08-29-2016, 01:27 PM
Thanks for the feedback, Achebe!
i) I'm starting to reconsider the first line refrain. With the shift in the last stanza and with the aura of discrete recollections the piece is supposed to have, it feels important, but then again maybe not. I'll have to keep experimenting. ii) I think the rest of the stanza informs the full meaning of that image: somehow, the woman, either as his mother or his lover, represents love, a love that, in later lines, he sacrifices. iii) Which leads to the whole "bedroom smells of bacon" thing: besides being a slight reference to the cause of death, it also shows how said sacrifice fully came to be.
The goal of the poem isn't actually to show a coming out story -- as I mentioned earlier, it's supposed to be somewhat ambiguous when it comes to that aspect of the speaker. I suppose it's more involved with the speaker simply coming to terms with his sexuality with regards to how it's treated or perceived, whatever said sexuality should be.
Again, thanks!
i) I'm starting to reconsider the first line refrain. With the shift in the last stanza and with the aura of discrete recollections the piece is supposed to have, it feels important, but then again maybe not. I'll have to keep experimenting. ii) I think the rest of the stanza informs the full meaning of that image: somehow, the woman, either as his mother or his lover, represents love, a love that, in later lines, he sacrifices. iii) Which leads to the whole "bedroom smells of bacon" thing: besides being a slight reference to the cause of death, it also shows how said sacrifice fully came to be.
The goal of the poem isn't actually to show a coming out story -- as I mentioned earlier, it's supposed to be somewhat ambiguous when it comes to that aspect of the speaker. I suppose it's more involved with the speaker simply coming to terms with his sexuality with regards to how it's treated or perceived, whatever said sexuality should be.
Again, thanks!