Thursday, January 30, 2014

Free-Write-- Michelle Wolff


In “A Dice Throw,” there are several passages where form and content echo each other. A specific excerpt from this passage demonstrates this idea.

“an utterly lost and lonely quill





                                                            except
                                                                        that a cap of midnight abuts it or grazes it
                                                                                                and fixes
                                                                        on the velvet crumpled by a dark burst of laughter
                                                                       
                                                                       
                                                                        this rigid whiteness”




The phrase “an utterly lost and lonely quill” has significance in its placement and meaning. The “lost” feeling this passage is trying to convey is deeply connected by its placement on the page. On the page, this phrase is placed all by itself, away from all the other words with a lot of space around it. This is supposed to reflect how lost the “lonely quill” is. Also, later in the passage, the phrase, “the rigid whiteness,” is also literally surrounded by whiteness on the page. The middle part of this excerpt is a few lines closely written together, “except that a cap of midnight abuts it or grazes it and fixes on the velvet crumpled by a dark burst.” Although their exact wording does not relate to each other, there are a few words that do connect. The word “crumpled,” implies many things coming together, which is shown by the few lines and words placed closely together on the page. Also the word, “midnight” directly relates to the idea also. The color, “midnight” is the opposite of white. When the “rigid whiteness” was written it was surrounded by nothing but white space. It is almost self-explanatory that the “midnight” would be surrounded by everything but blanks spaces, and in this case it is surrounded by words.

No comments:

Post a Comment