Aposiopesis means becoming silent, but as a
rhetorical device it implies tripping over your own words, cutting yourself
off, halting the flow—the speaker being cut off either by the self, or by
someone else. It happens far more in normal human speech than we'd think, and
to master it can make you a better writer of scripts, but here, we are going to
use it to make a poem: This is called “I Tried To.”
Example:
I Tried to
I
tried to—oh damn
this is—
I tried to—you know
call?
And then I thought
forget about it. I mean
it shouldn't be this—
Jesus do you always
have to chew
while I—
anyway—
I'm sorry but it's like
you got
some small
planet
in your cheek!
Anyway, I tried. I—
Jesus! Listen! I'm doing
the best I can.
You're impossible.
This is impossible.
Yes, everything's ok Mam, and
no ... no desert. Do you?
No?
You can just bring the check.
this is—
I tried to—you know
call?
And then I thought
forget about it. I mean
it shouldn't be this—
Jesus do you always
have to chew
while I—
anyway—
I'm sorry but it's like
you got
some small
planet
in your cheek!
Anyway, I tried. I—
Jesus! Listen! I'm doing
the best I can.
You're impossible.
This is impossible.
Yes, everything's ok Mam, and
no ... no desert. Do you?
No?
You can just bring the check.
Here, Aposiopesis creates the rhythm of halting
speech, and it even implies the setting: two people seem to be sitting down to
a meal. One never speaks. A third enters at the end, probably the waitress, and
we never hear her question, but we can guess. We know the speaker is troubled,
and annoyed by the other's “chewing.” The Aposiopesis creates a nice little
shape to the poem as well. This is one of the possibilities for using an
ancient rhetorical device in a free verse structure. Give it a shot.
Similar verbal phenomena to look up:
non-sequitur, sentence fragments.
Poets who have used methods of Aposiopesis:
Shakespeare in King Lear (and in other plays), Robert Creeley (in some
respects, Creeley made an aesthetic out of it), Paul Celan in many of his poems
that fragmented the German language. Many post modern poets, and poets in the
modified New York school of poetry in Brooklyn use radical non-sequitur to
create either surreal disconnects or a voice that is seemingly “ditzy.” You can
hear this sort of feigned “ditzy” in many poets, but also in Indy scripts with
“pixie” types—that so called “dream” girl who, in an earlier manifestation, was
played to perfection by Carole Lombard and Jean Arthur in screwball comedies.
Going from one thing to another can be construed as a kind of Aposiopesis.
Guidelines:
1. In your poem, use aposiopesis by breaking off
abruptly and leaving statements incomplete; that is, leave a sentence
unfinished, so that the reader can determine his or her own meanings.
2. Use the example above to create a
form/format for your own poem.
3. Sometimes a word is used to indicate
something completely different from its literal meaning. Such as in this
example, “Tis deepest winter in Lord Timon’s purse; that is, one may reach deep
enough, and find little” (Timon of Athens, by William Shakespeare).
4. Sometimes a word is used to indicate
something whose actual name is not used like, “A chair’s arm.”
5. Sometimes a paradoxical statement is used to
create illogical strained metaphors. Such as, “Take arms against a sea of troubles.”
6. To create surprise, aposiopesis does not give
information that the audience wants or expects to receive. This generates
audience interest in the information.
7. Emotive aposiopesis does not finish a
sentence due to an emotional outburst. This type of aposiopesis does not finish
an idea to give a sense of something that’s beyond description, as in the case
of an angry man who is so furious that he can’t even think of what he wants to
do to express that anger. Example: If I catch up with you, I’ll, I’ll – (the thought is left incomplete).
8. Abusio is a subtype of Aposiopesis, which
results from the combination of two metaphors.
Tips:
1. Try to stay away from long lines, remember
that abrupt cut-offs are typical of Aposiopesis.
2. Remember, too, that the most effective Aposiopesis
happens when the reader is able to figure out the thoughts that the poet has
left unfinished.
3. Stay “conversational” without telling too
much.
___________________________________________________
Many thanks to Joe Weil for this prompt!
Joe Weil is a professor teaching undergraduate and
graduate creative writing at Binghamton University (SUNY). He has published numerous
chapbooks and four full-length collections of poems, including A Night in Duluth, The Great Grandmother Light, and The Plumber’s Apprentice, all from NYQ Books. He also co-authored West of Home, with his wife, the poet Emily Vogel.
Joe and Emily have two children, Clare and Gabriel.
A long-time poet with the Geraldine R. Dodge
Poetry Program, Joe Weil’s poems, reviews, essays and short stories have appeared
in numerous magazines and journals. He appeared on Bill Moyers’ PBS
documentary, “Fooling with Words,” and, in addition to teaching for the Dodge
Foundation, he has been a featured reader at the Dodge Poetry Festival. With a
long list of reading series and poetry events to his credit (including the Can
Of Corn Poetry Series designed to generate food donations for the hungry and
homeless), Joe has worked tirelessly to create non-competitive community among
poets. The New York Times described
him as “working-class, irreverent, modest, but open to the world and filled
with a wealth of possibilities.”
Meet Joe Weil: https://www.pbs.org/video/state-of-the-arts-joe-weil-poet/
Order Joe’s Books: https://books.nyq.org/author/joeweil
