Guest poem submitted by David Wright, as part of our ongoing theme, hate rhymes:
(Poem #878) Frustration If I had a shiny gun, I could have a world of fun Speeding bullets through the brains Of the folk who give me pains; Or had I some poison gas, I could make the moments pass Bumping off a number of People whom I do not love. But I have no lethal weapon- Thus does Fate our pleasure step on! So they still are quick and well Who should be, by rights, in hell. |
This poem from Dorothy Parker is exactly the sort of thing we worry about the kids reading. My open question is, what do we get from a poem like this, what kind of pleasure does it give us? I'm not suggesting any answers. I'm just curious to how we respond to such poems. The first time I read these things I'm impressed with the vigor and force of the poet's wrath, and a bit bemusedly shocked, and vicariously pleased. The second and third readings are somewhat more disturbing... David. [Minstrels Links] Dorothy Parker: Poem #150, Resume Poem #192, Comment Poem #486, Epitaph for a Darling Lady Poem #560, Chant for Dark Hours Poem #638, Song of Perfect Propriety Poem #697, A Well Worn Story Poem #878, Frustration Hate Rhymes: Poem #185, A Glass of Beer -- David O'Bruadair Poem #266, The Litany for Doneraile -- Patrick O'Kelly Poem #876, I Wish My Tongue were a Quiver -- Louis McKay Poem #877, I Do Not Love Thee, Dr Fell -- Tom Brown Poem #635, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister -- Robert Browning
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12 comments: ( or Leave a comment )
David asks what kind of pleasure we derive from poems about hate, like this
one. I think they put a voice and substance to that little ugly voice we
hear in our heads and hearts when we encounter people we really, really
don¹t like. Simply put, she unashamedly trumpets what we¹re all afraid to
say out loud, or even think to ourselves. Did I mention the word
Shadenfreude??
Kerri
I think the poem is just humorous, personally I would never take it
seriously enough to go around killing the people who annoy us to no end,
and just reading something like that really does express our inner
thoughts, as Kerri said. I think in that way, it's similar to her other
poems, #150 Resume and #1090 Unfortunate Coincidence. I'm a newly
converted fan of hers now!
I would say that I tried not to take the poem seriously, tried to look at
it as if a small little girl is saying it... but reading it again, it is
infact quite violent... even though its funny and nice, think she's gone
overboard, which she has all the rights to do anyways. So what is it that
I am saying. Nothing.
Amit Batra
oh lord. Dorothy Parker was probably the most talented and notable woman of the 20th century. Certainly she was a true talent, a celebrity with both grace, wit, and a loose toungue quick to strike out at anything that could ail her.She had the unique talent of making you both sympathize with and dislike her at the same time. If this poem is being read by your youngsters, then I eagerly applaud their progressive reading abilities. But I shall not worry too much. A child with enough diminished intellectual capacity to become violent by reading something would not be reading a poem by Ms. Parker anyway. That was a velied insult at the way of thinking the first post set the tone with. I believe the only way to raise a socially conscious and aware child is to trust them with their own minds. And reading Dorothy Parker and understanding her, before college is something I would be proud of in my daughter.
When I was a kid we used to sing
"Mine eyes have seen the glory
Of the burning of the school!
We have tortured ev'ry teacher
We have broken ev'ry rule!"
...but we really didn't burn down the school or torture any teachers.
There may be a point at which it becomes alarming if a child will
only read or write about murder and arson, but if all the child is
doing is getting a little entertainment then I think we should be
OK with it.
BTW my own son got in trouble with a nun in 3rd grade for singing
the above-mentioned song, which I taught him. He's quite a well-
behaved young man, really!
Brian J. O'Malley, Sr.
dave who?? why do all dave have to pretend?
I may be a sociopath so you may not be interested in my opinion but I will share it nonetheless. This poem takes away some of the isolation that society generates toward anyone who doesn't paste on a fake smile and flit around pretending that everything is wonderful. It creates a connection to know that someone else feels the same frustrations and anger that you do and is capable of expressing it, even if she was mentally imbalanced. It also gives you a bit of hope that maybe not everyone is a mindless twit too busy daydreaming to see what is in front of their eyes.
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i like this poem very much thank you
it is simply a vent for the author.
"Speeding bullets through the brains
Of the folk who give me pains;"
I doubt that you or someone you love has never said, out of frustration, "I want to kill that guy/person!" (isnt it strange that the poem is called frustration, and just showed how the title relates with this interpretation as well?)
Also, i know nothing of Dorothy Parker, but she could be a schizophrenic or bipolar or have some other terrible mental disorder. Many famous people write poetry/music based off of their problems or feelings involving them. Example: Green Day's "Basket Case"
Moral of the story: Don't judge it by its first through last reads until you know the full story of the author's life AND got the authors honest interpretation where they explicitly explain each point of each line and stanza. We don't need any more English professors trying to pick at needless points in literature anymore, so don't encourage them to come up with more "B.S." interpretations of poetry and prose.
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