TONY HOAGLAND What Narcissism Means To Me #1
BLOG POST #5 [10 Points]You have a choice of doing one or the other of these prompts:
1) Locate two instances in Hoagland's poems where he is making some sort of commentary about America or being an American. Locate and report the language he uses to make this commentary; then, explain what you think he is driving at by saying this.
2) Locate and report language that Hoagland uses to describe complicated emotions beyond love, grief, longing, etc. Discuss how he uses his own experience and the experiences (or words) of others to probe this complicated emotional realm.
posted by Tim Kahl @ Tuesday, September 19, 2006
1 Comments:
The Impossible Dream strikes me as a very accurate and descriptive depiction of American ideology and ideosyncracy. The first stanza captures the American government's bold, shameless, and possibly heartless habits as it states the following lines; "In Delaware a congressman accused of sexual misconduct says clearly at the press conference, speaking right into the microphone, that he would very much like to do it again." The language is very simple, as if you would find it in the newspaper in the "metro" section. There are no fancy words, no metaphors, but rather blunt and simple words. I think American government is much the same way...should I go into detail about why? And this stanza captures this element of the US government quite efficiently. Another line I find significant us that of the poem America, which states, "And then I remember that I stabbed my father in the dream last night, It was not blood but money." This to me, after traveling to other countries, reflects how Americans value money over family, yet in most other countries it seems to be the opposite.
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