Ride my little plane

“Woman, what would you be like seen from the sky?” (20), Stephen Dobyns implicates through this aerial metaphor a striking sexual encounter, illustrating the theme for his poem “Roughhousing”. Indirectly, Dobyns uses multiple references to rouse the graphic nature of rough sex. With emphasis on “Rough”, the speaker provides visually appalling descriptions to eliminate a perception of deceit. Therefore, through the compound of contradicting diction, sexually severe allusions, and suggestive metaphors, Stephen Dobyns reveals perverted distractions to intensify and discredit the speaker’s attempt to conceal pseudo-sexual mutuality.

Dobyns’s execution of contradicting diction exposes a disguise hidden by the association of sexual innuendo and sardonic context. When introducing himself as a “weasel” (1), he not only seems to be referencing his superiority, but he also is depicting his scanty qualities. The speaker uses double-entendre when applying this word to additionally describe himself as sneaky and savage. However, this inconsistency appears to be an attempt to hide any noticeable hesitancy, or nervousness of truth being revealed. After his contradicting self-references, he continues to illustrate superiority when describing himself as a “bird eater” and “mouse eater” (3). The speaker then seems to contradict himself once more when describing his hands as “[rat] pink” (7), because he had just previously defined himself as a mouse eater, and now, he himself, has mouse-like characteristics. Therefore, the superior tone appears not only unstable, but also suggests fabrication. One then can assume the existence of a façade when Dobyns says “my domesticated paws have removed their gloves” (6). Not only referencing to his scrawniness...

... middle of paper ...

...ous metaphors were long-winded with a lack of punctuation—enjambment, while the approaching ending seemed choppy and nearly abrupt.

Though at first glance, the sexual act seems mutually lustful, the development of contradicting diction, sexually austere allusions, and suggestive metaphors, allow even further implicated sexual means to be deciphered. Revealing a pseudo-lewd nature, initially when referencing to the woman as “pale” (4) and “a plantation” (2), the woman is perceived as pure and cultivated. However, after the sexual encounter, the woman is described as a “pastur[e]”—wild and suitable for animalistic benefit (24). Comparing himself to a “snake” (5), the speaker directly alludes and associates himself to the capability of corruption. Therefore, one could assume that the speaker’s inhuman penetration of rough sex taints an initially, unblemished, woman.