Luz Tellez
Professor Kitty
English 255
14 November 2014
Let the Dog Play the Game
All of us have already fallen in love or have grown to hate a specific person, whether in an intimate, caring or casual relationship. Love and hate are two powerful emotions; they can sometimes collide and make us act irrational. The author Carolyn Kizer learns about love the hard way. One of the major themes in “Bitch” by Kizer highlights the inner emotional battle of anger, love for an ex-partner, and desire for reconciliation versus suppression, love for herself and self-control.
The poem is a single stanza of 34 lines in an irregular length, with no rhyme, and expresses anger as her first emotion. The reader can assume that the author uses one long stanza throughout her poem to convey a straightforward and consistent argument. The short poem appears to be about a woman running into an ex-lover, a man who imposes mental and emotional trauma on her. The poem relies on both denotative and a connotative meaning of the word "bitch": a female dog and a derogatory name for a disagreeable woman. The dog …show more content…
The speaker essentially tells herself that the relationship would have never worked, and finally defeats her uncontrolled emotions, including her ego. Throughout the bitter struggle with her feelings, the speaker maintains perfect composure during her conversation with her ex-lover. The speaker’s speech to him consists of a series of polite and dull expressions that never reveal her inner emotional disorder. The speaker maintains a form of censoring to demonstrate how the narrator desires closure for the terrible relationship. Ultimately, the speaker controls her temper but still uses harmless sarcasm in speaking with the man, such as "Goodbye! Goodbye! Nice to have seen you again” (line 34), in order to avoid cursing the man into
Professor Kitty
English 255
14 November 2014
Let the Dog Play the Game
All of us have already fallen in love or have grown to hate a specific person, whether in an intimate, caring or casual relationship. Love and hate are two powerful emotions; they can sometimes collide and make us act irrational. The author Carolyn Kizer learns about love the hard way. One of the major themes in “Bitch” by Kizer highlights the inner emotional battle of anger, love for an ex-partner, and desire for reconciliation versus suppression, love for herself and self-control.
The poem is a single stanza of 34 lines in an irregular length, with no rhyme, and expresses anger as her first emotion. The reader can assume that the author uses one long stanza throughout her poem to convey a straightforward and consistent argument. The short poem appears to be about a woman running into an ex-lover, a man who imposes mental and emotional trauma on her. The poem relies on both denotative and a connotative meaning of the word "bitch": a female dog and a derogatory name for a disagreeable woman. The dog …show more content…
The speaker essentially tells herself that the relationship would have never worked, and finally defeats her uncontrolled emotions, including her ego. Throughout the bitter struggle with her feelings, the speaker maintains perfect composure during her conversation with her ex-lover. The speaker’s speech to him consists of a series of polite and dull expressions that never reveal her inner emotional disorder. The speaker maintains a form of censoring to demonstrate how the narrator desires closure for the terrible relationship. Ultimately, the speaker controls her temper but still uses harmless sarcasm in speaking with the man, such as "Goodbye! Goodbye! Nice to have seen you again” (line 34), in order to avoid cursing the man into