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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
reflective
fast-paced
I'm glad I decided to give this a go. I didn't think about this at the time I put it on my tbr but it did have a lot going against it for me – in that I'm not a huge fanatic of love poems or poetry that is referential to contemporary culture, especially internet culture (which it didn't really do that often but was still present).
With that being said, this grew on me a lot despite these preferences. A lot of poetry to do with love I find doesn't describe it in the way that I experience it – and while I didn't entirely relate to it here, it was written in such a way that this wasn't a hindrence. It was evocative without straying into hyperbole and so felt more genuine.
The cultural references weren't entirely to my tastes all of the time but they did feel purposeful.
I think the best part of this collection was the attention paid to structure. Not just that the majority of the poems were written in couplets (get it) but also the decisions made on where to start a new line and the way all the poems fit together. A lot to dig into in analysis but still easy to get into on a first read.
With that being said, this grew on me a lot despite these preferences. A lot of poetry to do with love I find doesn't describe it in the way that I experience it – and while I didn't entirely relate to it here, it was written in such a way that this wasn't a hindrence. It was evocative without straying into hyperbole and so felt more genuine.
The cultural references weren't entirely to my tastes all of the time but they did feel purposeful.
I think the best part of this collection was the attention paid to structure. Not just that the majority of the poems were written in couplets (get it) but also the decisions made on where to start a new line and the way all the poems fit together. A lot to dig into in analysis but still easy to get into on a first read.
Prosey, poetic, likely autobiographic — I appreciate that the title Couplets refers both to the parts written in couplets and the idea of coupling in general. The non-couplet parts are written in second person and enjoyed this meta-examination of that approach:
Occasionally, it occurred to you that it might be better to write the account in the second person: truer to the spirit of that time. You no longer felt that experiences belonged to people in the first place; they were always the outcome of forces beyond the strictly personal, and only became art at the moment they were made available, if in an altered form, to someone new. The trouble was that you were also embodied, which meant that you could never quite transcend yourself, or evacuate the frame, or shirk the myth of the grammatical singular. Still, there were mirrors, and there were books. You took great comfort, in those days, in writing that seemed to relate to its author as both the object and the subject of the work—an idea that had acquired a certain cachet in recent years despite its being approximately as old as literature itself.
Occasionally, it occurred to you that it might be better to write the account in the second person: truer to the spirit of that time. You no longer felt that experiences belonged to people in the first place; they were always the outcome of forces beyond the strictly personal, and only became art at the moment they were made available, if in an altered form, to someone new. The trouble was that you were also embodied, which meant that you could never quite transcend yourself, or evacuate the frame, or shirk the myth of the grammatical singular. Still, there were mirrors, and there were books. You took great comfort, in those days, in writing that seemed to relate to its author as both the object and the subject of the work—an idea that had acquired a certain cachet in recent years despite its being approximately as old as literature itself.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A love story told through poetry - had some lines that left my jaw on the floor!! 😲
it wasn't a bad book in terms of writing per se - maybe just a bit cheesy. mostly it just wasn't for me and i really don't think i like most english poetry
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Like Sally Rooney but more lyricism and less communism.
“So I became after all
not him exactly but a kind of conduit between them: a conversation they
conducted
with my mouth. And when I was not
unbelievably
sad, I was moved unbelievably
to hold inside me both my lovers
and to introduce them to each other
there, in the hollow just above the
heart,
among the little folds where the voice
starts.”
(…)
“Sexuality is,
after all, a formal concern:
finding for one's time on earth
a shape that feels more native than
imposed
a shape in which desire, having chosen
it, can multiply.
And isn't love itself a type
of rhyme? And don't gender and genre share one root?”
not him exactly but a kind of conduit between them: a conversation they
conducted
with my mouth. And when I was not
unbelievably
sad, I was moved unbelievably
to hold inside me both my lovers
and to introduce them to each other
there, in the hollow just above the
heart,
among the little folds where the voice
starts.”
(…)
“Sexuality is,
after all, a formal concern:
finding for one's time on earth
a shape that feels more native than
imposed
a shape in which desire, having chosen
it, can multiply.
And isn't love itself a type
of rhyme? And don't gender and genre share one root?”
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A quick and pleasant read. I loved the highlight of this queer narrator recognising her second adolescence. The couplets provide a nice overview of this character's second adolescence and second first love.
reflective