Poetry Evaluation Blog

[ihatetroyduffy]

For this blog, I chose "Love and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape" by Amanda Holzer. I have to say that I found the "poem" (an odd way to describe what's essentially a wittily-arranged list of songs) pretty entertaining. It's pretty much a story about the cycle of loneliness and love and hurt and hate in relationships. That it starts with the same song it ends with suggests to me that Holzer means to say that the cycle is bound to be repeated. Though it may be a coincidence, I find it curious that a Frank Sinatra song appears in the song, and later, there is a Nancy Sinatra song. Both titles, "Love and Marriage" and "These Boots Were Made for Walking," are perfectly appropriate in the context and in their placement in the poem (l. 10, l. 38). However, I'm left wondering if perhaps Holzer means to suggest that sometimes, children are a result of marriage, being that Frank is Nancy's father, for those that don't know (I had to look it up, so if you didn't know, you're not alone). Again, the appearance of both songs could be purely coincidental, but it's still something that's got me thinking. On a personal note, I was a little alarmed to find a Billy Ray Cyrus song in any sort of... Well, anything to do with a Nirvana song. Or with Talking Heads. Or with just about any other artist in the poem. At the same time, I found the combination of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart ... My Achy Breaky Heart" funny enough for me to forgive Holzer (ll. 18-19). All in all, I found the poem both enjoyable and meaningful; though quite a bit of it is fairly simple and maybe just meant for laughs, it still holds a fair amount of truth when it comes to love and relationships.
If I did this assignment wrong, well... I didn't really know how else to do it.

Works Cited:
Holzer, Amanda. "Love and Other Catastrophes: A Mix Tape." 2011. Literature: A World of Writing. Boston: Longman, 2011. 381. Print.