SPOTTTS

Subject: Self reflection / Confusion in post break-up

Paraphrase (as a class): If by real you mean impossible thing, then yes. Wait-its all imagining.
Can you imagine one husband with six different functions? He can do everything without me but
expect me home.

Occasion: 2011 We think that this poem is the situation that occurs in the modern poem
because speaker in the poem who is female is the one who goes to work and her husbands
(whether they are imagination or not) are the ones who stay at home and do all those house
chores. This shows the modern norm about the gender roles where women no longer have to
stay at home and work and can work in fields that they want.

Organization: Sonnet (The untraditional one). The reason that she uses sonnet is because it is
typically about love and loss as well as sarcastic sometimes. Also, the reason she does not use
traditional rhyme scheme is because it cannot thoroughly reflects her thoughts compared to the
free verse.

Tone: confused/ sarcastic/ sorrowful/ hopeful

Theme: Reality VS Imagination struggle to differentiate between these two things

The struggle in post-break up

Title: support the theme / It can also be the question that she asked herself in which answers
are reflecting in her poem in response.

Speaker: Author/ a poet who discussed about break up/ female narrator

Shift: There are two shifts in the poem.

1. Line 5 after the word wait: This is a point of recognition of the speaker
2. Line 9 after the question: This is a shift in tone/ a shift in focus
 ANALYTICAL PARAGRAPH

Aimee Nezhukumatathil uses diction to show the struggle of post-breakup. In the Are All
the Break-Ups in Your Poems Real? poem, Nezhukumatathil uses sensory words to illustrate the
hardship that people face after they break up with someone whom they love. On the first quartet
of sonnet, it is the part where the break-ups are still fresh and person are still hurt and despair
by those break-ups, here If by real you mean as real as a shark tooth stuck/ in your heel, the
wetness of a finished lollipop stick (line 1-2) The word shark tooth represent the past loves
that she has with her past lovers. The shark tooth itself is very sharp, thus it sticks deep down to
the flesh once it bites into it, and causes a lot of pain to the person who is bitten. This represents
the break-ups where the person still hurts from them and heart and mind still bonds toward that
person. This is like a shark tooth in such a way that the pain of the break-ups and past loves bit
and bite and hurt her in every next step that she takes. Also, the word wetness of finished
lollipop represents the memory of sweet and happiness of the past love make people sink into
misery after the breakup. The lollipop usually gives the sense of happiness and sweet that can
be used to describe when people are in love. However, as the time passes, the lollipop would start
to melt more and more till it is finished. This is like the love where couples are sweet and
affectionate so much with each other at first like the freshly unpacked lollipop. As the time passes,
it is like the normal couple when they start to have arguments more and more because they are
certain things that they cannot agree on till the point that they can no longer tolerate each other
and decide to break, which is like the lollipop that started to melt more and more and finally
finish. Nevertheless, even the lollipop is finished, the sweet sense of lollipop is still lingering
and makes that person reminisce about those good memories she used to share with her partner.
This makes her do not want to think that the breakup is real and be in the state of confusion and
struggle between imagination of memory from past and the reality where she already broke up
and needs to move on.