My Word (Page 40- 41)
The poem, “My Word,” in Ali’s Call Me Ishmael Tonight, gives poetic contradictions and contrast. The first line of the first couplet says “I am lying even now – I give you my word” which in itself is conflicting due to the contradiction of lying and saying “I give you my word” is usually something said when telling the truth. In the sixth couplet, the poem says “Hard to say who’s winning” which implies someone indeed is winning at that point in time, but the next sentence of the line states “Nobody is winning.” These contradictions could be trying to explain the complexity of words and of language, in that language can easily be contradictory.
The poem also contains assonance and parallel repetition. Each couplet ends with the words “my words,” and also has internal rhymes such as “two” and “rue,” and various others. In the fifth stanza, blue is personified when the speaker says “betrothed to blue, with her refracted light.” The word “betrothed” personifies blue and makes it seem like human and as betrothed person. Another phrase in the poem that contrasts is “Beloved Enemy” because the two words paired together have very opposite connotations. Like other poems in the book, this poem has the person speak in the third person, as if talking to Shahid. The last stanza says “Yours too, Shahid, will be a radical departure. / You’ll go out of yourself and then into my word.” This last stanza could be talking about Shahid’s death and how even though he will die and go out of this world, he will still be alive in his own words in his poetry.
Identity and the Body in Asian American Literature 
June 9, 2013 at 5:08 pm
What do you make of the contradiction and thematic repetition in Ali addressing a poem to himself (“You’ll go out of yourself and then into my word.”)?