Critical Response to "Fork"
Charles Simic's "Fork" is a strange and comical ode to cutlery. In this poem he compares a fork to a bird's foot. Simic's diction is crude, raw, and cryptic, giving the reader the appearance of a dark, and ominous feast of animals, in a graveyard or at Edgar Allen Poe's house. He describes this "bird's foot being worn around a cannibal's neck, which lead me to belive that he doesn't think highly of the device (the fork). He is kind of belittling the masses of human population, whittling themdown, putting them down as if they were unevolved cavemen. The cleaverness of the personification of a bird's foot, and the human hand resembling the rest of the bird itself is rather brilliant, however. I don't appreciate his willingness to be so above the rest of humanity. After all, he is a sentiant being as well. Does he prefer chopsticks or a spoon?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
He's probably a big fan of the spork. Your description of simic's diction is dead on. I can actually picture Edgar Allen Poe's house, with Poe looking on with his hollow stare. His writing is minimal, in a way, not getting into it too much. I wonder if that affects his point he's trying to get across?
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps he eats with his hands? Or maybe he enjoys using the fork, and fancies himself a mysteriously morbid man? Here i'm only half joking. Either way, you were dead on comparing the raw darkness of his work with Poe, though he uses a much more modern, minimalistic style. You mentioned that Simic writes in a way which conveys that he sees men as being "unevolved cavemen," and the final line describing the fist shows that he does indeed seem to believe that he is more divine, more intelligent, than other men. I like this analysis.
ReplyDeleteMaybe he has always used sporks? You know those fork/spoon combos.
ReplyDeleteHmm.. interesting. Who knows maybe this guy used sporks all of his life. You know those fork/spoon combos.
ReplyDelete