's flea, with whose "blood of innocence" his mistress "purples" her nail) is destroyed: "...she cut the cabbage in two / With a single stroke of her knife (Mid-America Review)." Again, actions speak louder than words in Simic's poem, and unlike Marvell's "coy" mistress or Donne's, who has the "tables" of the argulment turned upon her, Simic's woman succeeds in whimsically cutting the dramatic moment short and exposing the real substance of the narrator's intentions (The Explicator).In Charles Simic's poems he uses everyday words and objects to convey his intentions and his mood. While reading one of his poems we can see a piece of ourselves. Cabbage is unlike the rest because at first we would not know it was a parody of two others, that takes more of an indepth look. So if I did not know any better the poem is an act of rebellion. He said "But I made her reconsider/By telling her/Cabbage sybolizes mysterious love. But then, Whereupon she cut the cabbage in two/With a single stroke of her knife. Note how she did not slowly cut the cabbage but quick and swiftly with a single stoke cut it, as if she were angry. So does she love this man? Probably not if she quickly cut this symbol of love. The first line of the poem reads, She was about to chop the head/In half. It seems as though Simic want us to think something gruesome, a murder maybe. why didn't he say "she was about to chop the cabbage in half." Simic stated, "I was aware, in writing The Book of Gods and Devils, of an almost pagan impulse (Publishers Weekly)."The style in which Simic writes continues to iritate some readedrs who see a failure to let the self become vulnerable. As further testimony to Simic's retreat into an invulnerable persona, critics point to his frequent ambiguities, his failure to commit himself to the humane task of communicating. His austere language sounds less like a man speaking to man speaking to himself (Mid-America Review). Charles Simics p...
