Emily+Willoughby+RP+Post+3

.) What is "anger"? Does it serve a rational, beneficial purpose? Can one overcome anger, and if they do, are they better off? What role does anger play in our lives?

2.) //Anger//

3.) April Bernard

4.) []

5.) poetryfoundation.org

6.)

S- the raw feelings of anger the antagonist felt throughout her life O- the realization that she doesn't have the same rage that she used to A- people trying to understand her, poets, other angry people, poetry fans, perhaps her younger self P- to get a grasp on the feeling "anger" and how it was and what it made her do, S- I'm not sure... definitely April Bernard, but is she speaking through a character or herself? Tone- wistful, disappointed, melancholy, relishing memories, choppy

7.) This poem is written in three Parts. Part I goes through a series of memories of the main character's life, specifically moments where she was angry and felt extreme rage. Part II is much shorter, a momentary break in the stream of raw uncontrolled emotions to analyze her feelings as she held a man at gunpoint, and how she embraced the feeling of anger... but eventually overcame her rage. Part III is a refectory piece depicting the main character now, years later, commenting on how she is no longer angry about anything, and misses the emotion. As a surprise twist, Bernard ends the poem with a short stanza hinting to the fact that the character has killed before in fits of rage, and does not regret a thing.

8.) When one does not have anger, life is instead approached with "absent-minded incentive" and the closest to a fit of rage is slamming a fist ona desk ( and appoligizing to the desk) or fantasizing about pushing someone in front of a bus. Anger is a terrifying emotion, but it also is thrilling.

9.) I am somewhat persuaded. Very few times have I ever been angry... but never violently so. Still, I can connect to the character in the feeling of momentary power and satisfaction of just hurting someone else, be it physically or verbally. So yes, I get where she is coming from, but I don't understand her joy of it now, after all these years. The way it is written though, makes me think that there is some slightly unbalanced person out there who could feel exactly the same way as the person in this poem. The techniques used, from stopping each memory short as if savoring a feeling (not details), or remembering a wave of memories at once, rings true of the thinking process and reminds me a bit of how the human brain actually remembers things.

10.)

"When I was twelve, too old, the last time my father spanked me, pants down, because I had “distressed” my mother and my vision went red-black and I did not forgive — " ...... "I would have had to be //thinking// in order to have thought — loaded, not loaded? — and I was not thinking, I was only dripping hot and oh the pleasure, I can still feel its prickling, crackle over the furnace of my rage, to see his face go pale, his eyes widen, his “put it down, put it down” — and I put it down and allowed my life as well as his to go on." ...... "I miss my anger. Decades go by when all I can muster is absent-minded invective, you know, directed at the news; or a brief fantasy of shoving someone in front of a bus. Yesterday I slammed my fist on my desk and then apologized, to the desk." ........ "Yes, I remember her. I always lie when I always say I didn’t know the gun was loaded."