Anna Boyer
Cooper
CRWR212
April 8, 2014
Analysis: Lisa Jarnot’s Black Dog Songs
At first glance, Lisa Jarnot’s
pieces in Black Dog Songs read like
nonsense, a string of words that have absolutely no relationship to each other
or to the meaning of the poem. However, meaning can be found, even though
Jarnot makes her readers dig in between the words to find her true intent with
the piece. The repetition of sounds gives these pieces a sing-song quality,
which can make them difficult to analyze. This is because the mind can get
caught up in the rhythm and flow of the words as they form lines and stanzas,
nearly pushing aside the desire to find a theme in the midst of Jarnot’s
carefully structured patterns that ultimately make a statement. The themes
found in this volume range from the personal to the political, but each word is
carefully chosen to create a body of work that both injects humor into the
mundane nature of everyday life and is deeply critical about the state of
Bush-era American politics.
The first part of the book, titled
“Early and Uncollected Poems” and the third part, called “They”, are both written
in a very rhythmic style with a touch of whimsy within the abstract imagery. The
last poem in the first section is entitled “Dracula” and the last lines
perfectly sum up the author’s subtle melancholy: “…and tomorrow I will walk out
to the park, to where the heaven where the sun is where it sets.” (Jarnot 12)
This particular piece, which is preceded by a quote from actor Bela Lugosi,
discusses a familiar feeling of being dead inside and needing to find a
connection with another person in order to escape. It is a perfect summary of
the section as a whole, tying up the themes of reflections on the self and on
the outside world. Essentially, Jarnot’s theme in this section seems to be the
heaviness of the physical body on Earth and physical and mental reflections on
silence and sound. Other pieces, like “They Loved Paperclips” (Jarnot 27), have
humorous, light titles but still discuss the heaviness of the human body and
the connections that form with other people through the contrasts of everyday
life. These sections, in their simplicity, touch on the contrasts of silence
and sound, light and dark and the impact of those opposites on the physical
human experience.
Jarnot’s second section, which she
has titled “My Terrorist Notebook”, has an entirely different flavor, and a far
less “everyday” one at that. In her opening monologue, Jarnot states how she
wants to live in a cave with terrorists and no longer be a nice member of
society. The piece “Cave Poem” is a direct jab to people such as Donald
Rumsfeld and Dick Chaney, particuraly in the lines “…the meaning of the caves
gray-deep inside the gray-deeps into sleep the men and women, children too yet
only I this cave I knew.” (Jarnot 21) Post-September 11th America
was a fear-filled place, and Jarnot’s aggravation is understandable, especially
since it is directed at her own country and its government. The cave is a place
of refuge from this widespread fear and the constant presence of images of war
in the media and from the stunning ignorance on the part of those that are
supposedly in charge of protecting the American people. This section of the
book takes several steps away from the personal and goes directly to the
political, forcing the reader to look at that period in retrospect and how
personal the political rapidly became.
Jarnot’s final section of this
anthology, titled “Black Dog Songs”, follows the patterns of sections one and
three, but also includes a biographical piece called “Lisa Jarnot”. Presumably,
the poem is addressed to her younger self, as she writes: “When you grow up
you’ll be able to write poems and things will be like they are now…” (Jarnot
40) The youthful belief that adulthood is the same as childhood is very present
in this piece, as Jarnot describes the feeling of being lost within the same
physical world she inhabited as a child. Even within the jumble of whimsy and
rhythmic language, Jarnot still manages to communicate the themes of being lost
in a familiar world and being a physical and metaphorical reflection of
oneself.
Within Black Dog Songs, Lisa Jarnot uses several poetic devices to
communicate her themes to the reader. In “Dumb Duke Death”, she uses
alliteration throughout the whole piece, which gives a staccato rhythm and a
sing-song effect. In making “My Terrorist Notebook” the second section of the
anthology, a climax is created. The section communicates some very strong
emotions on the macro level and that is where the overall emotion of the
collection peaks and startles the reader. Diction is absolutely essential to
Jarnot’s work, especially in a piece like “Greyhound Ode”, where words and
sounds are repeated, tripping the reader’s tongue but ultimately creating a
world where people are literal and metaphorical reflections of themselves. Imagery
is also key in these works; this can be found in the following line from “Seal
Ode”: “…the necklace of a person in a seal skin is forgotten in the person with
the strong neck that is shiny like a seal…” (Jarnot 43) Here, Jarnot paints a
highly metaphorical picture of the beauty of a seal that glides through water
with minimal effort. She also uses personification, particuraly in the
following line from “Because Poem”: “Because the root of the tree is the friend
of the corn in the field.” (Jarnot 22) This is an abstract example but it does
illustrate the intertwined factors of the natural world. “Because” is a perhaps
overused excuse for explaining natural phenomena, but Jarnot’s exploration is
more complex in looking at how humans interact with nature. Jarnot’s use of
syntax is truly unique in that she orders words in a way that makes sentences
tumble over each other in order to create a piece that illustrates a snippet of
human life.
Works Cited
Jarnot,
Lisa. Black Dog Songs. Chicago: Flood Editions, 2003.
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