The Black Art: a critique

Poetry like any other form of creative work is there to express the author’s thoughts, opinions and feelings to their audience. There are vast strategies that can be applied to help readers “make sense of it”. Which method you use relies heavily on the poem you are reading. Different poems call on different aspects of poetry, ways of reading, and the relationships between feelings, images and meaning. It is the purpose of this essay is to discuss elements of analysis that are designed to help readers identify the way poetry makes it’s meaning. Looking at the poem “The Black Art”, we will discuss how the piece achieves it’s effects for the audience.

To begin reading a poem, I believe that it is imperative to identify major indicators of meaning, this includes aspects of setting and topic, as well as the voice of the person dominating or directing your reading. This can be achieved by looking for a clue as to the identity of the narrator, is it coming from a feminine or masculine point of view? “The Black Art” comes from a feminine point of view, the narrator is clearly female. The first stanza refers to women, “a woman who writes feels too much,” this stanza is ended with the key line “Dear love, I am that girl”. The u

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Women are commonly referred to, as emotional beings while men are rational.

In stanza two the author switches from talking about herself to talking about the male subject, “Dear Love, you are that man”.

In the first stanza, I believe the author is trying to suggest that although women have important roles as mothers, and caregivers (children & vegetables), it is only a small part of our identity as a person. In stanza one the word “cycle” perhaps refers to the female menstrual cycle and to the feminine point of view, while the word “erection” pertaining to a mans genitals, highlights the switch to talking about the masculine perspective.

. Another example of the satirical nature of the poem is in the line “she thinks she can warn the stars.

The words used in a poem and their literal meanings are not the only way to decipher what the poem is about. The author established a firm identification with the female audience. We are able to make a clear distinction between the topics of the two stanzas by paying attention to some key terms of the poem. As a female reader the author has established a common ground with the opening line. The author has used the word ‘spy” as a rhetorical figure, using word play to produce an unanticipated effect without actually changing the meaning of the word used. ” The reference to the stars is the author making fun at the sheer possibility of women being ambitious (reaching for new height). For myself, it is clear from the line “A writer is essentially a crook.

Approximate Word count = 954
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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