The Diary of a Broken Mind [Random]

A Review of Lang Leav's Poems

I would like to share my study or my critical analyzation about Lang Leav's poetry. The purpose of my paper is do a comparative analysis from the works of the Contemporary poets, Conchinita " Chingbee" Cruz (a contemporary Filipino writer) and Lang Leav. This is just a part of my paper. I wanted to post the complete copy of my study, but Wattpad wouldn't allow it, due to the exceeding number of words I have on my paper.

Lang Leav is a Sydney-based artist, fashion designer and a pop culture author. Since 2013, Leav have published four books, a completion of her prose and poems. The first book was self-published before a publishing house discovered her work, the title of it is Love & Misadventure. All of her books are an international bestseller, these are entitled Lullabies, Memories and her most recent book, The Universe of Us. The Lullabies received the Goodreads Choice awards for poetry in 2014.

The poems of Leav will be from her first book the Love & Misadventure, the Soul Mates, and a poem with the same title as for her second book the Lullabies. The said titles of the poet will be analyzed, to specify, by reviewing the writing style of the poet, the structure of the poems, the metaphorical essence, the complexity of contexts and the themes it illustrated. The researcher will also discuss the dissimilarities of the traditional form of poetry with the contemporary. These ideas could be done with the use of the "close-reading" also known as New Criticism.

The first poem is the Soul Mates, the speaker feels confused because the person seems familiar with her. When the reader read the statements without critically analyzing it, the 'feeling' of confusion seems effective. However, if the reader reread it while critically analyzing it, the 'idea' of confusion from the speaker, will literally 'confused' the readers' mind. For the entirety of the poem, the speaker is being nostalgic while the theme represents mystical, due to the speaker's sense of spiritual mystery.

Another Leav's poem to be analyzed is the Lullabies. The poem is written as prose, and narrative style. It uses the Third Person point of view, but for the entire lines of the poem, a character is speaking to someone romantically. The imagery in the poem is when the narrator said this, "she places her hand on his chest,". The entirety of the poem features direct statements from an unknown girl. It was entitled Lullabies to compare the gentle song, with the gentle sentiments of the speaker to a specific person. The speaker is being romantic so the theme is romance.Based on my analyzation, the poems of the two poets are experimental in style. The poems illustrate the peculiar images and ambiguous phrases. It is written as narrative prose with lengthy statements and in free verse form. The lengthy and wordy statements are structured with non complex words, which makes the language smooth and explicit. Due to its simple words and unusual imagery, it leaves an emotional intensity with the reader. These are the trademarks of Contemporary poetry, must of the works are unconventional in style compare with Traditional poetry which is stricter in its form. Contemporary poetry is often written in unrhymed line or free verse. The course line follows the essential rhythms of the language not the five stresses per line in iambic pentameter. Contemporary poetry's language is more understandable for the readers. The style of writing poetry of Cruz and Leav are similar with one another due to its contemporary style of writing.

The crucial difference between the poems of Cruz and Leav are its aesthetic nature. They both have written the poems in narrative form, but their diction or choice of words are dissimilar. The figurative essence of Cruz's words is illustrating its ambiguity. Compare with Leav's subjective use of metaphors.

The first lines (from her poem the Soul Mate) may represent simile due to the word 'like', " or why it feels less like I' am getting to know you and more us though I am remembering you," The statement is not written figuratively. The use of "like" in the sentence does not mean it is used as simile and metaphor. It does not represent the similarities of two different objects, that must present a symbolic feature. The use of "like" in the statement is a colloquial expression. It is more of comparing a subjective matter with another subjective matter which may represent a different thought. The feeling of (like) 'certainly not' would have been a better word to use, to lessen the confusion.

This can also be notice in Leav's poem the Lullabies. Example, "I barely know you, she says, voice heavy with sleep," this statement is simply representing a lullaby, and so as the next sentences. Leav also emphasizes the word "this "on the last part of the poem; "—she places her hand on his chest— this I know". In other words, each of the subjective statements said by the speaker represents a lullaby. This may be the reason why the title is named Lullabies. The poems of the two contemporary poets are similar when it comes to its physical form and structure. However, while examining each text, the creation of Leav is lacking with the true nature of poetry. Meanwhile, the works of Cruz possesses the essential qualities of poetry. Both of them have also established an emotional impact towards the reader. But internationally, Leav receives more emotional response from the reader than Cruz. We may explain this by differentiating the persona and theme of their poems. (In Cruz's Dear City as I mentioned earlier, the persona is melancholic and the theme of it is 'the art of living'. The persona from her poem the Signals is denial and pathetic while the theme is about a ruined relationship.)

Leav's poems, the persona for Soul Mates is nostalgic because of the feeling of the past love, while the theme is mystical due to its spiritual mystery. Her second poem the Lullabies, its theme is about romance due to the sentimental statements of the speaker, so the persona is being romantic. Based on the themes and the tone of the personas, Cruz poems are more realistic, serious with the indirect meaning. As for Leav, her poems have a magical effect due to its romantic expression of love with a clever way of direct tale-like writing. This means that the readers could easily persuade with mediocre romantic sentiments. Than to appreciate by "thinking" the aesthetic quality of art.

According to King, poetry has become a self-expression of "romantic infantilism and baby talk". Yes, art may express emotion. However, these generated emotions should spring from the art itself. It should not be triggered by the condition of the writer. Poetry is a lyric poetry. It must be lyrical. It does not have a story or prose function but it must have a song function. A poet is balladeer who sings. A poet should hear the sounds of the words as he reads, similar with the musician who hears the sounds of the notes on the music sheet. In writing a poetry there are no rules, only principles. These principles are the fundamental truth, which sets the guidelines of essential character that makes the poem true to its nature.

I would like to end this research with this thought by King: "You must go to poetry not to fulfill emotional needs but to fulfill aesthetic needs. Even if a poem springs from feelings, this feeling should not be objectified into an art object for poem is first of all is an art of object. An art object can be achieved only by paying attention to the medium and to form, not to the ego."