Poem Workshop 1: “Speechless”
ἐπὶ πολὺ πρόσωπον The first step in composing a blackout poem is finding the right page to work with. Many won’t stand out to you, and the few that do might seem impossible to mold into something new. Pay close attention to pages where more than one voice is being used, as these might be full of potential. For example, to compose “Speechless,” I used page 46 of the Loeb Classical Library’s edition of Callirhoe:
The paragraphs labelled 5, 7, and 8 are in the normal voice of the narrator, but the indented lines in the center of the page are lines quoted from the Iliad so as to capture the feelings of one of the characters. Here, Chariton and Homer are in dialogue; if I could work with this page, I’d be adding my own voice to this conversation.
In context, Chaereas has married the beautiful Callirhoe suddenly out of true love (that is to say without competing for the many suitors seeking Callirhoe’s hand). One of the jealous suitors here convinces Chaereas that his new bride is being promiscuous. Then, the text invokes the three lines that describe Achilles’ state of mind when he hears of his beloved Patroclus’ death. Chaereas then asks the suitor to show him proof of the affair, and the suitor tells him to pretend to leave after dark, and he’ll see a man sneak into the house. In truth, Callirhoe has done nothing of the sort, and this claim is all a clever ruse by the snubbed suitors.
The second step is to find words and phrases that stick out to you on the page that you know you have to include in your poem. These words can be intense and dramatic or simple and concise, or interesting to you in some other way. I had two of these “anchor” words for this text. The first was ἀχανής (on the same line as the 7). It literally means “not-gaping” with reference to the mouth. When used of a person, it means that the person is silent, their mouth stunned shut. In English, we do not have a similar metaphor for expressing this feeling. I felt there was a lot of potential in the word because of how unusual it is to me and since it could have meta-textual implications for how I construct dialogue (or the lack of it) in the poem.
The second anchor was προσποιῆσαι. This is an imperative verb meaning “Pretend!” This word stood out to me because deceit is so important to the story. The suitor is pretending that Callirhoe is sleeping with another man. He tells Chaereas that Callirhoe is pretending to be faithful. The suitor tells Chaereas to pretend to leave so he can see “what’s really going on” (a pretend affair). In the passage, the protagonist uses deceit to try to get at the truth but instead he encounters only more deceit. I wondered if I could incorporate this conundrum into my poem using the word, and whether or not in it pretending would still lead into further confusion or into reality.
Many blackout poems ironically echo their source material (e.g. a poem celebrating gay sexuality made from an eviction letter from homophobic parents). I added an idea to these anchor words: that this poem would be a successful love story, unlike the tragedy that happens here at the start of the novel. From there, I picked out enough words and phrases to build my own little love story, and this is what I got:
οὐχ ὑπομένω σιωπᾶν φύσει τὸ δ᾿ ἀμφοτέρῃσι χερσὶν ἑλὼν χαρίεν πρόσωπον ἐπὶ πολὺ ἀχανὴς· αἰτῶ σοῦ αὐτόπτης γενέσθαι. “προσποίησαι” φησὶν “ἀπιέναι βαθείας ἑσπέρας.”
after holding in both my hands
for a long time I was speechless.
I ask to see you with my own eyes. [1]
“To leave when it’s late at night.”
[1] αἰτῶ σοῦ αὐτόπτης γενέσθαι more literally means “I ask to be an eyewitness of you.” The word αὐτόπτης etymologically describes an eyewitness as someone “who sees something with their own eyes.”
[2] The verb is singular with an ambiguous gender.
