Initial Response to all poems.

The Nerve Meter by Antonin Artaud

Artaud himself is widely known to have been a very troubled, nervous soul but is also considered to be one of the world’s most influential experimental and surrealist figures. The Nerve Meter confused me, and I found it extremely difficult to fully understand what Artaud was trying to convey. I think this confusion might be useful as a part of an experimental piece of theatre because it might create the right mood and atmosphere for the poem’s tone to be understood fully by an audience.

Phrases such as “I am a total abyss” are short, plain and shocking. The word “abyss” has the potential to be physically portrayed and suggests a variety of different meanings: a real abyss, an abyss of the mind and so on.

The poem feels fragmented and awkward, there is something extremely un-poetic about it, something that makes it feel more like a confession than a poem. The phrase “beautiful pain” is disturbing and in my opinion, this sense of surrealism and darkness provides an interesting and versatile basis for performance.

The Flea by John Donne

Arguably, this poem is extremely romantic and seductive, despite its unlikely basis for analogy. This interesting choice makes it experimental, and also opens it up to experimental interpretation through performance. Essentially, the poem is about premarital sex and the desperation of the poem’s persona; lines such as “Where we almost, nay more than married are” have potential to be humorous if delivered with such intent. It is almost cheeky or furtive. There are lots of figurative images within the language of The Flea such as “marriage temple”, “two bloods mingled” and “Purpled thy nail”, which suggest strong, visual shapes onstage. Various skills we have developed in physical theatre may be useful for interpreting this poem through theatre.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot

This poem is rich with references to Symbolist poets, as Eliot was heavily influenced by them at the time of writing it. The poem feels quite surreal, a part of the symbolist influence, and there are many images within it that don’t seem quite right, such as “Arms that lie along a table” and “yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes”. Eliot creates a story of an undiscovered poet using really surreal and off-putting phrases and images, which allows theatre makers to experiment with a wide range of areas of the text.

The emotional level of the poem is rather melancholic; towards the end rather reflective. The phrase “I do not think that they will sing to me” is so simple, almost childlike, that it brings the reader, and potentially the audience, back to the meaning of the poem.  All of the lines that are about the persona growing old are lightly humorous. This is not obvious but you can hear the gentle tones of the speaker making the most out of his trapped situation of growing old and unrecognised. “I grow old... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled” made me chuckle, but only just. The final location of the sea is distant, like how the character feels, and I can visualise plenty of experimentation that could be done around this.