Analysis Of Eating Poetry Poem

Poetry Tripping Balls

In Mark Strands “Eating Poetry,” the author tells a story of an altered view of a mundane task, taken with a view not normally experienced by restrained society. Right or wrong as the author’s actions may be, the poet’s description of his interactions is quite engaging. Expressed in three six line stanzas, the writer flows through the highs and lows of an exceptionally intense literary experience.

In the first stanza, Strand starts his first line with the usage of intense imagery. “Ink runs from the corners of my mouth.” His usage of imagery grabs the reader’s attention and has us immediately wondering why ink is coming from the corner of his mouth. Ink is such an odd things for someone to eat and with that one line

In the fourth line the author brings in a librarian into the poem. She is an unhappy lady and is highly confused as to why the man is eating poetry, but seems unwilling or unable to bring herself to confront the appalling behavior of the writer either through a lack of will or a desire not to be physically assaulted. By the end of the stanza Strand has also given us the image of her hiding as much of herself as possible with her hands thrust deeply in her dress, showing her trying to pull inward away from the world. In the third stanza the man himself is no longer happy. He ate all of his poems and the light is now dim. At this point the writer is no longer able read clearly, and feels as though there is nothing left to eat. Strand uses the light going dim to describe how the man is feeling now that he had no poems left to eat. In the last line of the third stanza the author brings dogs into the scenario. At this point the meaning of the dogs is unknown, although the writer’s journey has become less metaphysical and far more visually

Line ten “Their eyeballs roll”. Are the dogs crazy or mad? Most likely they are merely a hallucination mirroring the writer’s inner feelings of displeasure at the lack of verse. In the eleventh line Stand uses alliteration with the words blond, burn and brush. The burning brush makes it seem like the dogs are on fire. Are the dogs from hell? No, the writer has simply been sitting for far too long and at the sight of the dogs has flinched, restoring blood flow to his legs. The hallucinatory dogs then visually benefit from the physical discomfort the writer experiences. Then the librarian throws a fit and cries. I am not sure if she is scared of the dogs or if she is crying because she doesn’t know what is going on at this point. Then in the fifth stanza we know that she is now highly confused because the man changes. The light is no longer dim. He has changed in a way and licks the librarian’s hand. The librarian is now scared, as a man experiencing unreality has just physically assaulted her, and with her timid nature fully established has no recourse but to merely recoil in horror, unable to flee. The man has changed and the poet declares him as a new man in line fifteen. He has become one of the dogs that came from the basement, as the full weight of the experience descends upon him. The mood of the poem shifts again and the man is now happy as he is expressed to be romping around the room. The lights have