Couplet

"The World Is in Pencil"

By: Todd Boss

(poem from poetryfoundation.org)

—not pen. It’s got

that same silken

dust about it, doesn’t it,

that same sense of

having been roughed

onto paper even  

as it was planned.

It had to be a labor

of love. It must’ve

taken its author some

time, some shove.

I’ll bet it felt good

in the hand—the o

of the ocean, and

the and and the and

of the land.

Biographical Information

            Poet Todd Boss grew up on a cattle farm in Wisconsin, and was educated at St. Olaf College and the University of Alaska Anchorage, where he received an MFA. Boss’s pared-down, idea-driven poems are propelled by internal rhyme and balance clarity with a nuanced attention to sound. “I think of poems as pieces of music, or a work of architecture,” he told the Utne Reader in 2009. “The poem is a space that you’re inviting someone into for a time. I think a lot about how to build it, how they feel when they’re there, and how they will exit.”

           His first poetry collection, Yellowrocket (2008), was named one of the 10 best poetry books of 2008 by Virginia Quarterly Review and was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. His second book, Pitch (2012) won the Midwest Booksellers' Choice Award for Poetry. His honors include the Emily Clark Balch Prize for Poetry fromVirginia Quarterly Review and the Glenna Luschei Prairie Schooner Award. He has also received several Pushcart Prize nominations, a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, and a residency with the Ragdale Foundation. His poetry has been featured on National Public Radio and in former U.S. poet laureate Ted Kooser’s newspaper column, “American Life in Poetry.”

(biographical information from poetryfoundation.org)

Explanation of Technique

           Couplets are poems that have two lines grouped together in pairs within a verse. Most of the time they are the same size. Usually, the lines have a rhyme scheme or rhythm to them. This causes a pair of lines to produce a complete thought. The poem used above by, Todd Boss, is a couplet because it follows a certain poetic format. Most of the lines in the poem are grouped together in pairs.

Interpretation of Poem

            To me this poem talks about how the world is not perfect, and that is probably why the author says it is a pencil. How I inferred that the author is saying the world is not perfect, is pencils have erasers on them. Erasers are for mistakes and getting rid of them. So, in this poem Todd Boss is probably trying to get across to the reader, that nothing is perfect.

(picture from collisionrevolution.files.wordpress.com)

Visual Explanation

        The picture above, shows a pencil erasing a mistake. I chose this picture to display the focal point in the poem, the world being a pencil. The pencil represents the world not being perfect and that some bad things of it have been erased. For example, one bad thing that has been erased is slavery.