beware: do not read this poem (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Emmett Coleman
- First Published: 1970
- Type of Work: Satire
- Genres: Satire, Free verse, Poetry
- Subjects: African Americans, Culture, Language or languages, 1960’s, United States or Americans, Blacks, Poetry or poets, Television or television broadcasting
The Poem
“Beware: do not read this poem” is written in free verse, divided into six unequal stanzas. There are no capital letters, and the poem has many spelling irregularities and abbreviations, with apparently random spacing in many lines. There are very few punctuation marks except for an occasional comma or slash, usually in an odd place. However, a single voice speaks the whole poem, and, although there are no neat markers to indicate divisions, the poem can be divided into three distinct parts. Moreover, despite its appearance on the page, the “grammar” of the...
[The entire page is 1428 words long]
