Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Kevin Young's "Errata," a playful yet poignant exploration of language and love unfolds. Through deliberate misspellings and linguistic contortions, the poem offers a subversive commentary on the elusiveness and complexity of human emotions, particularly the notion of love. The poem serves as a humorous litany of 'errors' that beg correction, but these errors themselves convey a sincerity and depth of feeling that a conventional approach might not capture as vividly.

The poem is built around a recurring request: "Baby, give me just one more...," followed by a distorted version of words we associate with romantic discourse like 'kiss,' 'hold,' and 'love.' These distortions serve multiple purposes. On one level, they create a sense of immediacy and urgency. Love, after all, is often messy and imperfect, much like the language of the poem. On another level, they invite the reader to pause and consider the nuanced meanings behind these ostensibly 'wrong' words. For example, "one more hiss" can be a humorous twist to "one more kiss," but it also evokes the complexities of love that is not always smooth but has moments of tension ("hiss").

The line "We must lake it fast morever" serves as a compelling play on 'make it last forever.' The word 'lake' perhaps suggests depth or even stillness, qualities often ascribed to enduring love. 'Morever,' a modification of 'forever,' adds a layer of urgency and desire for permanence, even as it distorts the word it's based on.

"I want to cold you / in my harms" is another interesting malapropism. While 'hold' and 'arms' are the anticipated words, 'cold' and 'harms' evoke the vulnerabilities and challenges within relationships. In love, we risk being 'harmed,' and there are moments where affection might 'cool,' yet the desire to 'hold' remains.

The phrase "I live you so much / it perts!" aptly summarizes the dual nature of love-invigorating yet painful. It captures the essence of love's dichotomy by morphing 'love' into 'live' and 'hurts' into 'perts,' underscoring how closely love is tied to both life and pain.

In asking "Mill you larry me?" the poem alters the traditional marriage proposal, 'Will you marry me?' The transformed question humorously but earnestly captures the risks and uncertainties, the 'milling' around that comes with the significant life decision of marriage.

The poem concludes with "With this sing / I'll thee shed," an obvious play on the traditional wedding vow, 'With this ring, I thee wed.' Here, 'sing' could symbolize the harmony or discord that accompanies any long-term commitment, while 'shed' could signify both loss and renewal, like a snake shedding its skin for new growth.

Ultimately, "Errata" revels in its playful manipulation of language to uncover deeper truths about love. It invites the reader to question conventional ways of expressing emotion and to appreciate the complexities, absurdities, and beauty inherent in both language and love. Through its clever malapropisms and 'errors,' the poem itself becomes a kind of love letter to the complexities of human emotion, capturing the imperfect yet earnest ways we strive to communicate what is in our hearts

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