Holes

 Thinking about the “things left unsaid” reminded me of my 6th grade English class for an odd reason. I remember one of the classes, we started off with debating what a hole was. Our class settled on “the absence of something,” which is a working definition in many cases. I’m honestly not sure what the lesson was that followed this discussion, but I think the definition of hole can be related in many ways to poetry, or art in general. When I looked up the definition of hole, various ideas came up. Some of them included (1) an opening, (2) an area where something is missing, and (3) a hollow place in a solid place. They are all accurate depending on the context.

When applied to the literary sphere and thought of through the lens of the “things left unsaid,” I like the definition of “the absence of something” and “an opening” the most. In poetry, when ambiguity, and often the confusion that ensues, creates room for thought, less is more. By explicitly saying less, the absence of concreteness creates an opening for symbolism, with deeper significance and complexity.

I applied this to analyzing my mentor poem, one of the first contemporary sonnets that I’ve ever read.

“We work in a building where we are hideous

in the fluorescent light, where our clothes

woke up this morning and wrapped us up like jewels”

Even just in these opening lines, there are a lot of poetic devices at work. One interesting thing that I picked up in particular was the fact that the author neglects to specify the location, simply referring to a “building.” By being vague here, the author achieves a variety of goals. In this poem, which is an overarching criticism of contemporary “white collar” office work, the author uses ambiguity to call to attention the universality of the boring, desk job that much of society is constrained to. He chooses to neglect details in a way that suggests that he believes they are not needed. After all, which one of us could be oblivious to the dreary appearance of the repulsive cubicle? Beyond this, the lack of specificity allows the reader to project their own mental image of this oppressive atmosphere. In allowing customization to the individual, the author is able to enhance the memorability and emotional response elicited from this poem. With the things left unsaid, the author crafts a custom experience tailored to each person who picks up this sonnet. In many ways, the “things left unsaid” works wonders as a literary hole where the absence of something creates deeper meaning by making an opening through which hard topics can be explored.