Friday, October 14, 2011

Sign Inventory, Week Seven

"Antipsalm" by Novica Tadic

Sign Inventory:


  1. For one, the poem’s tonal register seems very lyrical; very similar to biblical psalms
  1. Which, it turns adds great irony, right off, because the title of the piece poses the text as opposite
  2. The first line and last two lines of each stanza are exactly the same 
  3. The first stanza seems very much representative of Christ; communion; heavily infused with overtones of salvation. 
  4. The second stanza, although similar in some respects, appears more condescending, more meditative on the Revelation.
  1. Generally, the Psalms profess  cries and pleas of help, of mediation, of reliability;  of David (typically) asking the Lord for mercy, to show him favor and love, etc… 
  1. Yet, this poem is quite paradoxical in that the narrator begs for ‘boils’ and ‘pus mixed with blood’ to fall in place of tears—essentially, the text resembles a counternarrative, colluding with conventional form yet actually presenting it in a much more subversive and secular manner; almost blasphemous.

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