Yancy Martin’s “What a fool!” is an excellent example of a persona poem. Martin brilliantly uses a poem to give voice to… a poem! His word choice and form develop the persona of a poem and allow the reader to be manipulated by the poem itself. Because the poem seems to be flaunting its power as well as criticizing the reader, Martin’s work throws the reader into a vulnerability that might not have been realized through any other poem.
First Martin’s constant use of “I” gives the poem(the speaker) a strong control over the piece, especially because there is also a constant “you”(the reader). This places the reader and the speaker in direct conversation, pulling the reader further into the experience of Martin’s work. The first time that I, as a reader, feel controlled by the speaker/poem, is in the line, “Is it so much of a riddle diddles fiddle widdle.” Here the poem/speaker inserts words with no relevance to the question simply because they rhyme, but the reader is forced to READ them even though they make no sense. This directly places the poem in control.
Martin also uses form to create persona. There are three stanzas in his piece, each with its own purpose. The first stanza clearly sets up the persona of the speaker-poem. The second furthers the voice of the poem but shifts from an antagonistic speaker to a one that “can be nice” and seeks to improve. The third stanza, however, shifts back to the condescending voice, revealing that the kind voice was just another manipulative tactic on the speaker’s part. In the third stanza, Martin also allows the speaker to deny its own personification with lines such as, “I don’t have a heart,” and “I am just art Idiot.” In this way, Martin undermines the humanization of the speaker, emphasizing that the reader has been manipulated by, controlled by, and slave to mere “words on paper.”
I fully enjoyed this interesting piece. In terms of revision I think there are a few areas where punctuation could make the poem stronger. For instance, the third stanza has no punctuation at all. Other than that, I would love to see more. Martin does such a great job of allowing the poem’s voice to take control in this short piece that I’m sure he could do some more great things with it. Great job, Yancy!
Cara Beth TR 10:50
P.S. I’m sorry this is late! I don’t know what came over me.