True/False has proved to be a rather controversial poem amongst our class, therefore I felt obligated to give my opinion on it as well. My feelings are extremely mixed in regards to this poem. I feel the concept is brilliant; he’s trying something never done before. As a result of this fact I find I am a bit more sympathetic with the author. By this I mean that I can’t just write it off and say “this isn’t poetry,” or “ He took the easy way out,” because if this was truly the easy way out, why hasn’t anyone done it before? Therefore I applaud his originality and the effort he put forth. But, although I do commend the uniqueness of this poem, I cannot honestly say I am a huge fan. I find the majority of the “poem” consists solely of random thoughts, which are impossible to group into a solid idea. I believe I would have been far fonder of this poem if it had come to a plausible conclusion. Not to appear overly contradictory,(as I said I have mixed feelings on this poem) but there are quite a few lines which I was rather fond of. The ingenuity behind certain lines was unparallel to any author I’ve ever encountered. For example: “there’s a number missing,” this was such a brilliant maneuver, it truly sparks the readers interest. Another great example is “sometimes I get feelings of déjà vu.” In all honesty when I read this poem the first time, and I encountered the second “sometimes I get feelings of déjà vu,” (number 71) I did get a feeling of déjà vu, and I had completely forgot that I had already read that line (number 10). Therefore in regards to this poem I can’t come to one solid conclusion, there are pieces of it I like and others which I dislike.
Daniel Pilla
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Daniel, I also found "True/False" to be a very controversial poem. Just the stucture alone is something that I am so unfamilar with, it really caught me off guard! Even just looking at it makes it seem more like a random list than a piece of poetry. Though, it is unfair to judge the poem based on how it looks written down. After reading it a few times I definately feel more comfortable with the structure. In fact, the more I read it, the more the words and meaning (if it can be refered to as a meaning) seemed to stand out to me instead of the odd numbering. I really like how the meaning of the poem is left up entirely to the reader. It seems as though this poem could be intrepreted in SO many different ways and that is a quality about it that I have come to truely appreciate. Although the poem is called "True/False" it does not specify what is true or false, thus leaving the reader to do so. As I read the poem I tried to guess what could be true and was could be false. Though after reading and rereading I've come to the conclusion that the poem's meaning is not to determine the true and false. To me, this poem represents how much time people seem to debate "facts," deeming them either true or false. Perhaps the meaning of this poem is to disreguard what may be true or false and spend time considering more worthwhile things.
ReplyDeleteKaty Haines