Poetry Analysis- Anger Sweetened

 

    Anger Sweetened by Molly Peacock is a contemporary poem with a structure close to a sonnet. Though Peacock occasionally defers from the 10 syllable per-line tradition in the sonnet, it still functionally reads like one because of its one-stanza, fourteen line length. This poem also does not align with the traditional Shakespearean rhyming scheme seen in many sonnets, and in certain places the rhyming is forgone altogether.

Peacock utilizes a lot of alliteration throughout the poem,

"Like a leggy thing", "Caught and candified", "Poised in our presence".

    These alliterations help the reader flow between the lines in an elegant way despite the subject matter being so visceral. The subject matter itself appears to be an extended metaphor comparing the sting of words that aren't said in anger to the idea of a bug frozen in time by a caste of hardened chocolate. Peacock talks about the words that stick in your mind when you mean to say them but don't, and how instead of speaking on them we hold them in and let them fester. Typically the idea of "eating your words" is about admitting you were wrong, but Peacock uses this common saying to create an image of being forced to swallow on the words we "gagged" so to speak. Each layer of sweetened anger makes it more difficult to chew.

I was drawn to this poem initially because it had the energy of a classic poem, but all the twist of a modern one. I think the use of sonnet as the structure really worked in its favor because most often when we think of sonnets we think of Shakespeare's love sonnets. Anger Sweetened could still bring that to mind, but reveal a side of love that is perhaps not so beautifully pure.

If I had to ask a question about this piece I would wonder what the significance of the grasshopper itself is. What is it about the words that are like grasshoppers themselves? Candification is not typically done for bugs of all edible things, so why was this the creature that Peacock decided to compare?