Another literary device that Kevin Stein uses in his poem "Tract" is imagery. Tract uses sensory language in order to emphasize the significance of the cantaloupe. Stein doesn't remain in the realm of visual imagery. Instead he employs all five senses in order to draw attention to the cantaloupe and other fruit, including: watermelon, tomatoes and cortland apples. This strategy improves the aesthetics of the poem, introducing linguistic art with the sarcastic tone.
In fact, the incredible sensory language that Stein uses is one of the major reasons I love this poem so much. Stein sets a tone using beautiful visual language, then strays away from the tone and then reigns it back in. He strays off topic, uses the imagery to describe another type of produce, then goes back to the cantaloupe. Example:
This poem's subject is the cantaloupe tilting
its burnished head in the garden's black dirt.
Its sensuous tumescence. Its musky scent.
This poem does not give a gnat's whit about
tomatoes the learned once called "love apples."
So Stein starts the poem introducing the alleged subject cantaloupe, goes on to describe the physical setting and then the scent of the aforementioned cantaloupe, and then moves on to use sensory language on tomatoes.
The imagery is what makes this poem great. Without using the sensory language to tantalize the reader before straying off topic, this poem would be largely intolerable. If Stein hadn't described the cantaloupe's "burnished head" or its "musky scent" we, the readers, wouldn't give "a gnat's whit" about any of the produce mentioned, cantaloupe or otherwise. But, because Stein DID choose to seduce the reader with beautiful descriptions of the sensory elements the reader has become intrigued and wants to know more about the cantaloupe and continues reading.
Stein's language is aesthetically appealing specifically because it does appeal to the senses. When writing about a poem fruit it would be silly not to make the fruit sound delicious or appealing. In the poem Stein uses descriptions of taste, sound, smell, texture and of course sight. By awakening these senses in the reader Stein is awakening interest. By then immediately straying off topic from the fruit, which he has just made so appealing, he then heightens the readers intrigue. They want to know more about the cantaloupe, which he has so richly described, but instead Stein has moved on to talking about simile.
I think the use of imagery and irony is what appeals to me so much about this poem. It also appeals to me as a lover of poetry and of produce. It also makes me really want to eat cantaloupe.
Dani,
ReplyDeleteI think this a fabulous argument. This poem really does a beautiful job of describing a cantelope. Now, that sounds like a very boring poem. Great. A poem about a gross melon. However, in this poem the imagery is really very nice. I really liked your point about how he switches from one fruit to another. I hadn't paid much attention to it on my own, but you're right. The poem almost stumbles around from fruit to fruit, but it always finds its way back to the catelope. "The supposed topic".
Unfortunately, I have not read this poem. (And don't have access to it either :( ) BUT, it sounds awesome. The few excerpts that you provide really show the imagery in the poem well. And you're right, how could you write a poem about fruit and then not make the reader able to see, smell, and taste the fruit?!
ReplyDeleteLike Hannah, I like the way it switches from different fruits, and then takes it back to the cantaloupe. It does well to have a single focus of one kind of fruit, but you can hardly fail to mention other fruits, even if the focus is on just one. To show the superiority of that one fruit, you have to mention it in comparison to the others.
Mmm. I really want cantaloupe.