A Close (and personal?) Reading

Close read a poem/poems: Is O’Hara a personal poet? Does he create intimacy with the reader? Respond to the self who writes the poems.

O’Hara strikes me as a much more personal writer than others whom we have studied this semester. He creates a closeness with his reader (though it might be a false closeness) through his heavy use of anecdotes and references (especially to New York City and literary figures). I don’t know who the “I” in O’Hara’s poems represents. However, his style feels so personal that I read the “I” as O’Hara himself. Either he is a master at creating lives for his characters, forcing his poems full of intimate details that depict their thoughts and their daily routines, or he is putting putting big pieces of himself in his poems.

In his manifesto, O’Hara wrote that Personism “does not have to do with personality or intimacy” at all, “far from it!” He goes on to describe how the movement was born out of a poem he wrote for “a blonde” who he loved. A poem that is written to stand or speak between the author and another person will certainly tend toward intimacy, even if that is not it’s point. It is almost as if O’Hara uses poetry to get out his emotions or speak with feeling that regular language and conversations cannot capture. The reader feels that and becomes wrapped up in the tensions of a very real relationship (which I personally find more captivating than the passion or drama of pure fiction).

O’Hara’s poem “Meditation” feels particularly intimate. The questions O’Hara poses, his natural language (ex: “Uh huh.” in the third stanza), and his stream of consciousness style depicting detail make me feel like I am sitting down to coffee with him, listening to him ramble on about his love life. Even the way O’Hara incorporates sexuality/queerness in the poem–without lead-up or explanation, and with a touch of humor–implies a familiarity.

“Now there is only one man I love to kiss when he is unshaven. Heterosexuality! you are inexorably approaching. (How discourage her?)”

What a cutting line!

My ultimate takeaway is that, if O’Hara isn’t talking about himself in his poems, he has successfully created an intimate connection between me as a reader and a brilliant fictional “I” who shares quite a few traits with O’Hara himself.

Sarah

Posted: October 31, 2017

Category: Interventions

A Close (and personal?) Reading

Leave a Reply Cancel reply