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Adam
Had ’em.
— Strickland Gillilan
Well, that’s all for my first post. See you later!
…I’m just kidding! Really, I just thought we’d start short and sweet for our first poem together. Something digestible that takes little time out of your day and is INSANELY fascinating. I only learned about it recently, too, so don’t mind me as I keep doing my research!
Take one look back up at that little quote! That’s an entire poem, ya’ll. If you thought poems had to be novels, you were dead wrong. And honestly, so was I.
“Lines on the Antiquity of Microbes”, also known as just “Fleas”, is a couplet written by Strickland Gillilan, an American poet in the 20th century. This sucker is commonly cited as the shortest poem literally ever.
Naturally, there is some debate to that! There are awesomely weird examples (which we’ll get into later) of poems that just consist of one letter! This will lead us to one of my favorite topics later, what CAN be poetry?
But enough of that now. We want fleas! No… wait… we want “Fleas”! Whew, that’s better. I sure don’t want the first one.
But anyway! What gets me the most about this poem, is I have no clue how to interpret its meaning. My brain demands some sort of literary analysis, yet it’s only three (more like two and a half) words long! So what IS this poem?
Right now, I’m looking more into Strickland Gillilan himself to find out more about him, and then maybe dig up some information on that special little couplet!
Please feel free to leave comments of your own thoughts and maybe research you come across! We can absolutely discuss! Don’t be shy!
I’ll see you guys later with either a follow-up on “Fleas” or another temporary topic that catches my short my attention span! Until next time!
Love At First Write 