Johnson 1

Lexie Johnson                                                                                                     

Cooper

CRWR 212

8 April 2014

Analysis of "Black Dog Songs"

            Lisa Jarnot’s, Black Dog Songs, was filled with rhythmic and lyrical poems. I liked her section called “They”. I thought it was the best section in the book because it spoke volumes to me. I liked how she used repetition throughout this section to put an emphasis on the things that she wanted us to remember. This section made me think about younger couples who are new to being in a relationship with each other and new to love. This section made me think about people who just loved the simple things about each other. It brought me back to a time when people were not that materialistic. This section has more of a simplistic tone to it. These sections also made me think about the term “they”. Was it talking about the narrator or was she referring to other people who she encountered in her life?  The poem I like most in this section was “They Loved Paperclips”. I liked this poem the most because it made me think of happy people who are cherishing their relationships in life. They loved every aspect of life. The characters in the poem seem as if they are not taking anything for granted. Everything they are enjoying is more of a natural thing like nature. This adds to the simplistic tone of this novel. This section talks about people loving things that most people take for granted like the birds, sky, food etc. This poem was written in prose form which gave it sort of a story feeling to it. I like this section the most because it was something that I could relate to more than I could relate to the other sections of this novel.  I’m not a big fan of this novel and some of the poem sort of made me mad because of all the tongue twisting words. I like poems that have more clarity and this was not it.

            The beginning of the novel starts off with poems that have some sort of form to it. We have more poems with stanzas in the beginning of the novel. The first section of this novel made me think it was talking about her family. The first poem talks about this silence and absence in this household and a dwelling. The first section makes me think that the narrator is looking for order in their life and looking back on her family roots. She used a triolet form to her poem title “Triolet” which I thought was really interesting. It makes me wonder why she decided to title her poem that. I think that her titles are really important in trying to understand what the poems mean.

            The section, My Terrorist Notebook, was interesting because it made me wonder why she dedicated some of her poems to politicians. The rhyme scheme that she had in her poems made it flow more. She also used a lot of alliteration in this section of the book. The section, Black Dog Songs, seemed like it was about her adult life and growing up and chasing her dreams. This section seemed like it was about the narrator reaching goals in her life or what her life is about now. This whole novel seemed as if was about someone going through different phases in life. I wondered why she didn’t use any punctuation in most of her poems. When these are read out loud it sounds as if someone is preaching because there are not many poems with pauses. I did not really like this novel as a while but it does have its share of poems that are really unique.