Sestinas

I had an easier time with this poem. I wrote on the subject of mental illness. I seem to like that topic so very much. I had fun writing this one and I seem to be adjusting to showing the reader the suffering a bit. To pick out three images for this one proved to be next to impossible. But, I managed to do it in the end. The first image goes like this, “If only there could be a honey-dripping angel/In this black-clouded nightmare/Instead of this red clad demon.” (Lines 10-12) I really took a stab at trying to show and not tell the images in these lines. They are a little weak, but they turned out to be pretty good.

The next good lines go like this, “Cold granite blood-hungry Satan-like demon/Creatures forever haunt the mental/Everyday on a blood soaked battlefield-like backdrop of a nightmare/ This is what lies waiting for Madison.” (Lines 14-16) The reader can actually see the metaphor for struggling with mental illness on the battlefield-like nightmare. Madison has to face the same thing the sick have to face every day. I just love the lines in that section the best. The final set is these next few lines here, “But where can she run?/The icy white walls of the hospital house a hungry demon/No where in sight is a single helping angel/They always abandon the mental/The mental just like Madison/Left in a dirty blood drowning nightmare.” (Lines 19-24)the best image in these lines are the walls and the demon. I just had fun with one right there. Not as great as the second set of lines, but I still like it.

I went along with Ezra Pound on this with both the intellectual and emotional aspect of imagery. On the intellectual scale, I made everyone think about the battle of mental illness and the hope of winning that comes with it. On the emotional, I feel sorry for Madison and hope that she will get better and win out in the end.

This is my favorite poem by far is this class.