Language 2: Rorschach - Jeane Marie Beaumont

Rorschach: A projective test using bilaterally symmetrical inkblots; subjects state what they see in the inkblot. (Psychology)

Beaumont uses language to guide the reader to what her rorscach of everything is. She uses mundane objects such as the "stain on a linen napkin left by lip" and "a man's tattered bow tie" in a way that it gives such depth to the meaning of the poem. Her language, enhanced by her diction, brings the poem to life. Without the ordinary objects she mentions, her rorschach wouldn't mean anything. She states what she sees in the object just like a person at a psychiatrist's office would do.

She uses language to explain to her reader the importance of these things. In a rorschach, a psychiatrist is able to grasp the patient's past, just like in this poem, we are able to see glimpses of the speaker's past through her statements about the objects. She compares "cabinet" to "casket" which may indicate that someone in her family had died in the kitchen or something of that sort. Her use of diction, using words of similar sounds, (I forgot what that literary term is), shows the depth of the situation. She keeps the reader wondering who she really is.