From this week's collections of poems, I am most struck by the lowercase "i" in Clifton's oeuvre. Just as significant as her feminine content is her (decisive?) choice of format in her poetry; I believe that her choice to write in all lower-case, particularly the "i" is a refusal to abide by standards set by patriarchal practice in literature. However, it is interesting to consider this same use of lowercase among other poets, across a larger literary context, such as e.e. cummings and Bukowski for example, two notably "radical" poets (and both male) not necessarily known for their femininity in expression.
Considering this, is the lowercase "i" inherently feminine, because of its rebellion from "masculine"/traditional constructs? Or is the "i" potentially feminine because of its "softness", its subtle call for attention, as Dr. H suggested in class today?
That is a very interesting argument about the lowercase "i" I am not sure about the feminine aspects of the particular letter. However, I found that the poem being in all lowercase set a subtle soft tone for the poem. The tone seemed very nurturing throughout. If there were to be uppercase in the poem I believe it would seem more lecturing than nurturing.
ReplyDeleteFir me, I have always thought of writing in all lowercase to be a kind of signiture for a poet.If I have read a lot of their work and start to notice how everything is lowercase, they become instantly recognizable to be. I have never thought to out a gender tense on it but you do bring up some very good points.
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