Cricital 4-27-12

In Terrance Hayes’ book “Lighthead” a reoccurring theme thatI noticed was language. In several of the poems there was talk about specific languageas well as the big picture of language. Language in Terrance Hayes’ “Lighthead”includes the changes in structure and tone, the use of repetition and thehistory of language.

The first poem I want to talk about is “Lighthead’s Guide tothe Galaxy”. In this poem Hayes writes “I know all words come from preexistingwords and divide until our pronouncements develop selves”. This was a greatline that talks about the uses of words and how they all come from other words.He is making an announcement to the people and stating that language divides upuntil it can develop itself in the present. I took this to mean that eventhough there are some words that are used now from the past they may not havethe same meanings now. I also liked the lines “Not what you see, but what youperceive: that’s poetry”. This summed up what we are doing in our class when wediscuss the poems we’ve read. It’s not just the words on the page |(not whatyou see) but it is the meaning behind what is written (what you perceive) that makes a piece of writing poetry.

The language in “Support the Troops” is a little strange butI really liked the line about “And I admit my awe looking on the marine with atalent for making the eagle tattooed across his back rear his talons”. To me, thedescription paints a picture in your mind of what this would actually look like.|I think that is what language does. When you use descriptive language, youpaint a picture for the reader.

I also wanted to talk about the repetition used in “Lighthead’sGuide to Addiction”. The writer states “I am addicted to repetition which is aform of history”. In this poem he uses the repetition of being addicted to onething then there is this solution, but once you’re addicted to the solution thenyou have to find another solution. This form of repetition that he uses in thispoem is very powerful and shows the vicious cycle of addiction. When he statesthat repetition is a form of history it brings up another good point about language.Language has been around a long time and the interpretations of it havechanged. We interpret these poems in a certain way because of how we werebrought up and in the time period we were brought up in. In the future thesepoems might be interpreted differently, especially the poems about certain eventsthat happened in our history. The poem about Katrina is something that weremember very clearly because it didn’t happen that long ago and we know howdifficult it was for those families. If someone were to read this poem in thefuture it might not have the same affect on them because they are not as familiarwith the story.

The changes in tone in the poems from the beginning section to the end section are very noticeable. In the first section the language was more abstract and was not really talkingabout specifics. In the second section it seemed to have a more dramatic tone.These were the poems that seemed to talk about specific events and tragedies. Overall,language was proven to be a major theme in “Lighthead”. Language was usedthrough the changes in tone, the history and the use of repetition.