Reading Response #1

     In our class's reading packet, there are a few poems that I found were interesting. One poem that caught my eye was, "The Scent of Verbena" by Hinako Abe. First of all, I thought it was intriguing that the author formed the poem in triangles. The triangles almost seem like they were meant to pop out and want to pull the reader in to read the triangles. The many lines in the poem are so descriptive that I could see the scene play in my mind as I read it. For example, "It was a hot day still time to go before noon the wild roses were so dry they looked like they might burst into flames any minute." That line is probably my favorite line out of the whole poem. I can interpret many things from the line, such as there could be tension with the character in poem and/or that it is describing the mood in the story at the moment, which is hot or angry. 

     Another descriptive line I found interesting, was the line, "His face grew as pale as gorgonzola cheese and as I watched fissures spread across it like it was going to crack apart." I really like that Abe used the cheese to describe how pale the other character was in that part of of the poem. It also described the intense emotion that the character was very frightened of what the main character said towards them. I thought that the use of this word was very unique. Using these types of words can help make the poem more interesting and makes the poem overall stand out to the reader. 

        The most interesting part of the poem is the line, "Meanwhile a cicada caught in a bird's beak cried out like a bell but the sound ceased as it's neck broke." I felt like this line was describing the fact that the main character killed the other character. Instead of stating that, they use this metaphor as another way to describe the killing. This is because a few lines before discusses the second character is trying to run away or escape from the main character. The main character then laughs, showing that no matter what the second character did, they are still doomed. From reading this part of the poem, I will definitely try to describe scenes, like a character being killed, by using a metaphor or descriptive words instead of just plainly saying that someone was killed. 

        This poem is pretty descriptive, however, I had some trouble on what the poem was really about. It seems like the main character was being held captive by an antagonist, but then the story turns around and makes it seem like the main character was the antagonist all along. Another way I interpret the story was that the main character was being led to a trap by someone, then he mustered up some courage to turn his fear around and was able to stand up to what I thought was the antagonist and scared him away. If that isn't what the story was trying to portray, I would love to learn what the poem really means.