“Days Shame Failure”(读书笔记）
I know that poems have many kinds of styles, and from my understanding, Jennifer L. Knox’s poem book Days Shame Failure uses the style called prose in her poems. Each of her poems reads as short stories (prose), and the more I read her poems, the more I think her writing sounds like prose. By incorporating prose within her poetry, she gives readers more detail about her stories.For example, Knox uses this particular style in the poem “The Comeback” by saying, “‘I thought George Jones was dead,’ I said, squinting at the singer onstage. ‘That’s not George Jones. It’s Deinocheirus mirificus, Archaeologists recently found him in the Gobi desert. I heard about it on NPR,’ Stan said”(Knox, p. 11). This poem uses dialogues to promote better understanding for the reader, which clearly shows the readers what is going on in the poem. The majority of her poetry emphasizes the sad and dark sides of stories. Despite the gloomy mood portrayed, she uses beautiful language to transmit her message.
In addition to the tone of her poems, Knox also captures the attention of her readers by supporting the most important aspects within of her poetry through strong, detailed ideas. In her poem“Life’s Work”, Knox uses details and descriptors to support the message by writing: At thirteen, Robert Stroud ran away from home and got a job working for the rail road in Alaska where he became a pimp. At eighteen, he murdered a bartender and was sentenced to twelve years on McNeil Island where he stabbed a guard to death and was sentenced to life in solitary confinement at Leavenworth. One morning in the yard, he found a nest with three injured sparrows. He nursed them to health and freed them through the bars on his window. / Who kept the birds in cages in their sells. Cages within cages. Suddenly, all the canaries began to die. Stroud ordered some books from the library and learned the canaries were suffering from septic fever, and avian plague. He ordered a microscope,discovered a cure, and wrote a book,Diseases
of Canaries, which has been considered one of the most authoritative books ever written on avian pathology since its publication in 1933” (Knox, p. 18).This poem by Knox called “Life’s Work”, is a very sad story in which a famous person named Stroud “spent his life in the prison”. Stroud seems like a malicious person, yet has a good heart. When he died, however, no one was “able to find Stroud’s grave”, which makes his whereabouts a mystery. From reading this poem, I now know why Knox decided to name her poem book Days Shame & Failure.
Another poem from this book, we can see why detail is so important to provide the reader with images and emotions that different messages portray. Knox’s poem book uses the simple words that helps her poetry flow and creates pictures that connects the reader with the text. This allows the readers to understand what the writer wants to tell them. Imagery is expressed in a passage by Knox as follows:
When my father was nine years old, his mother said, “Tommy, I’m taking you to the circus for your birthday. Just you and me. And I’ll buy you anything you want.“The middle child of six, my father thought this was the most incredible,wonderful thing that had ever happened to him—like something out of a fairy tale(Knox, p. 63).
In this story, Knox uses specific information to clarify and create pictures with her words. For example, shows the readers how happy a little boy is to go to the circus with his mom by the words used to explain his emotions and family background. From here,the readers will think little boy will have a good time at the circus, but the story takes a turn in a strange way. Knox describes the change of events by writing, “They got in the car, but instead of driving him to the circus, his mother pulled up in front of the hospital and told him to go inside and ask for Dr. So-and- so. After that, they’d go to the circus.” She uses sensory detail to help the readers visualize the story and how the boy’s mother deceives him by covering the truth. In reality, there is no circus; the mother uses descriptive words about going to the circus to appeal to the little boy and get him out of the house to actually go to the doctor to get his tonsils removed. Knox provides vivid information to let the readers form their own judgements about the situation. For me, I think the mother loves her son, but she should not lie to him to see the doctor.
Overall, this story is about the challenges between a mother and her son. The mother makes a promise to her son that they will go to the circus. Even though she used this temptation to bring her son to the doctor, she should keep her promise and take him to the circus someday as are ward for going to the doctor. In general, mothers care for their children and want what is best of them. For this reason, I love to write about my mother.She gives me life and reminds me of fantastic memories of my childhood. From my bottom heart I want to say, “Mother I love you!”
Jennifer L. Knox
