Aniqa Aslam
Hollow
“Hollow” by Elissa Soave tells a painful story of a woman who is suffering from severe anorexia. It creates a clear image of her physical and mental state.
With just a glance at the poem, my first impression is set by the fact that it is written in free verse. This means that the writer didn’t want to dwell on the line pattern and wanted to be more creative with the actual content. The reader then notices the title, “Hollow”; we assume there will be a sense of depression about the poem as something hollow usually refers to something empty and not solid. As we then continue on to the first couple of lines, we have to read over them twice.“She can’t wear jewellery anymore, it hurts too much”. The reader is taken aback because many women wear jewellery on a daily basis but it never brings pain. This part of the poem is very effective because it ponders thought as to why jewellery would bring such pain to the person described. Straight away my interest has been roused.
Soave then goes on to provoke the reader to cringe with her vivid descriptions of the subject’s physical state. In the early stages of the poem, she creates a clear image of how weak this woman’s face appears, it quotes “tinsel hoops crashing crazily against the hollows of her face”. This instantly tells us that her earrings swing to and from the lower part of her face where there is nothing but skin and bone. The alliteration of the harsh “cr” sound emphasises the sound of the earnings as they knock against her cheekbones. Elissa then goes on to say, “where the flesh should have shielded her”, this gives us the impression that she is all bones and looks possessed like a skeleton or a voo-doo doll, it defines her condition even more. The poet receives two different reactions at this point, the reader is horrified by the all too descriptive vision of this woman but they are also intrigued to carry on and find out more about how the character ended up in this position.
