₦airaland Forum

cisse7575:
use of alliteration, assonance,
symbolism, internal rhyme and repetition. This
obsessive compulsive’s delight is written with the
sharp clean structured precision of a surgeon.


At first glance “Mushrooms” has all the trademarks
of the perfect terrorist broadcast al-Qa’iada
would aspire to have read out by Osama Bin-
Laden to cast fear in the hearts of their enemies,
with it’s quietly menacing slow yet rhythmic flow.
(Although one feels that if the Taliban had used a
similar message, I would be well on my way to
studying the Koran!) Like many poems it can be
interpreted in countless different ways; with
‘Mushrooms, ’ Plath has merged several ideas
(the Cold War, the atom bomb, depression to
name but a few) into a single theme.

cisse7575:
A useful poem to discuss, which shows the possibilities of this technique, is Sylvia Plath's 'Mushrooms’, which interestingly was itself written as an exercise. Now let's study the poem and see how Plath manages to create a voice for the mushrooms that sounds convincing, and also what else the poem might be about.

cisse7575:
Consider whether your object has all the senses or whether it is deaf or blind and what kind of 'character' your object has, for instance if it is aggressive, friendly or lonely. the surreal of this exercise is also useful in creating 'anew the universe'.

cisse7575:
Quickly I moved into the class, with my Indian attire, lots of books folded with my left hand to my left side.

'Good evening class!'

we will commence from where we stopped last week.
USING OBJECTS IN POETRY