Rorschach by Jeanne Marie Beaumont, page 936A Rorschach is one of those ink-blot test images that has all this random ink and then your asked what does it look like to you, and many people's interpretations are diferent. The test is not about what the image acually is, more like interpritation and the way the mind works in seeing different images.
The poem, by Jeanne Marie, works in similar ways by the use of her language. A formulaic poem, she states facts- about items that she sees, and adds her own interpretation of the images (just like a Rorschach). I am not quite sure what the entire poem's meaning is, but her languages gives it a bitter tone. The phrases that Jeanne Marie put in italics are her own thoughts- "Too simple", "Go on.","Next.", "Tell me again"makes her seem jaded and uncaring about her setting, where the last line implies is an "island". The constraints of hte island probably make her bitter.
After Reading Classmates Comments:
My orriginal post, above, provided the class wiht a limited understanding on my part becasue Idid not understtand the poem fully, and learned alot from my classmates comments. I found it interesting that an interpretation is the words in italics represent what the pshychiatrist is telling the woman about her interpretations, as that idea never crossed my mind upon reading the poem.
Background:
Upon reasearching Jeanne Marie, i came accross the same old stuff: Where she was born (Philidelphia), where she went to college (Coulumbia), and how her literary works were in dozens of anthologies. This is interesting, yet not what I am looking for. The ususal does not tell us about her phsyce of why she wrote what she did, which would be far more interesting.
10 comments:
When I first read this poem, I didn't know what a rorschach was, so I didn't get it at all. But upon finding out what it meant, the whole poem made so much more sense.
I definitely agree that the speaker has a bitter tone, but I took the italicized phrases as comments inserted by another person, who I assumed was her psychiatrist. The psychiatrist is urging her to produce satisfactory responses to the rorschaches so he or she can understand the speaker's feelings or issues, and that is why the speaker is bitter and exhasperated.
Cool choice, I think the fact that she is bitter is maybe a comment on the fact that it doesn't matter what you think, everyone is going to have a different interpretation. So why bother? "Who cares" is what she's asking, the way she portrays the psychiatrist is in a negative way. He's kind of a jerk saying her answers are "two simple." So it's kind of her way of sticking it to the man so to speak.
I think this poem follows a cynical progression in the examples that it uses. It starts with images of "snow patches" and "childhood bedroom(s)", both of which may be symbolic for innocence. However Beaumont then references a "haunted" dress, "cigarettes", and "graffiti", all of which represent evil or misdemeanors. Finally, the poem ends on a note of "death" and even references "casket". So is the psychiatrist really trying to help her?
The speaker uses language to show her bitter tone like everyone before me has already said. I think that a rorschach gives people the ability to interpret what they see based on their past. I think the speaker is digging deep within her past to give these rorschach responses. She seems to have this connection with the "cabinets" and "flute". To us, they seem like mundane things, but to her they have a deeper meaning. I think this is why it is called rorscach and it is clearly seen in the language of the poem. I may be completely wrong though.
The conversation between psychiatrist and patient seems to span through an entire life. At the end, however, it goes back to birth when the patient says that an inkblot looks like "A map of the island/ where I asked to be born". By the end of the poem it seems as if all the troubles throughout life were because nothing worked out the way the patient wanted it to be, not even birth/ life itself.
The short remarks by the psychiatrist seem to emphasize the bitter feelings and impatient attitude about life.
I think this poem is meant to take a cynical look at how one human being defines another's life. The use of the rorschach is to show the diversity within life and the many angles from which one can exist. Basically, it makes the speaker of this poem everyone as opposed to one specific patient. The psychiatrist commenting is used to show humanities cold calculating process of quantizing life. The author shows that this process is cold through her use of language. She uses very cynical responses to her psychiatrists words and very emotional language while siphoning through her memory. This poem is a great commentary on human nature and the process by which we examine life.
What specific word choices point to this tone? How does the syntax relate to the function of language in the poem?
The syntax contributes to the feeling of the speaker. It is split up into mulitple stanzas, each representing a separate thought or, in this case, ink blot. However, our feeling of disconnect parallels with the speaker's. There is no connection between the thoughts yet there is a common idea behind them all; the drawings. Also, the inclusion of the italicized words from the second speaker results in a feeling of annoyance. As I read I felt like those short phrases were interrupting a thought. I think the author placed them there to give us the feeling of annoyance that the speaker is feeling when interrupted. The speaker simply wants to be left alone with her thoughts but instead has someone pushing her along and interrupting her train of thought.
I also agree that the tone is bitter and the author is annoyed by the frequent interruptions of the psychiatrist. The significance of the last stanza "a map of the island where I asked to be born" highlights Beaumont's sense of regret. She submits to bad aspects of her life and desperately longs to be able to take control of her destiny. The fact that she is caught up over an event which she has no control over voices her negative attitude. This bad beginning sheds light on the mental problems she will have later on in life, which is why she has a psychiatrist. The author is trying to portray to not sweat the small stuff.
The reader can clearly see that the narrator sees the dark side of things rather than a more optimistic view. In all of her Rorschach perceptions, she makes no happy connection between the images and her perception, everything ahs to do with death, or something unfortunate. The language in this poem is used to express this woman as one that is bitter, pessimistic, and does not want help. In the last line she states “…an island where I asked to be born”. This ending statement wraps up her attitude; she doesn’t want to associate with others and is just a pessimistic and bitter person.
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