Finding the link
Alison Chisholm explores the unexpected connections which give a poem its original slant
One of the greatest challenges for a poet is to find something new to say. It’s all been said before. Any poet who manages to find a truly original subject should keep very quiet about it, write the poem, and then win all the accolades going for that remarkable achievement. So how do we go about finding an approach that will thrill the reader with its freshness? One way is to think about links. As soon as you link one theme with another, you minimise the chances that it’s been said before.
Poet Sue Gerrard from St. Helens, Merseyside, struck gold when she realised that a love poem with a sad theme and dramatic twist could be linked with a picture portraying an idyllic love scene. So the same central theme – love – could be explored in a way that would engage even the most cynical readers.
The first stanza of the poem suggests a highly romanticised link between the viewer of the picture and the couple portrayed there, and it’s only in the stanza’s final line that we realise all is not quite so rosy. This is reiterated with the image of the slap, reinforced by the onomatopoeic quality of the word. Confirmation is provided through imagery where the reader, having heard the slap, sees and feels the impression of the fingermarks, even while the narrator observes from the picture the time to come, / the time that was meant to be. The irony is palpable.