Sleeping with the Dictionary

I really enjoyed Harryette Mullen's playful book, SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY. My favorite poem by far was Jinglejangle and the word association style it used. It was cool to read the random words, and if you look closely there are "signifyin" references sprinkled throughout. For example, "coon" and "soul" in the sequence "boon coon Bot's dots Boozy Suzy bowl of soul bow wow." Mullen seems to be subtly commenting on stereotypes, but also on many culturally significant things. I don't know if I missed the point of this poem, but at the very least it is very enjoyable to read.

This idea of signifyin is interesting, and Mullen uses it in many cases in SLEEPING WITH THE DICTIONARY. An example is in "Exploring the Dark Content", she replaces "astro turf" with "Afro turf". I also love the line "You are the Eucharist beyond my Miles Davis" from "Any Lit". One aspect of signifyin is using allusions that only a particular audience will understand, and this falls under that category. This line was cool to me, initially, because I immediately imagined Miles Davis to be Christ. That would be an amazing religion! "Any Lit" uses an interesting strategy of taking a "ewe" sounding first syllable and putting it with an "em" sounding first syllable word. The randomness of each comparison really worked somehow, and it made me wonder if Mullen was thoughtful about each comparison, or if it was random.

Another characteristic of signifyin is using Black Vernacular. The poem "Coo/Slur" kind of employs this as it breaks up words in order to sound like colors. "Dared" becomes "da red". And "bro won t" becomes "brown t". The signifyin effect is subtle, but when read aloud, the effect is stronger. I also love this poem because it goes along with the dictionary theme of the book (note that the poems are in alphabetical order by title).

This book was so enjoyable because it was so cohesive. It played off the dictionary theme, it had fun word association strings, and I loved Mullen's play on phonics. "Zen Acorn" plays with word scrambles, and many of her poems use alliteration (ex: "Suzuki Method"). Mullen effectively uses literary devices and signifyin throughout her book.