I have found Voyage of the Sable Venus to be an interesting read so far. I think that it is one of the most unique set of poems because they take inspiration from tangible things, such as statues and photographs. I think that this also contributes Robin Lewis' work as very dependent on imagery, leaving the reader to picture the scenario that the thing could be depicting.
While I found the first section to be linear in that its poems were linear and "prosy", I had much difficulty with the second section, even though I understand the work was image-centered. I get the idea that Lewis is trying something totally off-beaten, and puts much of the work on the reader to picture the things in our heads. My first inclination is to say that much of it was distracting, because many of the pieces in the "catalogs" were not linear, written in an abstract way. Perhaps there is a reason for that, but I felt that this took away from my getting what the poem, or the whole package, was about. To be honest, I found myself struggling through this part, and only got the gist in the last few pieces.
I would be intrigued if you guys also found the second section difficult to grasp, or if you see a rhyme or reason behind such experimental poetry. It is definitely unique, but it begs the question whether or not the reader should be able to get the main message, or if it was meant to be left up to interpretation. If anything, this latter conclusion would encourage more discussion on what it actually means.
Lewis's work is definitely unique compared to our readings thus far. Section 2 was a bit challenging because there were so many different structured poems that I struggled to find the meaning to. The meaning of the whole section to me still remains unclear, but a common theme I see is Lewis putting herself into many positions of different African Americans that had faced oppression. She used words like negro and colored because that is what segregated African Americans were referred to as. Lewis's titles help give her the ability to set up free flowing and unique poems, which perhaps contributes to the various, oddly structure of some poems.
ReplyDeleteAs with much we have read this semester, there are many layers to the poems inside the books we have read, but we can usually find the overrlying theme in each. I agree that the second section was particularly hard to grasp, but enjoyed the challenge of something new and experimental. I do, on the other hand, like a more concrete poem where i know what is being said and don't need google to figure out each line. But a challenge here and there is nice, especially when I'm up for it.
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