Critical Appreciation Of Charles Simic Poetry

Charles Simic could be considered one of the most unique poets of our time. Simic has lived through many experiences that help contribute to the uniqueness of his poetry. Through his poetry, Simic uses strong language and vivid imagery to recount the tortures of living during the time of war, being in exile, and dealing with the struggles of insomnia. Charles Simic moved to America when he was still young. As a result, he used the idea of living in exile in his poetry. In the poem “Pastoral,” the speaker comes to a field “with peculiar portraits of words and silence” (Engelmann 45). As the poem moves forward, Simic uses obscure language. We, as readers, are surrounded by silence, and we are no longer standing in a field. Instead, we are looking

As the reader, it is also important to note that “silence reigned” and that Simic writes: “I was a fly on the ceiling” (Atchley 55). Another poem in the collection, “The Caged-Fortuneteller,” is started by the word “sleeplessness.” Simic then goes on to describe vivid images of a pawnshop, which is “open late / on a street of failing businesses” (Atchley 55). He then goes on to close the poem by returning to the street where the pawnshop is located: “The street is shadowy and so is the sky. We could be meeting Jacob and the angel. And we could be meeting our sleeplessness.” On the other hand, however, the actual poem “Hotel Insomnia” has no real mention of sleeplessness or insomnia at all as opposed to the other poems in the collection. Instead, “a “brick wall,” a “spider,” a “fly,” a “web,” “darkness,” a “mirror,” “reverie,” and “a gypsy fortune-teller”” (Atchley 55) is all mentioned. With the title not included, there is no real mention of insomnia and this absence seems extremely important. Since the theme of insomnia is reoccurring throughout the entire collection of poems (it goes from a ballroom of insomniacs to now a full hotel of insomniacs), it is safe to suggest that the theme of insomnia could be much larger in this poem. This could be “a larger vessel in which one encounters opaque or cloudy images: the brick wall, cigarette smoke, and reverie. It seems by shifting this figure of insomnia to the title of the poem and also to the title of the book, by making insomnia the container of all poems, Simic invites or seduces us into his poetic world” (Atchley