Collective Understanding in Emily Berry's Poem, Nothing Set My Heart Aflame

When assigning the value of a piece of literature, what qualifies literature as being viewed upon as good literature would be its ability to appeal to the reader on a personal level. What further causes literature to be viewed as great is how that piece of literature can cause a reader to find hidden meanings in the text to enrich a reader’s experience. Looking at Emily Berry’s poem, Nothing Sets My Heart Aflame, through reader-response criticism, Berry’s poem can be measured as great literature when the reader actively creates meaning in what can be considered as a satirical poem addressing consumerism or as an anonymous confession to shopping.

Upon first reading the poem, Berry describes a variety of seemingly insignificant objects ranging from Crittall windows to a brown leather satchel in a sort of a rambling, almost easily distracted fashion with it’s lack of punctuation aside from many commas. What makes the objects in the poem significant is how Berry’s tone addressing the items she mentions. After mentioning the items, the speaker seems distracted and almost wishy-washy as the speaker seems to portray a sense of apathy toward her items, viewing them as museum artifacts and herself as the curator. One particular section standing out is how “When the class war happened one side was busy buying salvaged parquet flooring/ I don’t know what the other side was doing.” Looking at that specific line through reader-response criticism, there is a strong correlation to social media trends emphasizing trivial happenings and supposedly new popular styles to an extent where those on social media are unaware of more serious happenings in the real world. Applying a real word example to the lines in Berry’s poem raises hypothetical questions as to whether or not responses toward the poem are meaningful as well as valid to the piece in question. (Ray 425) Therefore, reader-response critics do not dissect the text given, but rather to know “how to produce what can therefore be said to be there.” (Fish 4)

Stanley Fish, author of How to Recognize a Poem When You See One, argues the point “interpreters do not decode poems; they make them.” In reader-response criticism, the reader’s response to the text is gradual. A key component in reader-response criticism is collaboration between other readers. Other collaborative responses to the same text may enrich the first reader’s response, thus bringing the reader closer the piece of text in question according to Lynn’s Texts and Contents: Writing About Literature with Critical Theory. Gathering other responses and learning about how others related to Berry’s poem brought similarities as well as differences as to how others viewed Nothing Sets My Heart Aflame. When other girls began relaying Berry’s poem to their own personal experiences, the more the poem began to read like a shopaholic’s rambling confession. What further supports the confession is how the speaker is “taken by the clothes women wear in the magazines/ I read at my physiotherapist’s” while believing in “the power of acquisition to cleanse the soul” and how a owning brown leather satchel would cause her to become “more formed politically.” (Berry) This relates how many women in my Critical Methods class, including myself, feel as if buying some piece of clothing will lift them from their bad moods, yet more often than not feel “buyer’s remorse,” resulting in not wearing the piece or pieces of clothing purchased.

What made the poem come across as satirical when reading it a second time, was the speaker’s attitude of how we are “running out of eras,” especially considering some of the items mentioned: a mid-century lampshade, parquet flooring, a fixed-gear bicycle, Crittall windows, a leather satchel, a collection of postcards of churches, and an antique broach. (Berry) Despite the items being seemingly insignificant and typical, there is a real-world application to the item. Many fashions from previous decades have recently been making comebacks into the contemporary world under the labels if being vintage. What supports this is the line “The olden days are very contemporary at the moment” especially when “we have nearly run out of eras.” (Berry) According to section sixteen of Fish’s How to Recognize a Poem “every object or event that becomes available within an institutional setting…can be characterized.” Thus, the items Berry mentions contain a deeper meaning than items one would normally see in an antique store. The items carry a sense of representing objects, which serve to distract the reader from their original train of thought and how those items represent a “relatively universal” crisis of the original train of thought “burning” away because of a new item. Relating to the point addressed, section eight recalls how poems “instruct [the readers] in ways of looking that will produce what they expect to see.” The objects Berry can be pictured. However, they also serve as being easily forgotten, yet the speaker in Berry’s poem doesn’t forget them. In the ending of the poem, her original train of thought is interrupted as she “sees herself in a Perspex brooch” while asking for a moment to view postcards of modernist churches due to her stance of how anything with the label of vintage has “become like a lozenge;” something which has become commonplace and soothing.

Looking deeper into the satirical tone of Berry’s poem, the voice of the speaker additionally comes across as sullen. As Nothing Sets My Heart Aflame continues, the speaker’s voice begins to indicate a level of self-reflection. After stating how the world is “nearly out of eras,” the speaker states how she doesn’t know what to do, suggesting she should “make her own clothing and wear a necklace of cotton reels.” What further validates the speaker not knowing what to do, she asks if she should go to Berlin. (Berry) By asking if whether or not to start a new trend, the speaker begins of thinking of ways to advance the fashion world. However, the line could also be read as the speaker mocking the fashion industry and citing how whatever the speaker will do become popular as older styles are being recycled and becoming mainstream without any added effort. According to Lynn’s Texts and Contexts, the beauty of reader-response criticism is how can reutilize the text we think we already know; yet any kind of interpretation of the text varies between the viewpoints of other readers. One student during my class lecture read the poem as a confession of being a shopaholic while another viewed the poem as mocking, yet cleverly addressing consumerism and materialism in contemporary society. Both viewpoints, according to section eight of Fish’s How to Recognize a Poem, are equally valid due to Fish’s assertion stating how “[poems] instruct [students] in ways of looking that will produce what they expect to see.” Therefore, both viewpoints are valid, as well as not being seen as incorrect.

In the end, using reader-response criticism to examine Emily Berry’s Nothing Sets My Heart Aflame qualifies the poem as great literature through collaborative insights. Each insight into the poem made the reading experience vary between those who read the poem, but each different viewpoint of the both enriches the reading experience. Reading Berry’s poem as a satire of materialism and consumerism in contemporary society creates a connection between the readers, causing those readers to relate their own personal experiences with the subject at hand; particularly those involving them obtaining updated versions of items they already own, which was discussed during a class lecture. Another advantage of looking at the poem as a satire also brings to light how focused our nation is on trends as opposed to real-world issues taking place in our society, but others as well. On the other hand, when one reads Nothing Sets My Heart Aflame as a confession of a shopaholic, the poem is no longer light-hearted. The voice of the speaker is wishy-washy and near scatter-brained without a full train of complete thought as they “burn” when in the presence of new thought brought on by the item or items in question. (Berry) Yet, either way one chooses to read the poem, whichever way chosen not incorrect. Each form of reading creates different reading responses, allowing meanings the readers have found to be shared with other members whether or not everyone agrees. A poem is read the way one wants to read it, and there isn’t one correct way to read it.