Responding to Waldrop - Mollie

The piece “Alarms and Excursions” by Rosemarie Waldrop has a defined audience of those interested in the purposes and effects of poetry on our society today. I think it is important to look at the second thesis, “it can make the culture aware of itself, and unveil hidden structures. It questions, resists”(Waldrop 215). Within this section the author’s purpose is reviled. The information the author presents within this section aids in supporting her thesis. She proceeds to examine the role poetry has played in our social and historical lives. One important source she uses is the work of Edmond Jabes to support her thesis and further it to a clear and concise understanding.

One excerpt of Edmond Jabes that Waldrop quotes is extremely useful in the defining of the terms. “Did I already know that opening and closing my eyes, lying down, moving, shrinking, dreaming, talking, being silent, writing and reading are all gestures and manifestations of subversion”(Waldrop 215)? This an important input on the behalf of Waldrop because it indicates a stream of consciousness between the author and the audience. One tactic the Waldrop uses is her ability for us to see poetry as something that is attainable. “Poetry has social relevance. It is not just an ornament or just private, an expression of personal emotions”(Waldrop 215). It is within this excerpt that we see poetry has a form of expression and not something that we should keep to ourselves.

Through this Waldrop is clearly defining terms of an audience of poetry. We are often conflicted with the fact that poetry must be something ornate that only few can reach it. Waldrop addresses these concerns in this piece by defining poetry as an outlet for emotions, a way of expression something that everyone is capable of. In many ways this information is useful to the audience in breaking down the barrier one often feels towards poetry and providing information for the audience to become poets themselves.

The format of this essay by Waldrop is one that is very unique for the average reader, the authors collaboration of poetry intermixed with academic disciplines is extremely successful in portraying poetry has a living art and not one of the past. I believe that the thesis I have stated above is so powerful and important because it transcends the way we see poetry today, illustrating the power of poetry in our society. The author is able to do this by incorporating modern day examples or problems with in her essay. She deems poetry as a social function, just as does society, “writing becomes action through this unveiling”(Waldrop 215).

In sum the work of Waldrop in this essay puts poetry on par with what we are able to achieve. We can attain it, understand it, and enjoy it when we see it as a personal expression of emotion, feelings and echoes of society. Poetry can become a verb when it is unveiled. Waldrop’s use of speaking to the audience in the format of a conversation is extremely important in defining her purpose of writing the piece. We need to see poetry as a living being rather then an art of the past.