Colin Mitchell Williams is, so to be said, a nobody poet. He is found on poetrysoup.com, which really is, as it says, a giant soup of unknown and known poets and their work. His username is his full name, but without capitalization. In a two-part, free-verse set titled “Senseless”, Williams, as one of the common people, calls out the entirety of humanity, including himself, for its senselessness. Senseless not only as the ability to harm others for seemingly no reason, but also as the state of being sympathetically numb to the suffering around them. Williams abandoning his ethos and styling his pieces to convey strong, universal emotions without appearing irrational.
Both poems lack grammar markings to create a certain effect. The first poem …show more content…
Religious violence was a good choice, because despite any reader 's personal convictions, all are somewhat aware of religious violence in history and even today. However, the poet does not use the word religion. Instead, he uses "belief". While this mainly indicates religion, it also allows room for other strong convictions, such as anti-Semitism, like in World War 2. The stanza then furthers into beliefs as in something we know, hold for value as truth. "What is it that we know so well/That the idea of difference can cause such conceited violence". Despite the theme of the poem being "senseless", Williams does not describe violence as senseless. He chooses conceited, and that conveys the idea of selfish. This enforces his underlying message that the root of our senselessness is that we are too self-concerned, which he will bring up in the next poem.
In the middle of this first poem, a recurring line appears, which is the base question of the pieces. "When then do we celebrate the diversity of our sense to make sense of the senseless". The statement will evolve every time it appears, and end up concluding the set with "When then do we celebrate our diversity of sense to make sense of "our" senseless." The use of the title of the piece mixed with alliteration helps the statement to stick to the readers mind, and they will notice the small changes from "the" to "our", making the senseless go from a hovering accusation to a collective
Both poems lack grammar markings to create a certain effect. The first poem …show more content…
Religious violence was a good choice, because despite any reader 's personal convictions, all are somewhat aware of religious violence in history and even today. However, the poet does not use the word religion. Instead, he uses "belief". While this mainly indicates religion, it also allows room for other strong convictions, such as anti-Semitism, like in World War 2. The stanza then furthers into beliefs as in something we know, hold for value as truth. "What is it that we know so well/That the idea of difference can cause such conceited violence". Despite the theme of the poem being "senseless", Williams does not describe violence as senseless. He chooses conceited, and that conveys the idea of selfish. This enforces his underlying message that the root of our senselessness is that we are too self-concerned, which he will bring up in the next poem.
In the middle of this first poem, a recurring line appears, which is the base question of the pieces. "When then do we celebrate the diversity of our sense to make sense of the senseless". The statement will evolve every time it appears, and end up concluding the set with "When then do we celebrate our diversity of sense to make sense of "our" senseless." The use of the title of the piece mixed with alliteration helps the statement to stick to the readers mind, and they will notice the small changes from "the" to "our", making the senseless go from a hovering accusation to a collective