Response to a Poem

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To be perfectly honest, I’ve never liked poetry much. I find it difficult to write about, and that probably has a lot to do with it. I am aware that I’ll have to be writing about poetry in this class, so I will give it my best shot. One poet I randomly discovered in high school and liked was Rod McKuen. Specifically his book Caught in the Quiet. I highly recommend it. But that’s beside the point. The point is that I don’t like poetry too well and also have trouble understanding it. For that reason, I chose the poem Field of Skulls, by Mary Karr, as I understood and liked it the best. I can relate to this poem, maybe not with as dark of imagery, but still. A big part of this poem is that we have control over our thoughts, and that I have experienced, or experienced battling.

There is the theme of monstrosity in Field of Skulls. There is also the theme of paranoia, I believe. I think that paranoia is the monster, taking the imagined form of skulls in the character’s mind. The way the poem is written, we’re the character, “For you: a field of skulls, angled jaws/ and eye-sockets, a zillion scooped out crania” (Karr, lines 10-11). Writing like this speaks to the reader directly and allows them to better relate. Though it is never stated, this poem is about overcoming fear and paranoia. The beginning of the poem presents the setting, one in which common man could find himself paranoid. The middle of the poem serves to feed the paranoia with lines like “plus minor baby-eaters/ unidentified, probably in your very midst” (Karr, lines 16-17). Finally, the end of the poem fights back with logic. “If the skulls are there-/ let’s say they do press toward you/ against night’s scrim- could they not stare/ with slack jawed envy at the fine flesh/ that covers your skull, the numbered hair,/ at the force your hands hold?” (Karr, lines 28-33). The logic here is that even if your fears are real, if these skulls were to “press toward you”, what could they do, really? Your human flesh holds so much more power than their unadorned bones. All these skulls can do is stare envious of your power.

Works Cited

Karr, Mary.  “Field of Skulls.” Poetryfoundation.org. Poetry Foundation, 2011. Web. 11 September 2011.

THIS is quite cool. You can read Caught in the Quiet in its totality here.
THIS helped me to understand paranoia as a theme.