The poem “beware: do not read this poem”, by Ishmael Reed, starts off with the mysterious tale of an old woman in a house of mirrors, but quickly becomes much more sinister and personal- catching the reader off guard. Reed then evokes fear in the reader by making it seem as if the poem can do harm to the one that reads it. Here are some good examples of this.
A good example would be how the speaker says, “the hunger of this poem is legendary it has taken many victims back off from this poem”. As a result, the reader may think, “This is just a poem, right? A poem couldn’t hurt me.” Yes, of course a poem could never hurt you, but simply reading this plants a seed of uncertainty, which then grows into fear. Then, the speaker causes further damage
A good example would be how the speaker says, “the hunger of this poem is legendary it has taken many victims back off from this poem”. As a result, the reader may think, “This is just a poem, right? A poem couldn’t hurt me.” Yes, of course a poem could never hurt you, but simply reading this plants a seed of uncertainty, which then grows into fear. Then, the speaker causes further damage