Of mutability - Shapcott: how does the author explore the theme of boundaries?

Résumé du document

In the collection Of mutability, boundaries are a central theme explored by Shapcott, illustrating life. The author crosses and defines, in different poems, the body's limits but also life and deaths ones and the limits of classical structure.

In the anthology, shapcott explores the body's boundaries to make the reader think. The idea of separation between the body and mind leads the reader to think about the possibility of living through a spirit and not only through a body, putting in doubt his identity. To illustrate this point, in Era, the voice says 'I said goodbye to the outside of my body'. The voice is only a soul, able to see the park and the city. It is still living. It is also the case in Myself Photographed, where Shapcott is adjacent to herself.

Extraits

[...] The limits of classical structures Finally, Shapcott juggles with the limits of classical structures. In La Canterina, the poem is not organized, in the page setting, as regular and rectangular stanzas, but as lines creating stairs. This page setting is light, with short lines, and represents perfectly the title, referring to an opera, and the poem, where the voice is executing entrechats, aerial movements. This sensation of freedom, of flying is also present in Gherkin Music. The same theme of music and the same page setting are explored, but, the difference lies on the punctuation. [...]

[...] This poem relates the feeling of dying and the non-recognition of death's arrival. The theme of death and the inability to understand its arrival are emphasized by the anaphora “I thought I knew my death", at the beginning of the two stanzas. The limits between life and death are defined by the constrast, in the anthology, of the poems centered on death and those centered on hope, life, as Pissflower. It is full of life and humor because of its minor and light subject. [...]

[...] Then, Shapcott is dissolving the body, a natural element, in other natural elements that are surrounding her. This is what Deft illustrates. The body disappears through the metaphor “my body is a drop of water”. It demonstrates its loss of strength due to the disease and reminds the reader of a tear that inspires sadness, and empathy, in the same way as Viral Landscape does. In this poem, where she is suffering, the body and the baking summer field are fused, as it has eaten her heart. [...]

[...] Shapcott crosses these limits, in an unusually way. It emphasizes the interest of the reader for the poem, because writing and reading, are means of getting away, they are an experience of freedom, that these poems interpret perfectly. But, interestingly, she contradicts this crossing in the poem Border cartography. Here, each stanza has a name, is rectangular, and draws a different place. Punctuation is also present. By this classical structure, the reader is brought to understand that that life is not always airy and light, but more down to earth and serious because everything has a name and is organized. [...]

[...] Of mutability - Shapcott: how does the author explore the theme of boundaries? In the collection Of mutability, boundaries are a central theme explored by Shapcott, illustrating life. The author crosses and defines, in different poems, the body's limits but also life and deaths ones and the limits of classical structure. I. The body's boundaries In the anthology, shapcott explores the body's boundaries to make the reader think.The idea of separation between the body and mind leads the reader to think about the possibility of living through a spirit and not only through a body, putting in doubt his identity. [...]