True Stories Margaret Atwood

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Roshni Patel Professor November 8th,2014 True Stories by Margaret Atwood The truth of storytelling is that on the way of trying to communicate a point of truth of what really happened, it is often lost along the way. The poem called “True Stories” by Margaret Atwood examines this type of truth. The title sequence of three poems opening the book immediately forces a sinister, riddling mystery on ''Don't ask for the true story; why do you need it?” Well, of course, we didn't ask, and we had no notion that we needed ''it''. The speaker constructs it very clearly that they trust a true story is impracticable to express since though life occurs, the truth is lost between the actions that frame it twisting and redesigning the aspects depending on how they are gazed at. This theme of the unpredictability and needlessness of “true stories” is emphasized throughout. The diction in the poem is conversational without being casual. It senses like a reply to question but in a way that it is being given in a very official setting with feelings involved. In her poem “True Stories” (1981), Atwood engages questions of truth and audience desire, explaining to her silent listener that the desire for a true story is misplaced” (Heubener 2009). In lines 28- 31 the narrator states “The…show more content…
It appears to be created in free verse with no unique form. It is 32 lines in length parted by two line pairs that have no rhyme scheme so they cannot be couplets and are separated so cannot be identified in eight or four line portions of stanzas or octaves. The poem is nevertheless separated into three parts under the headings I, II, and III. As it is in free verse as well, there is no unique constant rhythm to the piece and it retains no rhyme whatsoever. The lack of these tools and constrictions give the poem its feel of a discussion making it seem as if it came straight out of an excerpt from a dialogue or

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