Poetry Prompt: After Fiona Apple's "When The Pawn..."
Fiona Apple’s new album Fetch the Bolt Cutters(released April 17, 2020) is in the ears of many right now, and while I’ll leave the album reviews to those with more productive things to say, I’d like to draw attention back to Apple’s 1999 album, When the Pawn… and propose a prompt.
Studio Album Cover for When the Pawn…
When the Pawn… is an abridged version of the full 444 character title, When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right.
I’m a big fan of Apple’s music, but I really can’t ever shut up about this album title. She’s stated publicly that the album title is indeed a poem, a poem which she wrote in response to the reactions of readers to an unflattering cover story in Spin Magazine.
This poem has a rhyme scheme and pacing that whips the empty air in your mouth and hisses through your teeth. When written with the original line breaks, the poem looks like this:
When the pawn hits the conflicts he thinks like a king
What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight
And he'll win the whole thing 'fore he enters the ring
There's nobody to batter when your mind is your might
So when you go solo you hold your own hand
And remember that depth is the greatest of heights
And if you know where you stand then you know where to land
And if you fall it won't matter 'cause you'll know that you're right
The poem follows an ABAB CBCB end-rhyme scheme while also containing internal line rhymes. Outside of the rhyme, the impact lies in the words that begin and end each line. When and What, as well as There, as an implied response to Where, typically serve as interrogators, used here as statement openers that imply answers. And and So serve as continuations, signaling the meat of the point, the voltaic heart of the response. It’s clear the tone is calm and biting, and it’s underscored by the line-closers. King, fight, ring, might, hand, heights, land, right. Apple’s language is operating in a realm of symbolic absolutes as if she were pulling from a tarot deck, with no real punches to throw and words packing blows.
Image by Joe McNally