A Primer for the Small Weird Loves

Richard Siken

Fiction | Poem | Adult

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“A Primer for the Small Weird Loves” is a fragmentary poem that builds its meaning and effect through a series of seven loosely connected stanzas. It is a prose poem, meaning that its text is not arranged in poetic lines, either with a particular metric scheme or in the form of free verse. Instead, its seven segments read like prose paragraphs. Even without meter and rhyme, however, what makes it a poem is a deliberate and complex use of poetic devices—especially figurative language, intricate symbolism, strategic repetition of key images and phrases, and the density of emotion. The poem is lengthy and consists of a series of vivid scenes, ranging from mostly or partially literal to entirely metaphorical.

Second-Person Narration

The speaker refers to himself in the second-person singular (“you”). This is, on the most immediate and literal level, an extension of the poem’s concept as a “primer”; the poem is introducing readers—introducing “you”—to “the Small Weird Loves,” telling readers what they can expect should they experience such loves.

However, the second-person narration surpasses the premise of a primer and builds the speaker’s psychological complexity. The “you” pronoun creates the impression that he is in dialogue with himself, which emphasizes the speaker’s heightened self-consciousness (See: Themes). It is as if he were observing himself from the outside, often judging and criticizing his own actions and attitudes: “you deserve it, you do, and you know this” (Line 3) or “You do this, you do. You take the things you love / and tear them apart” (Lines 80-81). At the same time, this unexpected use of the second-person singular draws the reader into the poem since the speaker seems to invite them to examine their own actions and emotions to discover what they might have in common with him.

Anaphora

Anaphora is a rhetorical device in which words or phrases are repeated at the beginning of successive poetic lines. The most conspicuous example occurs in the sixth stanza, in which seven lines begin with the word “and” while three of those seven lines begin with the phrase “and you.” In this stanza, the speaker draws some conclusions about who might love him and in what manner. The anaphora mimics the process through which these conclusions are reached: You realize this, and then you understand that, and then you conclude the other. The repetition creates a sense of inevitability and makes the speaker’s conclusions come across as carefully reasoned and persuasive.