For my poem, “Thanks, TV,” I took inspiration from William Blake’s approach to writing within his collection of poems, Songs of Innocence and of Experience. His poems took specific scenarios and explored them from different perspectives, comparing the innocence of childhood to the experiences of adulthood under the same circumstances. I took that idea and applied it to two long poems alternating with each other. The stories follow a protagonist in the years 1999 and 2019 visiting his childhood home. I decided to have the poems run parallel to each other so the perspectives would contrast each other at every turn before slowly merging together at the end. The idea was to highlight the benefits of viewing a situation through two viewpoints at the same time so that the mind has a clear perspective without becoming too cynical or naive. 

I wanted to take a unique approach and not have two isolated perspectives to compare to each other after the fact. I was fascinated by the concept of viewing the same environment in two different times to show growth within someone who has become jaded since childhood. I also wanted to see how looking at the same items within the house would hold different meaning within these two perspectives. I chose to have the reoccurring items in both stories be the elevator, bacon, the television, the parent’s old room, and the father himself, all causing self-reflection within the protagonist. On the TV, I chose to have Beauty and the Beast play in 1999 and The Shape of Water in 2019. This would serve as a visual representation of taking a similar story and exploring them through a child-friendly point of view and a more mature approach. 

The rhyme scheme I decided upon was to have a traditional ABAB rhyme scheme for the experienced perspective of 2019 and have the first word of each line rhyme in every stanza of the innocent perspective of 1999. I thought it was important to have a distinct voice for both so as not to confuse the audience when interchanging between the two of them throughout the story. I also thought for the innocent voice that having that repetitive start to each line would match the tone of a child. When writing the experienced voice, I struggled with finding creative ways to express certain phrases without reverting to clichés. In the end, however, I ended up in a position where I started relying on the objects to help bring out a distinct voice that felt organic. 

I chose not to actively imitate Blake’s writing and instead take inspiration from his approach towards storytelling so that I manage to maintain my own style of writing. I feel like if I had decided to write in the style of another author’s voice, I would lose my own identity within the writing. I want to be able to look at this piece and feel like I expressed the ideas within the story the way that I knew best instead of worrying if my lines would fit with what William Blake would write. In the end, I can confidently say that what I put onto the page was what I wanted to convey through my story.