For those that have been assigned the classic book American Pastoral by Philip Roth, you’ve probably had long conversations about the themes and main events that the book embodies. For a quick summary on the book, read here. Here at EssayPlease, we’ve had all type of assignments come into our websites, including creative ones, and oh those are exciting!
Below is a poem based on the strong yet confounding character named  Meredith Levov. At the age of 16, Merry set off a bomb in her local post office, killing a doctor. In a frenzy of political upheaval and a plethora of emotional rollercoasters, Meredith stands out as a complicated character that the protagonist attempts to empathize with. From being called a “monster” as a child by her uncle; getting kissed by her father, raped numerous of times and having a speech impediment that is prominent throughout the book, we decided to bring together the story of American Pastoral in a poem that is written in the perspective of Meredith speaking to her father:
We hope you enjoy this American Pastoral Poem:
Daddy thinks there something wrong with me
But daddys blind to all I am
Cause in a world where luck blows up
It’s hard to be a man
Who raised a ticking ticking bomb
He counts each second wondering what has set me off
What wounded me… what wounded me?
D-d-daddy, even with my stutter perfected
I’m a still fucking b-b-bomb
But I’m not like fucking mom
I can’t display myself like a perfect little picture
Or read a perfect little scripture
Like d-d-daddys always done
C-cause somewhere in Vietnam theres an explosion of innocent lives
America’s lied, to you d-d-daddy
You don’t even know who you are
Or what you’ve done, to anyone
Too busy trying to fit your life inside those stupid useless gloves
Well… I don’t know what wounded me
What wounded me, d-d-daddy
Maybe you didn’t kiss me hard enough f-father
I just wanted you to k-kiss me like you kiss umu-umumother
Maybe it’s because you loved her more then you’d ever understand me
Or cause you’d reprimand me
For being myself
But d-d-daddy somewhere in Vietnam there’s a monk melting
Setting flames for our sins and we’re not even helping
Cause while Nixons throwing victory signs after he resigns
Before impeachment
Moms raising cows with your money like a leech and
You’re just a r-r-obot
Who knows not, the slow tocks that tick tick tick
Like the patience of injustice
D-daddy wants to know what wounded me
He thinks its him, it had nothing to do with society
It’s all about this fucking little family
D-d-daddys cowardly, coward see
While Angela Davis is fighting for freedom
Daddy wants me to call my neighbors to meet up
He thinks l-letters and petitions will stop ammunition
B-b-but dad only listens to cows and the likes of everyone else
What wounded me?
This short time we are alive
The filthy ticks of our time
D-death, injustice ticks Booms injustice, explosions tocks you
Cant you see d-daddy, that I killed your little girl long before I lived inside this room?
And the stutter I had suffered I created it for you
Cause in a world where luck blows up, you’re baby she went boom
And still you wouldn’t stand up, or even try to kill my fumes
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