Montao 1

Jiara Laine Montao

Ms. Nica Bengzon
Lit 14 R69
6 May 2016
Literary Analysis Paper
A comparative analysis of the poems, Special Problems in
Vocabulary by Tony Hoagland and, On the Problem of Tense of
Language by Ramon Sunico.
The chosen poems actually have a certain irony in them. They both
talk about how words fail to capture certain feelings and emotions yet it
is ironic the authors use words to tell the insights of the poem. As
noticeable from their titles, these two poems are related to the problems
of language with regards to feelings and emotions. This literary analysis
will discuss how language cannot fully encapsulate the complexity of
certain things, and how it is unable to express a feeling accurately as
portrayed by the two poems chosen.
In Sunicos poem, the persona tells Doris, his late friend, that the
problem with language, particularly the tenses, is that it places an end to
his love for her. Since Doris is dead whenever the persona refers to her in
English, French and German, grammar forces the persona to use the past
tense. Thus, placing a certain restriction on his unrelenting feelings for
her. The persona then proceeds to resort to another language, Filipino. In
Filipino, the persona can say Mahal kita instead of saying I loved you.
Thus, retains the timelessness of his love for his friend hence, the line

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for all they know you are still my friend, alive. The poem also talks
about how language dichotomizes things into words. It boxes events into
the zones of past, present and future. An event can either be something
that has happened, is happening or has happened. This is actually very
ironic for time is infinite, it has no start nor an end. However, through
words we place certain borders on time. It is really interesting how
humans constantly refine language to not only reiterate the borders of
time but also add more categories for our verbs (i.e. past progressive
tense, present progressive, past perfect, past perfect progressive). This is
why the persona says Matalik kong kaibigan si Doris because in this
sentence there is no verb, and consequently no tense, that can box his
friend into time. Unlike in English wherein the sentence would have to
have a verb.
The complexity of grammar reflects how language has become so
intricate that it does only slice time but also people. The tense in
language for example in the poem does not only restrict the feelings the
persona has for his friend; the tenses of language also sliced Doris into
something of the past. Doris turns into a somebody that ceases to exist
she becomes an idea. She no longer belongs in the present nor the
future; she is now a figure of the past. The poem also talks about how
slice people into genders. It is really very curious how we associate
certain things to words. For example, when a baby has not even been
born, one can already know the gender of the child. The parents
proceed to paint their childs room blue or pink and buy manly toys like
basketballs and baseball bats or buy girly toys like blond-haired blue-

Montao 3
eyed dolls once they know their childrens genitalia. When actually,
gender in itself is a very complex matter. A he, she, it or they cannot
completely portray other genders (e.g. bisexuals, pansexuals).
In the second poem, Special Problems in Vocabulary, the persona
discusses how words fail to capture the complexity of emotions and
feelings. This poem has a particular style in every stanza. The stanza first
begins with a line stating that there is no part of speech that describes
the next lines that portray a dramatic situation. Additionally, this
dramatic situation for the first six stanzas of the poem follow a certain
motif: they all talk about how words fail to encapsulate the process of
severing a bond or a connection. However, during the seventh stanza
there seems to be a turning point from this theme. Instead of talking
about aforementioned negative feelings, it talks about how all those
emotions just seem to have disappeared.
The poem seems to show how certain feelings, emotions and
situations cannot be boxed into words. The complexity of a certain
situation or event, cannot simply be described by one, single word. For a
situation to be portrayed it needs not only one adjective, noun, phrase or
name, instead it needs a group of words to be able to describe it.
Although, the poem says that there are no words that can describe a
certain dramatic situation, it actually describes the situation by using a
group of words. A word cannot capture the complexity, but a group of
words, at some extent, can. The poem seems to imply that to properly tell
a story it needs to utilize a group of words to be able to describe it in
detail. It needs the help of a noun, adjective, verb and name to be able to

Montao 4
depict the situation. A word can only capture a certain aspect or feature
of things. Thus, one word may not be able to perfectly show something in
detail but a group of words can make up for the deficiency of the other
word. With the help of different kinds of words, it is hence able to create
an image.
Moreover, the poem also seems to talk about either anxiety or
depression, based on the details given by each dramatic situation
described in the poem. The six negative situations not only revolve
around a motif. These situations gradually worsen after each stanza.
First, it was a severing of the bond of friendship, followed by the
separation with a significant other, losing of the motivation to read,
disgust with oneself and losing of the motivation to go out. These
situations appear to describe symptoms of anxiety or depression, wherein
the afflicted becomes more recluse to society. However, this uncertainty
between anxiety or depression just shows how words fail to box things
into the certain categories language creates. Things cannot be simply
dichotomized into such, because feelings and emotions are very intricate.
A situation has layers of emotions attached to it. A person can be happy
and sad at the same time, or be angry yet calm. Words seems to box a
person into a certain feeling (i.e. depression, anxiety) when in actuality it
cannot be, for these feelings can just appear out of nowhere and
disappear without warning. Just like in the poem wherein for a certain
period of time everything was going wrong but then at some point all
those feeling just seems to disappear. Everything was alright once again.

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These two poem albeit presenting their points differently: Sunico
styled the poem into a letter while Hoagland styled his lines in a certain
pattern per stanza, both show the same, if not similar, insights. The way
these poems were structured also generated two distinct tones. For
Sunicos, it was more nostalgic while Hoaglands had a darker motif in
the start but then vanishes towards the end, like a weakening storm.
These two poems show how language tries to box emotions by using
vocabulary, tenses and grammar but fails to do so. Words try to label
certain feelings (i.e. happy, sad) but falls short of doing so because a
person has layers of it. Pleasurable feelings, for example, that induces a
person to smile and laugh is boxed into the word happiness when in
reality it might not only be happiness it can also be excitement and
contentment. The way that we, humans, try to box things into words just
show how much we want things to be organized in a certain matter
where it is simpler for us to understand. However, by doing so language
reinforces certain stereotypes because it simplifies the complicated; it
generalizes the specific. This shows how language is just a means to
brings things into a certain order that is convenient to us.

Montao 6

Special Problems in

of your own body in the mirror,

Vocabulary

for disliking the touch

by Tony Hoagland

of the afternoon sun,

for walking into the flatlands and

There is no single particular noun

dust

for the way a friendship,

that stretch out before you

stretched over time, grows thin,

after your adventures are done.

then one day snaps with a

popping sound.

No adjective for gradually

speaking less and less,
because you have stopped being
able

No verb for accidentally

breaking a thing
while trying to get it open

to say the one thing that would

break your life loose from its
grip.

a marriage, for example.

Certainly no name that one can
No particular phrase for
losing a book
in the middle of reading it,
and therefore never learning the

imagine
for the aspen tree outside the
kitchen window,
in spade-shaped leaves

end.
spinning on their stems,
There is no expression, in
English, at least,
for avoiding the sight

working themselves into

a pale-green, vegetable blur.

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No word for waking up one

and learned, and loved,

morning
and looking around,

And the German I need to learn

because the mysterious spirit

(and not yet love) is that,

Like English, which we

that drives all things

seems to have returned,
love, not wisely, but too well,
and is on your side again.
they all impose limits
on acts that should perdure,
on feelings that burn
with a timelessness.

And so their small, subtle verbs

mince the universe into tenses,
their pronouns and articles
slice people into genders.

They infect us with the finitude

On the problem of tense in

of their visions, their fatal

language

powers.

By Ramon Sunico
So, even now, I can write,
Dear Doris,

dearest of friends:

The problem with the French

Matalik kong kaibigan

which you learned to love,

si Doris or Mahal kita,

Montao 8

and for all they know

you are still, my friend,
alive.

Bibliography
Hoagland, Tony. Special Problems in Vocabulary. Special Problems in
Vocabulary. Graywolf Press, 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.
Sunico, Ramon. On the Problems of Tense of Language. Print.