Reading Response Week 6

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~jenglish/Courses/Spring02/104/steinpicasso.html <~ here is the link I found to the poem I'm talking about in this response.

My reading response is going to be over a poem that I read outside of class that Dr. Davidson recommended for me. It’s called “If I Told Him” by Gertrude Stein. It fits because it’s like the kind of writing we learned about on Thursday. When I first read this poem, there were many points were I had to read it slow and more than once. She uses the same words but rephrases them over and over. For example, she says:

If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him.
Would he like it would Napoleon would Napoleon would would he like it.
If Napoleon if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if I told him if I told him if Napoleon. Would he like it if Napoleon if Napoleon if I told him. If I told him if Napoleon if Napoleon if I told him. If I told him would he like it would he like it if I told him.

Like I said, you have to read it slow and really pay attention since it gets a bit confusing. However, once you get past the confusion, I found that she really twists the language in a unique, undeniably brilliant way.

There is also no meter to this poem. Thankfully, there were spaces between the words unlike the pieces we saw on Thursday. Anyway, once I had read through it twice, I really enjoyed this poem. It goes outside of my comfort zone when it comes to reading so I enjoyed the challenge. I also loved the little bits of language used that stuck out to me. Like, “I judge judge” or “Can curls rob can curls quote, quotable.” I actually might use one or both of those in one of my pieces of writing one day. I really enjoyed this piece and I recommend you guys to read it.