one of the commenters mentioned how he finds some of joanna's lines obscure to the point of meaninglessness and i have to agree. this is not necessarily a bad thing, or a claim made out of ignorance. joanna is definitely a poet in every sense. she uses tricky meter and relies on rhyme, when others just struggle to put their thoughts into words. this song is written in anapest, which means the stress falls on every third syllable. this is notoriously difficult to write, and relatively few anapestic poems are written. here's an example of what i mean from 3 different parts of the song, with the stresses capitalized:
-our MUsic deSERrving, deVOtion unSWERving
cry "DO I deSERVE her?" with UNflagging FERvor
-even MOLlusks have WEDdings, though SOLemn and LEADen
-ulULate the LAST great aMERican NOVels
this meter typically gives that rollicking kind of feel to the poem that carries you along so quickly. because she's trying to fit her words to this pattern, this is why some strange ones always crop up in her writing (think ululate, bedraggled, unflagging from here and rangily, hydrocephalitic, dolorous from "emily"). "peach plum pear" is also written this way... we SPEAK in the STORE, i'm a SENsitive BORE... etc. as a writer, i can understand what it's like to write something that makes no sense but is beautiful to you. it's impossible to say that an abstract painting "makes sense" or "tells a story" or even that the artist's goal is clarity, but you can't argue that these paintings can be beautiful, ugly or inspiring.
all in all, joanna is an incredible writer. a lot of her writing has to do with the creative process, frustrations and writing itself, which is very unique and interesting too. i get the feeling inflammatory writ is no different.
one of the commenters mentioned how he finds some of joanna's lines obscure to the point of meaninglessness and i have to agree. this is not necessarily a bad thing, or a claim made out of ignorance. joanna is definitely a poet in every sense. she uses tricky meter and relies on rhyme, when others just struggle to put their thoughts into words. this song is written in anapest, which means the stress falls on every third syllable. this is notoriously difficult to write, and relatively few anapestic poems are written. here's an example of what i mean from 3 different parts of the song, with the stresses capitalized:
-our MUsic deSERrving, deVOtion unSWERving cry "DO I deSERVE her?" with UNflagging FERvor -even MOLlusks have WEDdings, though SOLemn and LEADen -ulULate the LAST great aMERican NOVels
this meter typically gives that rollicking kind of feel to the poem that carries you along so quickly. because she's trying to fit her words to this pattern, this is why some strange ones always crop up in her writing (think ululate, bedraggled, unflagging from here and rangily, hydrocephalitic, dolorous from "emily"). "peach plum pear" is also written this way... we SPEAK in the STORE, i'm a SENsitive BORE... etc. as a writer, i can understand what it's like to write something that makes no sense but is beautiful to you. it's impossible to say that an abstract painting "makes sense" or "tells a story" or even that the artist's goal is clarity, but you can't argue that these paintings can be beautiful, ugly or inspiring.
all in all, joanna is an incredible writer. a lot of her writing has to do with the creative process, frustrations and writing itself, which is very unique and interesting too. i get the feeling inflammatory writ is no different.