EATING POETRY

MARK STRAND
 POSSIBLE ESSAY QUESTION:

Throughout ‘Eating Poetry’ Strand engages

with themes of happiness and transformation.
The surreal landscape that he creates allows
him to depict the effects of happiness on
someone who is completely consumed by
their passion. Critically discuss how Strand
uses diction, imagery and tone to convey
these main themes.

EXAM QUESTION:
 OPENING STATEMENT
Eating Poetry, by Mark Strand, tells
a common story of how one
individual tries to break away from
society’s prescriptive system of
normative behaviour, but is always
opposed and sometimes even
screamed at. The meaning of the
poem is conveyed primarily
through literary devices like
diction, imagery and tone, aided
by the type of characterization
that is used to express the
opposing sides.

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 IDEAS:
Diction, imagery and
tone are used to
express a sense of
struggle within the
poem.
e.g.

Conflicting diction is apparent with words like “happiness, dim,

burn, weep, screams, romp, and joy”. Consistently Strand uses
contrasting diction, the main character being positive; the
librarian, negative. These words show that the main character
in the poem and the librarian are having conflicting values.

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The speaker, the poetry eater, gives himself over to the things he loves,
reading and writing poetry. He is transformed into a “new man,” a dog
who licks the librarian’s hand. His experience of the world is so
different from hers, the juxtaposition so strong, that Strand depicts it
through a physical transformation into another species.

The assumption would be

that the librarian would also
enjoy poetry in the same
way, however she seems to
be bored and finds her life
dull.
 The title metaphorically refers to the intense pleasure
one gets when reading poetry. The universal act of
“eating” and “the pleasure” people get from a simple
daily action, is compared to the same pleasure that
the speaker gets when eating (intensively reading)
poems. Words like “Ink runs from the corners of my
mouth/There is no happiness like mine” support the
ideas of devouring the poems in a gluttonous way.
When the poems are gone, his mood changes to one
of “sadness and even the “dim light” supports the
gloomy atmosphere.

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 The librarian (expected to be a
bookworm?) is described in
juxtaposition with the speaker. She
seems to be bored with what she does
and she finds the speaker’s obsession
with poetry foreign. The metaphorical
symbolism is that the librarian
represents those people who witness
someone else being passionate and
fulfilled about what they read and
study, but she does not understand it
even though she is surrounded by the
same things they love. It seems that
her job is just a job, and not her
passion. She has no comprehension
why they are so excited about
“poetry”.
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 • A tonal shift appears in line 7.
The speaker’s mood changes
to sadness and his sadness is
mirrored in the librarian’s
shock and sadness when she
witnesses the destruction he
has caused.
• The speaker comments on
the “dogs in the basement”
coming-up with the stairs and
his sadness transforms him
into one of them.

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 It seems the dogs are also hungry to
eat more poems and the idea is
created that they might have been
the same as the speaker. Because they
have consumed too many poems,
they have been transformed. The tone
shifts from sadness into evolving chaos
and the images off “rolling eyeballs
and blond legs that burn like brush”
become too much for the librarian.

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 The speaker can't see the canines yet, only hear them, but
the reader has the advantage of the imagination and can
visualize them running upstairs.
What do they look like? Are they mad dogs, with odd
eyeballs? Yes, it appears so, for not only do they convey a
hint of horror, but their legs are also on fire, a motif that
contrasts heavily with the dim light.

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 The librarian regresses into throwing a toddler
tantrum, she loses control. Her quiet, unchallenged
world has fallen apart. She ‘stamps her feet and
weeps’. She does not understand what has
happened to the speaker. The speaker behaves
like a dog and ‘licks’ her hand. She screams and
appalled by his behaviour. The speaker “snarls and
barks” at her. The poet has used repetition
(anaphora) to emphasise his own phases of
different primal feelings ‘I am, I snarl, I romp’ and
to show the effect poetry has on him. He
internalised the poems and made it a part of
himself. The librarian treats poetry almost like a
ritual, a sacrament. Poetry has never affected her
in the way it does to the speaker and it frightens
her.
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 • Strand makes the statement in this
poem that people have different
In conclusion: experiences, and they are influenced in
different ways.

• The one may become almost

animalistically passionate about it while
others may treat it more like knowledge
without being influenced personally by
it.

• It does not mean that one is lesser or

invalid. The surrealistic imagery of
‘rolling eyeballs, a man, eating poetry
with ink running down his mouth’ create
a horror image of uncontrolled passion.
From a literal perspective, poetry should
be appreciated and not destroyed.
From a figurative perspective, it will not
become a part of you unless you make
it a part of you.

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The contrasts in this poem are many
but none so crucial as in the last
stanza. The speaker, eater of
poetry, dog-man, is now a new
man. He has lost his old self and
become a passionate, well fed,
energetic romper, happy to
celebrate a love of poetry.
What happens to the librarian
meanwhile? The reader is left to
imagine, perhaps a good thing.

[Link]
oWas
Watch the analysis on YouTube as well.

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