Apropos of Pronouns (11.27.20)

We talked last Wednesday about how some writers use pronouns in their poems to draw the reader in, to establish some space between artifact and consumer, or even to ignore the reader altogether.  One of our writers shared a poem that began by distancing itself from the reader (3rd person plural), then inviting the reader into the group (1st person plural), and ending by turning to face the reader directly (2nd person singular).  The writer couldn't have done that by mistake.  That was strategy.

I tried to make the point stick: when you write a poem, pay attention to what you're doing and have a reason for doing it, for the effect it's likely to have.  Of course, I am not about to discount the vast and revealing world of unintended effects, out of which so much good poetry comes.  But I wanted to exhort my fellow writers not to get caught up in the beauty of their own flow--that is, to be aware of audience (even if that audience is no more than you yourself at a later reading of your own work!).

And then today I come across David Orr's review of That Was Now, This Is Then, a new book of poems by Vijay Seshadri, in today's New York Times.  Orr doesn't focus so much on the grammar of what Seshadri is doing, his deployment of pronouns, but he does describe how this poet involves the reader "directly in whatever the poem is up to.  Often this is a subtle matter of convincing readers that they're part of a 'we'." 

So, I invite my fellow writers at W@1--and you, reader--to think about the pronouns you use in your poems and the effect these may have on your readers (again, even if that reader turns out later to be only yourself).  I also invite you as readers to pay close attention to how poets use pronouns in their poems.  These are potent rhetorical tools in the hands of experienced writers (poets, speechwriters, sales writers, writers with an axe to grind, etc.).  And to do so especially when a writer uses that all-inclusive "we," the most dangerous, conniving pronoun in the toolbox.  Make sure that you want to be a part of "whatever the poem is up to" each time you encounter a "we."