My poem is based off the highly controversial song “Rape Me” by Nirvana. Although Kurt Cobain (rest his soul) wrote this song as an anti-rape song, it was still met with criticism because of the obscene lyrics. This song would clearly be offensive to victims of rape and others affected by the crime. I used this song for the poem because it is highly offensive, despite the best intentions of the writer. I tried rearranging the lyrics used in the song to make three stanzas, and I didn’t do much to really make this jump out at the reader. A main lyric I focused on was “I’m not the only one” to try and signify that there are over 321,500 victims (age 12 or older) of rape and sexual assault each year in our country.
Great job with this poem. This is such an important topic today and i think you really helped the meaning stick out more. Your repetitiveness with the two lines “rape me” and “I’m not the only one” really help to make the purpose of the poem stand out. The format of the poem is interesting and allows for a multitude of different ways to read it.