A Poem from ?Milk and Honey? Pt. 2
Poem From ?Milk and Honey?
Like the other poem I chose by Rupi Kaur, this poem is also from the book Milk and Honey. It is also similar to the other poem I chose because it does not include a title. With this being said, it makes me wonder: Why does it not have a title? Do all of the poems have one clear message or story that link them together and is that why they lack titles? Is Milk and Honey the single title that is used to label them all? Is the message clear throughout the story and does Kaur feel as though a title is unnecessary? These many just be creative styles that Kaur chose with her poems. Her decision to not chose a title intrigued me. It forced me to read the poem and possibly even give it my own title.
In the first few lines we get a glimpse at how the speaker feels. We dig straight into their emotions through their description of how they feel about their body image and insecurities. They specifically say that they do not feel as though they are enough and accepted by the person they are addressing in the poem. They describe how they are constantly self conscious about how they dress. They never know if what they put on will be liked enough by their suspected lover. It is described in the imagery of trying on multiple pairs of jeans and not knowing which will be liked the most by her lover. Then, the speaker says ?tell me.? These words are written in italics and indicate the first shift in the poem. The speaker goes from discussing about her insecurities to asking her lover what she can do to make him/her satisfied. She explains the satisfaction that she craves by putting in portraying what she wants her lover to say in italics, ?her/she is so striking she makes/my body forget it has knees.? This switch from normal to italicized shows a change in point of view. The normal words are her thoughts and ideas about her insecurity and the italics are the speaker?s wants from the lover. The italics almost signify an imaginary conversation between the speaker and lover of exactly how the speaker wishes their conversations would go. Then, the speaker asks the lover to write a letter and send it to the parts of her body that are most insecure. This personification of the speaker?s body parts really makes the reader see each isecurity separately. The reader is able to imagine each body part that she is secure about. This gives the reader a more in depth understanding of how much the speaker is insecure about. Then the speaker personifies the lover?s voice when the speaker says ?your voice alone drives me to tears.? This gives even more emphasis to the speaker?s voice, showing how impactful it is to the speaker and their emotions. With this we are able to see how much the speaker is affected by his/her lover especially regarding self confidence and body image. This offers the question of if the lover is positive or negative towards the speaker. Does the lover help bring the speaker up with compliments and kind words or does he/she bring the speaker down with insults?
Throughout the poem the speaker?s tone is tense, yet hopeful. The tension the speaker experiences is expressed through his/her fear of not being good enough. The speaker?s hope is shown through her craving for approval by her lover. The speaker relies on their lover for hope; hope that the lover tells them they are enough.
If I were Rupi Kaur, and I wanted to give a title to this poem, I would title it, ?Insecure for You.? I believe this title represents everything the poem is about in three simple words. It stresses the insecurities the speaker had about body image and self confidence which was all rooted from the speaker?s relationship with their lover. How the lover treats the reader is unknown, but we know that the speaker relies on the lover?s approval for their own self confidence.
(not image by author)
