Juxtaposition in poetry
Poetry (pen) Pals #35
This week I’ve been considering juxtaposition in poetry.
It started with a poem I wrote myself earlier in the week. There is juxtaposition within the poem itself but also it was the juxtaposition of experiences that led to the poem being written in the first place. I’ll share it first and then explain.
I read this at our live poetry circle on Tuesday night, thank you to who brought my attention to the term juxtaposition. Also, if you’re not a paid subscriber but like the sorts of evening where you write and read poetry that makes your heart open that little bit more, you might wanna come along next month!
Recently we spent a night in Le Portel, a pretty coastal port close near Boulogne-sur-Mer in France, a stopover on our way home from holiday. Just days later a boat carrying 50 humans capsized (the media use the word ‘migrants’ but there’s something about that term in this context that feels wrong to me). Le Portel was mentioned as one of the places involved in the rescue operation. Twelve died, including 6 children and a pregnant woman. I’d sat looking out at that ocean as my children played happily. Safely. A beautiful end to a holiday. I’ll never look at those photos again without thinking about the nameless children who died trying to get to safety. Was there a beautiful sunset that night? How can the two things exist at the same time? How many people must die trying to cross the channel before somebody says: enough? I’d actually started writing something about the night we’d spent as a family already, because the light was particularly stunning as we’d played on the beach. When I returned to edit it there was no doubt where it would end up.
A few days ago I was looking for a poem which I’d sent to a friend recently. Grief, loss, sadness was again on my mind but this time for a different reason. I found it. This is by Mark Nepo:
Adrift by Mark Nepo, from ‘Inside the Miracle, Eduring Suffering, Approaching Wholeness’.
That first line - ‘Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.” Note: I like how he returns to this same line but swaps the order at the end. How pleasing. I’m pulled back again into considering how these two extremes, so very disparate, can both be truths. For me the comfort found in this poem comes from the fact that this is so devastatingly accurate. And that somebody else has felt it. The switching of the lines at the end giving just that hint of a promise that beautiful is still available. Or perhaps just reiterating that the two things both exist, they will continue to both exist, no matter which way round you put it or how difficult that is to understand.
One more. This is Rainbows, by
:
Rainbows, by
, from Birdsong, BlackCat Poetry Press.This moving collection explores the effects of lockdown during Covid, this poem in particular sticking with me, I think because of the clever use of juxtaposition. We have ‘childish enthusiasm’ and ‘bright colours’ (rainbows!) alongside, ‘closed curtains’ and the harrowing image of, ‘their own red cross.’ Those contrasting images.
You’ll have to excuse my sketchy knowledge of literary terms but would this be a paradox? - “death and disease confined within the rainbow houses.”
Upon first reading (assuming you didn’t realise what the collection was about) you might have imagined the first stanza to have been about a normal school day until you are suddenly caught by the line, “never to be worn again.” Just a hint of mystery before we’re back to child-like painting, but not for long.
Sometimes I think I use juxtaposition in my poems unintentionally and others (like with my poem above) I know I want to jolt my reader, I know the juxtaposition exists, that is almost (maybe not entirely) the point.
Maybe it’s to say that two things CAN exist together. To uncover new relationships or similarities. Maybe it’s to say that they can’t or shouldn’t. Maybe it’s just to provoke deeper thought, a questioning, tension, a noticing of some sort. Maybe it’s something else entirely?
Hmm, juxtaposition, interesting hey.
A writing prompt for this week:
Everything is________ and I am _________.
Borrowing this line from Mark Nepo’s poem (with credit of course), can you add in your own words in order to establish a sort of juxtaposition (paradox?!) to explore. If that line doesn’t exactly work, you could of course adapt it slightly to suit your needs:
Everything around me is_______ but I want to________, for example.
What does that look like? Can you bring it to life? Will it be an obvious juxtaposition where you place two opposing things clearly side by side or do you want to weave it in more discretely.
Alternatively, if you find the above examples too restrictive, just have a play with using some juxtapositions in your writing. Or even noticing when it exists in the poetry you read.
Which is what I have been doing all week!!!
Nelly x
P.s I’d love to hear how you get on with this prompt or indeed any thoughts you have on juxtaposition in poetry. You can tag me
via Notes or comment below.Alternatively, if you want more poetry in your life, if you’d like to share your words more privately but still get plenty of cheerleading and feedback and want to do the same for others, then you can share your writing weekly via the Friday Round Up Post - this is now sent out to paid subscribers every Friday morning. If you’d like to join in but finances are a problem then please just send me a DM :)
I’m so glad you’re posting some of your beautiful poetry! So much poetry—so much of life—seems to be about that juxtaposition between grief and love, holding both at the same time.
Really like your poem and the way you explain the poems you took inspiration from! Trying to use juxtaposition and contrasting images is definitely something I'd like to play around with a bit more in my own poetry, so thank you for providing this inspiration!