Explication of Margaret Atwood's "Is/Is Not"
Margaret Atwood Is/Not Explication
Margaret Atwood’s poem "Is/Is Not" makes great use of medical language. I would not consider this a love poem per se, but even in discussing the topic of love, the imagery simply feels uncomfortable along with the topic. Although this is not the typical emotion that one would expect for a poem discussing love, this is not a typical poem. Atwood’s imagery here is completely purposeful and intentional. She is not expressing a simple sentiment of love, she is trying to express something a bit more complex, that I will go into in detail later in the explication. This explication will focus on Atwood’s use of imagery and how it affects the mood of the poem.
Genre: Experimental/Not Traditional
Vital Information about Author: Margaret Atwood is an extremely well respected and recognized poet and fiction writer in our time. She is now happily married with a family, however she divorced her first husband in 1973. This could have had an influence on her outlook on love and relationships.
Literal Meaning: This poem is reasonably short but focused in it’s message and themes. It is a message to a lover (or a former lover) giving advice as to how to approach a relationship. There is no series of events other than that, the piece is more reflective than plot based.
The architecture of the poem is very consistent and clear. Each stanza is two lines despite whether it is the end of a phrase or not.
The non literal meaning of this piece has much to do with the metaphor and imagery used in the poem. Her word choice in her metaphors and images used all follow a certain mood and do not stray far from that central theme which makes this a very thematically focused poem.
I feel that the goal of her poem is to use this medical imagery to create a type of mood that is uncomfortable and not typically used when discussing love. I believe she uses this type of imagery so that when one thinks back to her advice, they relate it to that uncomfortable feeling. Margaret Atwood wants the reader to experience the mood of the poem so deeply that one can almost touch it. She chooses this so that the reader can know the consequences of approaching love from a “this needs to be fixed” and “medical” type of standpoint. The reader can empathize with Margaret Atwood’s feelings of alienation and misunderstanding from (presumably) her first marriage after reading this poem.
There is evidence that Margaret Atwood accomplished her goal in the mood that the reader experiences as a result of her metaphors and imagery. For example, the line “Sex is not dentistry, the slick filling of aches and cavities” creates such uneasy imagery for a topic usually associated with much more gentle images than those associated with a dentist’s office. She continues with imagery in the same vein saying, “buttoned, attentive” and “which does not need to be understood or washed or cauterized.” In using the term “cauterized” she is doing two things: explaining a manner of attempting to fix an argument which she thinks is not necessary, as well as creating the imagery of cauterizing scars and wounds which perfectly matches the mood that she had been setting throughout the entire poem.
The poem is absolutely successful in what Margaret Atwood was trying to achieve. She wanted to get her point across about how disagreements in relationships should be approached. She achieved that - “Permit yourself anger and permit me mine, which needs neither your approval nor your surprise.”
She successfully controls the mood of the piece with discomforting imagery created by words like “cauterized” “medical” “dentistry” and “cavities.”
With her use of imagery, she is able to get the reader to associate her advice/warning with a feeling of discomfort and hesitation that one might feel at a dentists/doctor’s office. The reader is more likely to heed her advice, knowing the type of mood that may be felt if her words are not taken seriously.
Margaret Atwood’s poem "Is/Is Not" makes great use of medical language. I would not consider this a love poem per se, but even in discussing the topic of love, the imagery simply feels uncomfortable along with the topic. Although this is not the typical emotion that one would expect for a poem discussing love, this is not a typical poem. Atwood’s imagery here is completely purposeful and intentional. She is not expressing a simple sentiment of love, she is trying to express something a bit more complex, that I will go into in detail later in the explication. This explication will focus on Atwood’s use of imagery and how it affects the mood of the poem.
Genre: Experimental/Not Traditional
Vital Information about Author: Margaret Atwood is an extremely well respected and recognized poet and fiction writer in our time. She is now happily married with a family, however she divorced her first husband in 1973. This could have had an influence on her outlook on love and relationships.
Literal Meaning: This poem is reasonably short but focused in it’s message and themes. It is a message to a lover (or a former lover) giving advice as to how to approach a relationship. There is no series of events other than that, the piece is more reflective than plot based.
The architecture of the poem is very consistent and clear. Each stanza is two lines despite whether it is the end of a phrase or not.
The non literal meaning of this piece has much to do with the metaphor and imagery used in the poem. Her word choice in her metaphors and images used all follow a certain mood and do not stray far from that central theme which makes this a very thematically focused poem.
I feel that the goal of her poem is to use this medical imagery to create a type of mood that is uncomfortable and not typically used when discussing love. I believe she uses this type of imagery so that when one thinks back to her advice, they relate it to that uncomfortable feeling. Margaret Atwood wants the reader to experience the mood of the poem so deeply that one can almost touch it. She chooses this so that the reader can know the consequences of approaching love from a “this needs to be fixed” and “medical” type of standpoint. The reader can empathize with Margaret Atwood’s feelings of alienation and misunderstanding from (presumably) her first marriage after reading this poem.
There is evidence that Margaret Atwood accomplished her goal in the mood that the reader experiences as a result of her metaphors and imagery. For example, the line “Sex is not dentistry, the slick filling of aches and cavities” creates such uneasy imagery for a topic usually associated with much more gentle images than those associated with a dentist’s office. She continues with imagery in the same vein saying, “buttoned, attentive” and “which does not need to be understood or washed or cauterized.” In using the term “cauterized” she is doing two things: explaining a manner of attempting to fix an argument which she thinks is not necessary, as well as creating the imagery of cauterizing scars and wounds which perfectly matches the mood that she had been setting throughout the entire poem.
The poem is absolutely successful in what Margaret Atwood was trying to achieve. She wanted to get her point across about how disagreements in relationships should be approached. She achieved that - “Permit yourself anger and permit me mine, which needs neither your approval nor your surprise.”
She successfully controls the mood of the piece with discomforting imagery created by words like “cauterized” “medical” “dentistry” and “cavities.”
With her use of imagery, she is able to get the reader to associate her advice/warning with a feeling of discomfort and hesitation that one might feel at a dentists/doctor’s office. The reader is more likely to heed her advice, knowing the type of mood that may be felt if her words are not taken seriously.