Campbell McGrath -- Capitalism

For my report, I chose Campbell McGrath’s Capitalism. For those of you who do not recognize the name, we read one of McGrath’s poems in class, “The Prose Poem,” during our exploration of prose poetry.
Capitalism is a well threaded compilation of poems that focus on America’s materialistic penchant. However, McGrath transcends the traditional perspectives and images that readers often associate with modern criticism, and employs a variety of perspectives that forces the reader to adopt a diversity of vantage points (seemingly contradictory at times) in order to broaden the “image” of American materialism.
Each poem is amalgamation of sensual detail – provoking images, unorthodox emotions and, at times, unnerving textile descriptions. McGrath’s ability to draw his reader into his words is astounding. It is as if he speaks with photographs, living photographs that is, rather than words. Words are subsidiary in his work; they merely serve to create a specific “sensual” purpose. However, his images are far from prosaic, far from comfortable. You are engulfed in the spandex of David Lee Roth, forced to see the suicide of Meriwether Lewis (of the Louis and Clark expedition), and force-fed the sights and sounds of a country fair. These images are far from pleasant -- they are realistic, they are the “unspeakables” that lie in the massive shadow of capitalism.
The majority of McGrath’s poems in Capitalism are prose poems. However, heavily enjambed free verse is used to break lengthy periods of prose to act as bonding agents. These free verse pieces could easily be transmuted to prose form, but their mere shape provides a mental intermission, to allow the reader to breath a bit of fresh air before a lengthy splurge of prose reappears. To a certain degree, the structure of the book is unpredictable, emphasizing the nature of the consequences of our capitalist culture.
Most of the poems are written in first person (“I was at the 7-11. I ate a burrito” (8).). Specifically, the prose pieces are written in first person, while the interspersed free verse pieces take a step back and adopt a third person point of view. Overall, the voice of the speaker is notably sardonic. Even without blatant evidence of voice, the mood is developed to pervade a sense of frustration, of isolation, of a directionless, racing pace. The sentences in the prose pieces are long and flowing, while the sentence structure of the free verse pieces are abrasively cut to moderate lengths. In addition, diction is simple and provocative, which removes any potential shroud that may skew the meaning. The purpose is up front, and visible. “American Exceptionalism” is indirectly placed in a pedestal, and critiqued through the varying viewpoints of diverse narratives. Surprisingly, each poem exudes its own strength, its own original kinship to the guiding themes. In several instances, a particular poem could evoke an alternative message if it were not for the dominate themes humming in the background.
The book concludes with a slight departure from the established mood, and moves to speculation, apprehension, and wonder. Instead of culminating to a bloody tirade, the tension eases, and releases the dam of sentiments held within the reader: “The crush of humanity surrounds us, / the animate hum, the giant clock ticking off seconds / like heartbeats reverberating through an immense marble hall” (57).