Saturday, March 8, 2008

"Once again the rhythm starts"

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/once-again-the-rhythm-starts/
"Once again the rhythm starts" Mujtaba Hussain
mujtaba Hussain is a teacher in Melbourne, Australia. His genre might be called the terrorism era writers.
“Once again the rhythm starts,” is a poem about a “suicide bomber.” Hussain uses word repetition and fragmented thoughts to illustrate the scrambled mindframe of a person who is about to commit a horrible act of violence. The speaker is going over themes of violence, prayer, and death in his head. He/she says things over and over representing the amount of misguided logic that is drilled into the heads of violent extremists, as well as how much they must convince themselves of the righteousness of their acts. Time is slowed down in this portrait of a stream of consciousness spanning a few moments in the mind of a murderer.
I found “Once again the rhythm starts,” to have some similar qualities to William Shakespeares, “Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore.” Both deal with time running out. Shakespeare says that since our birth each fleeting minute brings us closer to our death. However Shakespeare establishes time as both a giver and a taker, a paradoxically blessing and damning reality. In Hussain’s poem time literally is running out for the speaker. He is experiencing probably the last of his moments here on earth. For the bomber, even though he repeatedly uses the word time, he is in his mind about to enter into another life where time ceases to exist. Death is in a way the conquering of time.

2 comments:

PatrickHurt said...
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PatrickHurt said...

This poem seems to be an accurate representation of the inner workings of a man ready to commit a desperate act of violece. The repetition effectively conveys the inner turmoil one in this situation must go through.