CENSORING THROUGH ARTISTIC EXPRESSIONS
By Edwin Amuga
The Poem ‘Bitch’ by Carolyn Kizer is one of the most creatively censored works in poetry. The words of the poem say one thing while the censored expressions say another (Parker and Kaizer, 2017). Kaizer was known for her political poems such as the ‘Ingathering’ that criticized the government. The poem ‘bitch’ is not different, but words are meanings are hidden. The poem talks about two former lovers running into each other coincidentally. The man hurt the lady but tried to hide her emotions because she still loved the man. The narrator refers to herself as a dog calming herself down as the man approaches. The narrator’s tone varies across the poem. She starts off with an angry tone and proceeds to a desperate one as she describes herself as whimpering and wanting to snuggle with the man. She is clearly desperate lonely.
She personifies herself as a dog and does it many times throughout the poem as she states that the bitch starts to back hysterically. The barking is changed into whimpering to suggest that despite her suffering because of the man, she is like a dog and the dog owner who does what it is told to do and is expected to do it. Their relationship suggests that they were the boss who ordered her around and expected her to do what she expected. Symbolically, the relationship is the military structure, the dog as soldiers and the boyfriend; the dog owner symbolizes military heads. No matter what the soldiers go through, in the name of ‘love’ for their country as with the dog owner, they are expected to carry orders in whatever state they are in, no matter the complaints, opinions or anger, religious or political views as a result of bad orders (Jay, 2018).
References
Jay, T. (2018). Swearing, moral order, and online communication. Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 6(1), 107–126.
Parker, S., & Kaiser, W. (2017). Native American Literature and L’Écriture Féminine: The Case of Louise Erdrich. Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, 36(1), 151–173.
