Tiara (poem)

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"Tiara" is a poem that appears in Bethlehem in Broad Daylight. Published in 1991, it is the second collection of poems by the American poet, Mark Doty, who lived through the HIV/AIDS epidemic. [1] The poem serves as an elegy for the Doty's friend, Peter Holla, a Drag queen, and the first person the poet knew who died of AIDS. [2] The poem wrestles with the the accusation that gay men living through the HIV/AIDS plague years had "asked for it" simply by being homosexual and indulging in sexual practice with other men. According to Doty, "I was filled with rage at that ridiculous notion that we invite our own oppression as a consequence of pleasure" [3]

Mark Doty Novelist, memoirist

Mark Doty is an American poet and memoirist best known for his work My Alexandria. He was the winner of the National Book Award for Poetry in 2008.

HIV/AIDS Spectrum of conditions caused by HIV infection

Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Following initial infection, a person may not notice any symptoms or may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. Typically, this is followed by a prolonged period with no symptoms. As the infection progresses, it interferes more with the immune system, increasing the risk of developing common infections such as tuberculosis, as well as other opportunistic infections, and tumors that rarely affect people who have uncompromised immune systems. These late symptoms of infection are referred to as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). This stage is often also associated with unintended weight loss.

Drag queen a person who dresses and acts with exaggerated femininity for performance purposes

Drag queens are performance artists, almost always male, who dress in women's clothing and often act with exaggerated femininity and in feminine gender roles with a primarily entertaining purpose. They often exaggerate make-up such as eyelashes for dramatic, comedic or satirical effect. Drag queens are closely associated with gay men and gay culture, but can be of any sexual orientation or gender identity. They vary widely by class, culture, and dedication, from professionals who star in films to people who try drag very occasionally.

Contents

Prosody

This poem has 45 lines broken up into 15, 3 line stanzas. This poem is heterometric, with some lines written in iambic pentameter, Iambic tetrameter, Iambic dimeter, trochaic pentameter, and trochaic tetrameter.

Iambic pentameter is a type of metric line used in traditional English poetry and verse drama. The term describes the rhythm, or meter, established by the words in that line; rhythm is measured in small groups of syllables called "feet". "Iambic" refers to the type of foot used, here the iamb, which in English indicates an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. "Pentameter" indicates a line of five "feet".

Iambic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line consisting of four iambic feet. The word "tetrameter" simply means that there are four feet in the line; iambic tetrameter is a line comprising four iambs.

Trochaic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line of four trochaic feet. The word "tetrameter" simply means that the poem has four trochees. A trochee is a long syllable, or stressed syllable, followed by a short, or unstressed, one. Stresses on a syllable are detected by simply noting which syllable one puts stress on when saying the word. In many cases, this is the syllable which is pronounced loudest in the word, for example, the word 'purity' will take a stress on the first syllable and an unstress on the others.

Synopsis

The poem begins with the Peter's death in a paper tiara. In the second stanza, the speaker offers a flashback of him and Peter in a hospital room, then transitions to his funeral in the third stanza. Some people make friendly jokes related to Peter's passion for drag, then, "someone said that he asked for it," [1] initiating the theme of gay men welcoming death by HIV/AIDS by having intimate homosexual relations. This statement triggers a series of abstract images where the speaker imagines a heaven with men lying peacefully on the grass while horses walk through orchard. All the while, the speaker muses on the nature of creation and mortal pleasure.

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References

  1. 1 2 Doty, Mark. (1991). Bethlehem in broad daylight : poems. D.R. Godine. ISBN   978-0879238483. OCLC   21117996.
  2. ↑ Taylor Mali (2009-03-05), Page Meets Stage: MARK DOTY , retrieved 2019-05-09
  3. ↑ Landau, Deborah (1996). ""How to Live. What to do.": The Poetics and Politics of AIDS". American Literature, Vol. 68, No. 1, Write Now: American Literature in the 1980s and 1990s. 68 (1): 193–225. JSTOR   2927547.
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