<i>Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems</i> (review)
2012; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 65; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2012.0292
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Forgiveness and Related Behaviors
ResumoReviewed by: Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems Deborah Stevenson Levine, Gail Carson . Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems; illus. by Matthew Cordell. Harper/HarperCollins, 2012. [80p]. ISBN 978-0-06-178725-6 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 4-8. There are poetry collections on a broad variety of subjects, but this is almost certainly a historic first: a collection of insincere poetic apologies. Levine follows closely in the footsteps of William Carlos Williams, modeling her verses tightly on "This Is Just to Say," his famous confession of unfair plum consumption, and using that title for all of her nearly fifty entries. While subjects vary, most poems draw on folklore, nursery rhyme, or familiar songs: the pushing of Humpty Dumpty off the wall happened because "all the king's horses/ and all the king's men/ were bored," explains [End Page 407] one poem apologetically, while Beauty's Beast sorrowfully confesses, "I breakfasted/ on your daughter" ("please send/ her sisters/ by the next coach"). While not all poems are equally successful (and some of the apologies seem genuine enough, if comic in context), the collection overall possesses appealing irreverence and vitality. The open and breezy format adds accessibility, with each spread offering one or two of the terse verses offset by Cordell's humorous art, monochromatic, wittily scrawled images often containing their own exclamations or sound effects. The introduction includes a spirited set of instructions for the writing of fauxpology poems, and there would be entertainment value in individual recitations as well as in just browsing. Copyright © 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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