Huang 1

Jeffrey Huang
Professor Lillmars
Writing 30
21 October 2015
Critical Response to Blades
In the chapter Voice and Style in the Poets Companion, various facets of writing
poetry like subject matter are brought up as things to consider in curtailing a voice, or a style if
you will; Doing so effectively relays the contents of the poetry, the discussion to be had about the
poetry in a way the poet desires to. The subject matter behind Blades by C. K. Williams brings
the poem into life, vividly painting the readers mind and suggesting compelling retrospect.
The poem begins with When I was about eight, I once stabbed somebody another kid, a
little girl. The frank delivery coupled with the normally day-to-day horrific actions painted in
the line immediate captures the readers attention. Whether or not the reader can relate outright
doesnt matter per se but the main focus to be gathered from here is that the reader immediately
goes into a split-second of retrospect, whether he or shes been in a similar situation; if he/she
has, theres already a discussion brewing in the back of his/her head, after the poems read
either way, the reader wants to finish very soon because he/shes interested.
The poem continues onthe narrator of the poem aka the perpetrator denying any bit of
the stabbing, the ensemble rushing out to see the chaos, the mom of the stabbed hugging the two
lead actors, including the stabber strangely enough, and the reveal that the victim and her mom is
blackand all this along with the frank and sharp diction choicewhich will not be discussed
further here as it is out the scope of this analysispaints an eerie, gruesome allegory, almost like
a PTSD veteran reminiscing an unsavory story, almost disbelieving it his or herself.
It is the subject matter that causes the reader to start. The beginning line hooks the reader
in and gets him or her to recollect. The ensuing lines reveal to the reader that its not an actual
stabbing, the knife was a car antenna reassures the reader, but it doesnt wholesomely reset the
stance of him or her. After reading the whole poem, the reader realizes that the actual subject

Huang 2
matter of the poem is a mans recollection of a childhood memory, warped by time and the slant
point of view of a childor at least his skewed, exaggerated viewpoint as a kidfrom shocking
and degenerative (a black kid stabbing a non-black girl) to strange and arguably more shocking
(a non-black kid stabbing a black girl and being let go after both are hugged by the black girls
mom). The voice is frank but the subject matter at first appears to be very shocking,
subconsciously preparing the reader for the worse. As the poem progresses, the realization is
spent, the real frame of events is out, and if the reader hasnt already, he or she is doting on the
similarities he or shes had in comparison to the narrator of the poem ,whether it be outright or
something psychologically similar, just acted out because of a slanted kids viewpoint. Maybe for
example, the reader remembers a giant brawl in his second grade, a great fisticuff between five
or six brutes when in actually it was just one shove from one angsty third grader to another.
The subject matter sold it. With and in the allegorical, meditative voice produced, the
subject matter in Blades captures the readers attention and coaxes out a parallelism between
the poem and his/her own experience that the latter forces together, in turn amplifying the whole
reading poetry experience, lavishing drawing hues from mind to paper.