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Eating Poetry | Introduction

Mark Strand is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary American poetry, and yet his poems are often considered some of the most elusive. Much of his work encompasses dark themes and macabre scenarios that shift quickly from the physical to the metaphysical, usually placing people and animals in bizarre situations. Why, then, has Strand won numerous awards and fellowships for his poetry, been sought as a teacher, lecturer, and reader at universities across the country and across the world, and been selected Poet Laureate of the United States? The answer lies in how readers approach Strand's work, and "Eating Poetry" provides us ample opportunity to delve into it, get caught up in it, and come out knowing we have experienced something unusually intriguing. Strand's second collection, Reasons for Moving (1968) contains the poem "Eating Poetry," and this collection earned him national recognition as a poet.

Just the title "Eating Poetry" piques curiosity. The first assumption may be that this is only an interesting metaphor for the notion of really enjoying verse, but Strand does not stop there. This poem features a character literally eating poetry. All in the span of 18 lines, a man gobbles up poems in a library, mystifies the librarian, turns into a dog, and terrifies the librarian. This is obviously not a poem we go into looking for a concrete exploration of human experience. It is, however, an abstract and sensuous look at one experience in particular—that of truly and completely fulfilling an attraction, in this case, to poetry. "Eating Poetry" also exemplifies Strand's tendency to taint even light or comical situations with an eerie and gruesome flavor. For this reason, we are often left not quite sure of a poem's overall intent, but we are sure our minds have ventured some place new.

Eating Poetry Summary

Lines: 1-3
From the outset of "Eating Poetry," the scene is peculiar, and it builds toward an even stranger, extraordinary climax at the end. The first line has us picture a man with ink running from his mouth. Notice that the verb Strand chose is not "drips" or "drizzles" or "seeps," but runs. It gives the impression of someone eating very hungrily, "shoveling it in," so to speak. We do not have to wait long to find out if this gluttonous act is painful for the speaker, for in line 2, he tells us, "There is no happiness like mine." Now we know that the ink running from his mouth is comparable to the juice of a thick steak on a beef lover's lips or a refreshing sports drink pouring down the chin of a happy athlete. But what causes such glee for the speaker here is not food or drink. Rather, his reason is: "I have been eating poetry." This line—as all the others—is very simply put, as though a common statement of fact. The fact here, though, is anything but common, and as we move through the next lines, the speaker acknowledges such.

Lines: 4-6
Line 4 introduces a second character in the poem, and she appears quite a bit more normal than the narrator. In learning that "The librarian does not believe what she sees," we are drawn back into a fairly realistic world—one in which we may have the same reaction and share the feeling of the person who has just witnessed something bizarre. Lines 5 and 6 depict the librarian's initial response to her unusual patron, portraying her as "sad." Her eyes apparently show sympathy, and by walking "with her hands in her dress," she demonstrates a helplessness to do anything about the situation. Resigning herself to pace with hidden hands also indicates cautious behavior and a desire to protect herself. While there is nothing strange about the librarian's responses at this point, she is still a part of an abnormal scene, and her own behavior will take a turn for the odd side as she becomes more and more caught up in the weird actions of the man who is eating poetry.

Lines: 7-9
The third stanza sends us back into the surreal world of the speaker. In this scene, he has finished devouring whatever pile of books he had in front of him, and states very simply, "The poems are... » Complete Eating Poetry Summary