We Three: a review of I Named the Dragon For You, by Nikki Ketteringham. BlazeVOX. Buffalo, NY. 2023. $16.00 paper.
We three is the speaker, the dragon, and the reader. The dragon is the bridge between the two. In a way, the dragon (male) is the page, and the speaker (female) the persona created by the poet. The speaker knows all about the dragon; after all, she named him. The book’s structure mimics a documentary; from time to time, the reader via the speaker checks in on Edgar. Repetition with variation is used throughout. Three other techniques are understatement, hyperbole, and irony.
Less says more. The power of suggestion is conveyed by understatement. On its face the poem “I want so much for Edgar” seems hyperbolic, but it is actually understated. Consider, I want so much (more) for Edgar (than what he already has). In a poem that begins “I never wanted children…” the poet uses chiasmus, a crisscross repetition: “don’t mind/ love/ don’t love/ don’t mind” to understate, sort of, “I never wanted children.” In a later poem there is irony in the speaker’s (so it seems) contradiction “I think I want grandchildren/ I don’t mind changing diapers.”
The blunt declaration “his name is Edgar” is hyperbolic because of the lone capital letter, not at the beginning but at the end of the poem. Hyperbole is most obvious in “Edgar wrote a thesis in college/ It’s 666 pages.” Divide that by two, and it’s 333, (speaker, dragon, reader.) Towards the end of the book a girl dragon is introduced. The final poem “She’s all yours” is hyperbolic; consider, she’s not just part but all yours (reader), in this poem, with its colloquial tone.
Irony often involves an unexpected thing following what precedes it. At the San Diego Mensa chapter, when Edgar breathes fire, the people, rather than flee, laugh. The you, second person is the reader. Opposites are at work in the speaker-reader relationship: You in your corner of the bed/ Me in my corner of the bed” and later on “You…in your corner of the mansion/ And me in my corner of the mansion.” The mansion metaphorically is Edgar’s world. Like a somewhat introspective person, he “wants to know himself.” The speaker “wants to belong to something not someone.” Similarly Edgar “belongs to something not someone.”
Edgar, the dragon, symbolizes the imagination. He is, metaphorically the page, the figurative bridge between speaker and reader, finally, like the speaker, a creation of the poet. Note the three in this poem:
You shouldn’t eat either
It bothers me
In a sense, the reader too is turned into a persona. Any discerning reader would be doing themselves a favor by reading this book from beginning to end. It’s hard to put down and, as Ketteringham’s speaker might say, Trust me, it’s one of a kind.
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