I actually think that it might be a deliberate obfuscation:
1) "You worship a few oblique truths, you remind yourself on a morning so clear you do not recognize the day. You're in a circle of things you call your own."
2) "You worship a few oblique truths, you remind yourself on a morning so clear. You do not recognize the day you're in a circle of things you call your own."
And maybe you're supposed to think about the difference between these two lines -- do you not recognize the morning, and it's a simple fact that you're in a circle of things you call your own? Or do you fail to recognize the day that you're finally in a circle of things you call your own?
Honestly, and I know that this reinforces the hack thing, I get annoyed with poetry that doesn't a) rhyme or b) have clear punctuation.
No, no, I totally have a rhyming poetry thing as well. It carries me along much better than non-rhyming poetry does. And usually Simic's punctuation isn't even noticeable - which is how God intended punctuation to be, dammit! It's just this one poem that throws me every time on the curve.
And yeah, the whole thing just doesn't come together for me. Maybe I'm just not the one this poem is for.
And yeah, I instinctively read the line as #1, but then it doesn't parse well with the rest of the poem. The line works much better for me reading it as #2, thematically at least, but then doesn't make any sense qua itself.
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1) "You worship a few oblique truths, you remind yourself on a morning so clear you do not recognize the day. You're in a circle of things you call your own."
2) "You worship a few oblique truths, you remind yourself on a morning so clear. You do not recognize the day you're in a circle of things you call your own."
And maybe you're supposed to think about the difference between these two lines -- do you not recognize the morning, and it's a simple fact that you're in a circle of things you call your own? Or do you fail to recognize the day that you're finally in a circle of things you call your own?
Honestly, and I know that this reinforces the hack thing, I get annoyed with poetry that doesn't a) rhyme or b) have clear punctuation.
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And yeah, the whole thing just doesn't come together for me. Maybe I'm just not the one this poem is for.
And yeah, I instinctively read the line as #1, but then it doesn't parse well with the rest of the poem. The line works much better for me reading it as #2, thematically at least, but then doesn't make any sense qua itself.
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