Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Fork

When I first read the poem, I did not know what to make of it at first. I thought it was a wild imagining of a fork and nothing more. However, as I reread the poem, I started to realize Simic was taking the mundane and making it grotesquely surreal. A simple, boring fork all of a sudden becomes something "right out of hell" that is worn around a "cannibal's neck" and is the foot of a "large, bald, beakless, and blind" bird. Simic forces the reader to rethink what a fork is and in the process teaches one to really look at things for what they are. In this case, a simple fork, whose existence we take for granted, is transformed into the surreal object it really is when one stops to think of it. The fork becomes foreign and alien to us as we begin to realize that we do not understand everything around us, including objects such as forks. In this way, Simic forces the reader to rethink the world around them as being surreal and alienating.

3 comments:

  1. I completely agree with your analysis. As I first read "Fork", I thought that Simic was simply commenting on the absurdity of our everyday objects. However, after reading your analysis, it does force the reader to think outside the fork, and into our daily lives. Good analysis!
    -Alex

    ReplyDelete
  2. I like that approach to life, we really do take for granted how unnatural the environment we surround ourselves with is. For example, I think when people think of the ground they think of the flooring, the tile beneath, them or the pavement, no one thinks of earth and soil. I think that's a pretty basic example, extrapolate that thought to encompass the computer you're using to access this blog, it is a series of switches and magnetic recording devices, these things are incredibly complicated and often seem like magic upon first glance. I often find myself in awe of how little I know about the things I use. If a fork can be seen as a hellish avian appendage is my monitor an oracle?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I liked this piece as well as your analysis of it. Its a really cool juxtaposition when a seemingly simple object can be twisted and viewed to represent such a dark and powerful image.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.