Cotton In Your Ears

The Text I am making reference to is called Cotton In Your Ears by Guillaume Apollinaire.    

            So many explosives about to be ALIVE

            Write a single word if you dare,

            The points of impact in my soul continually at war,

            Your fierce flock spits out fire,

            OMEGAphone.

This poem is written as a Calligramme, which means it has a distinct shape.  The way I look at the poem, I am seeing what is portrayed as a large microphone in which the lines are being spilled and yelled out of the microphone for others to hear.  In reading this short poem many things came to mind and I looked at this poem as a child, young adult, or someone who doesn’t seem able to find their voice and stick up for themselves and are reacting to the bullying or harassment.  The ‘explosives about to be alive’ can be seen as the words that are said to hurt feelings and make fun of someone.  Even though they are just words, them come ALIVE and seem more than just words to the victim.

            ‘The points of impact in my soul continually at war’ means that with every hurtful word or action done someone is hurt from it not only on the outside, but also on the inside.  The war inside their soul means that there is a constant struggle with acceptance of who they are and what everyone else thinks about them.  The constant struggle is a war between themselves and everyone else.  ‘Your fierce flock spits out fire’, which symbolizes the bully and all his followers who spit out fire, which symbolize the words of hatred.  The last verse ‘omegaphone’ symbolizes that the words said to a person with the intent to hurt echo in their ears and seem to be as loud as ever.  Its almost as if the bully is talking into a megaphone and every word is maximized to the loudest level possible.  These words just keep playing over and over in the victim’s head.

            Now I am thinking about the title and how it relates to my interpretation of the poem.  Some people may have thought back then that putting cotton in your ears will drowned out the sounds or loud music, or people snoring so that it is not so loud to listen to.  Since ear plugs were not invented yet cotton would suffice.  People who do not want to hear things will put cotton in their ears to block out the sound.  This is just my interpretation of the possible explanation or intake of this particular poem.  At the time it was written Apollinaire may not have intended it to come across this way but this is the way that I read it and viewed it.