard to what he has witnessed. As he treks through this jungle, the nature of his actions, and those of his war associates weighs heavily on his conscience. The event is over, and as the rain subsides Bruce recollects the travesty. Feeling shackled to the event, as a responsible party he bears the guilt of this woman's death. A prisoner of his deeds, Bruce tells his wife that the trees even feel oppressive. Like barbed wire on a prison forever keeping him from escaping what he has done, and the emotional consequences attached. Given the intimacy of the speaker and audience, I would venture that the tone of this poem is one of somberness. Bruce seeks exaltation from his feelings of sorrow, but just as the woman met her inevitable fate, Bruce too must face his consequences. Forever will he be plaqued with the image of her, seared in his eyes. I think what Bruce is saying is that death is painful. Even when its not you dying, the human instinct compels us to wish for the impossible. He longs for his actions to be reversed, but not even "your good love and not the rain-swept air and not the jungle green pasture unfolding before us can deny it" (Bruce Weigl, Song of Napalm. Line 43.)
To conclude. These poems adequately fit the criteria for a poem of witness. Both poems describe the feelings experienced by the speaker whilst undergoing their event. Both poems have a tragic event, and examine the value of life, and the implications of the loss of it. Both writers seemingly express a belief in life's significance. Carolyn demonstrates this in her poem by wanting to say something to the Colonel that would have been unwise. Bruce shows us his concern for life by his haunted expressions and the obvious impact watching that woman die all alone with nothing left had on him. Analyzing poetry is an interesting procedure. There is much more than meets the eye on the surface to a poem.
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