Poetry post 3

The theme of Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup is blandness, normality and hiding untruths. However, the interesting part of this poem lies in the opposite of what the words of it say. Fruit cocktail looks extremely bland, it is mostly white with a very similar texture throughout. Fruit cocktail is also extremely sweet and appetizing, especially to children. This may seem like somewhat of a stretch, but what I saw in the fruit cocktail was something seemingly bland. Something extraordinarily normal, but when you taste it, you are greeted to a symphony of flavor. What the poem could be saying between the lines is that something may seem incredibly bland or someone could seem detestably normal, but in fact be something else entirely once you get a taste.

Poetry blog post 1

The difference between the speaker and poet is similar to the difference between character and author. The author may write a character a certain way, say they have issues making friends, little emotional control, an inability to respond to stimuli optimally or a feeling of worthlessness due to weakness, this does not mean that the author has these feelings or issues. The author also could have these issues and are using the character as a conduit to express themselves. The only way to know for sure is an understanding of the author’s life and a statement from them saying that they did or did not have these issues. The reason you need a statement is that even if the author has or had these feelings, they may not be writing about themselves. They may not even be aware of the fact that their and their character’s dilemmas are similar and both are just isolated incidents. The relationship between poet and speaker is almost exactly the same as this.