A World Of Calamity, By Ross Gay - 883 Words

Ross Gay’s book Against Which, portrays his poetry to readers allowing them to gain understanding of the cruel world that one lives in. Moreover, the unusual brutalities that people are inevitable confronted with in life. The common denominators within Gay’s poems such as violence, love, fear, and loss allows the reader to visualize characters’ transformation within his poems. In a world of calamity, Gay has created poems that portray the corporal conforming to gender and sex but also human development. Using a reader-response criticism lens, I will be demonstrating my interpretation of Ross Gay’s poems and the meaning that I believe to be a common interpretation of his work. Within, Gay’s poems, â€Å"It Starts at Birth† and Angels Out of Reach† one is able to see a pattern of human transformation. By experiencing pain, love, loss, fear, and wisdom one is able to see Gay’s characters evolve through the narrators and readers gaze . In doing so, one is able to reflect on Gay’s poems and gain wisdom themselves. Gay’s poem â€Å"It Starts at Birth† demonstrates a title that starts at the establishment of ones life, while portraying new experiences, that one gains while enduring life. However, the poem itself illuminates the title of his book Against Which. This close analysis of the title guides the reader through a serious of evaluation and guides the reader to one question, against which? Throughout the poem, the repetition of the tittle repeats ten times. For example, â€Å"against which,