Thursday, September 17, 2009

The Ambiguity of the Road?

Due to the ambiguous nature of the poem, as Noah stated, it is very difficult to pinpoint a single verse that sums up the point of the poem and the poems' 'shortness' only compounds this. If we compare this piece to the previous poem Women In Cars the omission of detail becomes overt. I believe that this allows the reader to formulate his own image of the context of the poem and by affect allowing him to place his own definition on the poem itself. The road acts in much the same way. It is difficult to imagine other peoples road trips because our own experiences influence that mental picture, when details are omitted that image becomes all the more ours. So maybe the ambiguity of the poem is simply a commentary on the fact that road trips, the road itself and our experiences while on the road are just that - our experiences.

I feel that there is much at work in this poem. The punctuation is such that the author keeps definite control over the flow of the readers thoughts and I see control as an overarching theme of all the readings. There is also the omission of the vowels in the words "said" and "your", I don't know their purpose though. Lastly, the ending line of the poem "look out where your going" is reminiscent of the scene in Women In Cars where the woman throws off her fake ponytail, effectively changing the males attention from the road to herself. Any thoughts?

1 comment:

  1. I agree with confusion Paul felt about why Creeley decided to take the vowels out of the two words, "said" and your". I think that this is the point in the road trip where you have been driving for 8 hours straight and it is difficult not to lose your mind a little bit. The radio in the car has probably been turned off for the fact that they have heard every song on the radios playlist 10 times and every time after that feels like chinese water torture. The conversation that occurs after this point in a road trip cannot be normal. Paul also said our own experiences influence how we perceive other peoples road trips, and in this poem every time I try and find a deeper meaning, my own experience pops up of me having a conversation a lot like this because I am borderline delirious from so much driving. Has anyone ever been at this point in a road trip?

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