Persona poems– from the pov of another person

Tools to strengthen believability

1. dialect
2. diction
3. psychological stance

DIALECT
-informed respect and delicacy can avoid parody
-makes it more likely that the poem will be spoken aloud by the reader
-immediate introduction of a character who speaks directly from the page
-narrows the intended window of interpretation
-to make the reader work to understand the dialect is a way to invest the reader in the speaker

DICTION
-one wrong word and the speaker’s spell can be shattered
-even subtle word choices lead to powerful assumptions about the speaker
-in many cases, diction isn’t a far cry from dialect
-the reliability of the speaker isn’t important if the believability is

PSYCHOLOGICAL STANCE
-fracturing the language through severe enjambment fractures the speaker
-lack of fluid punctuation creates the impression of an unbridled speaker
-Gluck creates a fluidity, an eternity, without any periods until the final declarative– it lacks petulance or finality

Moments are starting to blur, and the best way I have heard this experience described thusfar is that it is two days’ worth of intellectual work crammed into each day. I’ve been taking somewhat scattered notes which, in my mind, are comprehesive, but to any other student would be lackluster, so I feel like I have a great sense of what was said, but don’t always know who said it and when they were talking.

I just went to a lecture on surrealism, which included a short history that necessarily included some time on Dada. And each time the word was said, I couldn’t help but think of the Dada filmstrip that Jen Ashlock and I went to see at the A/V Geeks meeting, which was ridiculous but, as it turns out, extremely informative. But I did expect the lecturer to bust out with a loud “DADADADADADADADA!!!!” and pictures of dying monkeys every time he made any transition. This did not happen. I am, as I think about it now, somewhat disappointed by that.

I recognize that I did not blog much yesterday; I spent the free moments looking at poems for workshop rather than looking at my own narcissism.