Jack Breene
Kyrie Response
CW- Maffei
In her
poetry book Kyrie, Ellen Bryant Voigt uses three distinct sections to tell her
story. The book follows a family living in a small town during 1918 and tells
the tale of a flu outbreak, during which time World War I was raging over seas.
In the three sections, we see a small town before, during and immediately after
World War I.
The first
section I found to be the most interesting because it focuses on the cover of
something bad. In many of the entries, I found that Voigt was building towards
the outbreak, a development the characters seem to be aware of as well. In one
of the poems, Voigt tells of a bed that has been with the family for many
years. (Pg. 19) In this bed, members of the family have experiences every stage
of live, including births, marriage, divorce, eventually death. No mater how
the circumstances of this family change, the bed is the same. I told this to
mean that despite the fact that the bed is consistent with being associated
with important life stages, it is also the inevitable final place for everyone.
I thought this to mean that good things come to an end. The first section also
borrows lots of imagery from the war as the tension builds leading up to the
outbreak.
In one of the poems, the narrators
sister has a dream about animals fighting in a war (pg. 24). I liked this poem
because it really showed how Voigt uses these poems as a connected web to both
paint a picture of what life was like in this family and also tell a story of
the war and flu. In this poem, the animals fighting the war represent the
animals at the farm we learned about in an earlier poem. (can’t remember the
page number, it was about chickens) Animals fighting a war means that strife
was about to visit the farm, a place that is describes as being very far from
the apparent danger of the contemporary world. The last line, “I didn’t know it
was us she saw in the bloody trenches” it confirms that these children were
about to face struggle of their own, the narrator just didn’t know it at the
time. I also liked this poem because it reminded me of Joseph interpreting
Pharaoh’s dreams in the old testament. I think relatively obscure biblical
references are really powerful and especially this because it speaks to how
religion played a role in the life’s of this family. Also, the both the poem
and story are centered around dream interpretation which I found to be an
interesting parallel.
I found this particular book of essays very interesting because of its focus on medicine and flu outbreak. As a nursing student this was very interesting to read. Jack, I liked how to discussed the book with in three sections because it shows how important grouping can be in poetry. In Kyrie especially it seems as though the author uses her chapters to allow the reader to mentally separate certain poems as well as showing focus on theme and structure. I like how Jack talked about the importance of dream interpretation and the meaning of dreams. There was a lot of foreshadowing particularly in the first part of the book when the author introduces the man characters, however before the outbreak has really been established. This book of poetry covered many themes that had not been touched in anything else we have read this semester and I liked how Jack focused on separation of the poems as well as dream interpretation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your feeling in that the first set of sonnets felt like a prelude to something bad. I say prelude because it introduces us to it without really delving into to the topic of war and the outbreak of the flu. The one sonnet I would say that exemplifies this is the sonnet on page 17 as it is quite abstract in my own view; the sonnet questions when exactly is the end of childhood. But I agree with your view on the sonnet on page 19.
ReplyDeleteThe sonnet on page 24 also caught my eye. I saw it as the war had taken such a toll on civilian life back home, that even the animals, who should not even be aware of it, is somehow actually aware of the war. I wouldn't say that the strife was about to visit the farm, but rather, the effect of the strife was already evident in all members, the humans and animals.