The Soup

[pitchgreen]

Critique of Gary Soto’s, “The Soup” on page 1996 of the Norton

Comments

[rositageorgieva]

Christine, I am glad that you chose Soto's poem for your journal. It is a very interesting poem drawing our attention to the construction of the poem itself, even in the shape of its parallel creation -- the picture of a soup. You are right that "Everything exists only because of the words on the page". A poem is, in fact, nothing more than a string of beautifully arranged words that begin their existence the moment they connect with other words and produce meaning together within the poem? I like the vivid description of the painting of the soup which is also, at the same time, an elaborate soup-making. The process of the maker's transcending from one world (of the drawing) into the other (of the cooking of the soup) is shown very skillfully: "He adds meat and peppers it with pencil markings". A wonderful eye for details. "The onion has gathered the peas in its smile" --another beautifully drawn line, another vivid image. Some readers may wonder if this "kitchen" poem about soup should be categorized as a "bad poem" but the

[rositageorgieva]

p.s. The very opening of the poem; "The lights off" and Molina drawing "what he thinks is soup" is an invitation for us, the readers, to engulf into a poem that is a pure construction of the poet's imagination, a wordplay, a puzzle; an invitation to feel free in our ways of interpretation and experience of it.

[spaczek_27]

i really liked the fact that you chose something other than Eliot to discuss. Although i wasn't able to give much thought to the poem itself (because i've been so busy)i really enjoyed your interpretation of the poem and the element of imagination.