POEM ABOUT YOUR LAUGH

POEM ABOUT YOUR LAUGH
By Susan Glickman
In the beginning of the poem Susan makes the reader believe that the laugh is erratic, chaotic, annoying and cruel but as she approaches the end of her poem the laugh starts getting better it makes new species and in the end it brings her to new fathoms and joy to all. Susan uses many metaphors throughout her poem and it creates many different scenes in your mind. Susan also uses many symbols such as the sunlight, the prayer wheel and the diver’s bell.
In the first three verses of the poem Susan states that the laugh resembles unsynchronized clocks. Susan was using a metaphor to explain that the laugh is similar to clocks in a watchmaker’s shop when all the watches strike an hour at different times. This sound is chaotic and annoying and this is how she perceives the laugh. In the next two verses of the first stanza she refers to the laugh as six blind kittens having nipples plucked from their mouths. Again Susan is using a metaphor explaining that the laugh is as bad as watching innocent blind kittens being taken away from their only source of survival. This makes the laugh seem cruel. The last verse of the first stanza states that the laugh is the joyful excitement of the whispers of the prayer wheel. A prayer wheel is a round box on a stick that would be filled with prayers and turned in circular motions. Susan is stating that the laugh has a good side and represents hope. In the second stanza, the first three verses talk about how when “you” laugh a lot, pine trees on one side of the forest lose their pines ultimately changing the ecosystem. The laugh must be very high pitched if it makes pine trees lose their needles, however when it changes the ecosystem it could be changing it for the better. In the next three verses Susan writes that the laugh changes the natural instincts of blood thirsty sharks making a new species. In this entire stanza Susan is stating that when something hears the laugh it changes for better or for worse. In the third stanza, in the first four verses Susan states that when “you” laugh “your” mouth is so big that she can crawl in it and listen to bat sonar. In these verses Susan is creating an image of the mouth being so big that when it laughs it can fit a hole human and an ecosystem of bats and she does this by using metaphors. In the last two verses of the third stanza Susan refers to the laugh as a diver’s bell. A diver’s bell was used for scientists to go under water and explore the depths of the ocean. If the laugh resembles a diver’s bell taking her to untold fathoms, then the laugh must represent something like no one’s ever heard before; like something no one would believe.
In the last stanza Susan talks about how the laugh brings new patches of sunlight to old dogs which they bury for later. The laugh brings joy to old dogs and makes them enjoy life again. The sunlight is symbolism, it could symbolise peace or even joyful memories.