The poem "Self Evident" is a very powerful poem written by someone who presents themselves as an American citizen who is fed up with the government and how it let September 11 happen. The author tries appealing to the audience by making it a very blunt and to the point piece of writing and speaking in terms that we are able to understand. I believe the author's target audience was all of the every day American citizens because it states how we used to just go about living in this world thinking how powerful we are, only to be devastated by the 9/11 attacks. She makes former President George W. Bush out to be the villain as well saying he cheated to win the election. She also compares the government agencies to the KGB which I feel is a bit extreme.
I personally feel this poem has a couple of purposes. The first is to point out how America thought it was too good for anything to happen to it so the attacks on 9/11 were really a wake up call. I agree with that aspect of it. However, I felt another point of it was to attack the government and try and shift the blame of what happened onto them. I feel like this method of writing is one that may not be very effective because it presents a very one sided, biased piece. The writer was clearly a democrat, so myself being a Republican, it made me look at the writing a little differently and not take it with as much value as I would have if it would have been more neutral. Although I think it is important to try and persuade your audience to believe in your point of view, I think this author was a little too one sided.
As I stated earlier, I think the topic of this poem does influence my above answers because I already have a personal opinion on this issue so it may be hard for an author to try and sway what I believe in.
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I agree with what you're saying. The poem was very strong and Ani was very blunt. She made very strong emotional appeals but I agree that her argument was too one sided and radical to be effective. If she took a more moderate view her poem may be more effective.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on this one, Derek. This poem was really left wing and it was hard for me to find common ground with the author. Normally I am open to a lot of democratic ideas, but this was a little too left for my Republican taste. Her attacks on the government and calling American "not a true democracy" pushed me over the edge.
ReplyDeleteI personally consider myself a moderate and thus, I agree that this poem was a bit too strong for my taste. Many of her phrases such as "get our government to pull its big dick out of the sand of someone else's desert" seemed a bit too disrespectful even. However, I guess most poems are supposed to evoke a feeling of strong emotion and her's just happens to be anger- which is sometimes not the best emotion to use when convincing a crowd.
ReplyDeleteIt really seems like you understood this poem and the way you described in helped me piece it together a little more. I like how you brought up the point about the poem placing blame on the government but how that makes it a little ineffective and I agree with you on that.
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