Poem #2: I am Serena Joy
Travis: Travis had a total of four common remarks and one insight. What I appreciated most from Travis’s annotations was how he noticed the volta in my poem. The last two lines go from “the lamenting” (or whining as Travis noticed) to question and finally to self realization of how Serena is “the significant one to blame now”.
Saim: Saim had a total of three common remarks, two insights, and two questions. Saim hit the nail on the head with my search for hierarchy within women when he stated “Women control women. But all are limited.” I almost didn’t need to write more poems after that but that’s why I thought it was important to explore what other people interpreted from my poems. Atwood is making a huge feminist criticism in her novel by exploring how women are all working to work against each other rather than trying to take down the main power source: the men.
Ben: Ben had a total of four common remarks and three insights. Ben unlike the other guys noticed a subtle part of my poem that I wanted noticed which was my use of the word “performing” instead of intercourse to describe the Ceremony. I think there is a lot still to be said about the Ceremony and what it really means and Ben was right to notice and explore the subject especially after reading “Ceremony” by Silko.
Tristan: Tristan had a total of three common remarks, one insight, and one question. Something interesting about Tristan’s annotations was his comment on line 15, “To protect what is so sacred, to protect what is so pure”. When I wrote the poem, I intended the “what” in the line to be religion but Tristan interpreted it as “the future; children” which I thought was unique.