"Pretty Ugly", Can You Relate To IT?!

BY MINHEE CHOI

“Pretty Ugly”, written by Abdullah Shoaib which is written to address the topic of self-worth or self-esteem and people’s confidence in their image. The author approaches this topic in an unique way which can be seen through the descriptive vocabularies, unique structure of the poem and tone of the poem and due to this, the poem could be considered one of the most uniquely structured and clever poems. Through the way that the author structured the poem, the viewers begin to understand that beauty and self-worth depends on the perception in how you perceive beauty and have confidence within yourself. So, to tell a little about this poem, it is a poem that has two contrasting tones that can be noticed when reading the poem in the prescribed way. When the poem is read from top to bottom, it talks about a person feeling ugly as they underestimate and self-deprecate themselves On the other hand, when the poem is read the other way, it shows the person acknowledging the beauty that they have on the inside which can be seen through the confident and passionate tone. These contrasting tones have a strong relationship with the title, which leads the audience to better understand the message of the poem

To begin with, the poem has strong communication between the author and readers The poem leads the readers to think and interpret different parts of the poem in various ways. This can strongly be seen after reading the poem for the first time The title seemed to be very interesting and caused some curiosity inside me to wonder about the hidden meaning and intention it had. One interpretation of “Pretty Ugly” was with pretty acting as an adverb like very, and the other way was “Pretty Ugly” with two contrasting words, pretty and ugly, both describing the appearance. Another part that made the poem much more unique was the structure. When the poem was examined in more detail, there were different poetic devices used as well as its unique structure. The use of these poetic devices played a very big role in making the poem interesting, and these made me smile at the end, due to how clever and well-written this poem was Due to its uniqueness, it was one of the poem types that I haven’t seen, which made me more engaged and interested.

The negative tone can be seen when the poem is read from the top to the bottom. Some of the major lines where it exists are in line 1, “I’m very ugly” Despite this being the first line, it expresses the negative tone straightaway of how the author is looking at himself. Also, in lines 12 -13, it says, “Because no matter what / I am not good enough to be loved” which shows that the person in the poem is underestimating and self-deprecating. Because of this, it makes me wonder if love is something that can be only given to those that are good enough, something that all of us cannot get In addition to this, in lines 17-18, it says “I always think / am I as ugly as people say?” and this seemed to be a key part because there was a slight change in mood, being less negative. It is a very smooth and fluent transition of mood and tone, connecting two opposite tones without having any difficulties in understanding and reading them.

Unlike reading from top to bottom, when reading from bottom to top, the poem has a positive tone, making it more unique and interesting There’s more confidence and passion in this stanza, showing the person caring more about themselves than others. For instance, in lines 23 - 26, the author says, “And I am in no position to believe / that I am not good enough to be loved/ because no matter what / I still deserve love.” As can be seen, these lines show the opposite in meaning of their negative counterparts. The first meaning of love, as previously mentioned, is something that only good people deserve and the second one is something that everyone deserves and that can be given by anyone. Also, other than this part, in lines 34 - 36, it says, “I am a very beautiful person / so, don’t try to convince me that / I’m very ugly” These lines are very important because they state that beauty exists within everyone. With strong passion and confidence, these quoted lines show the clear difference between the first and second reading of the poem, despite using the same lines. The author’s word choices have made the theme and the mood of the poem visible, making it easier for the audience to recognize the difference between the mood of the first and the mood of the second

Throughout the poem, a variety of poetic devices can be found, but enjambment (the continuation of a sentence or clause across a line break) plays the most crucial role. Enjambment makes the poem read smoothly in both directions. While each line of the poem does not make sense as one line, it does when read as a whole This shows how clever the author is because by using enjambment it would have taken a long time to figure out the layout and the structure of the poem so that it would make sense both ways By using enjambment, each line was well connected and the story was carried along fluently. For example, in line 2, it says, “so, don’t try to convince me that” and by ending with the word “that”, it makes the readers want to read the next verse Also, in line 6, “and I’m not going to lie to myself by saying”, it ends with a short phrase “by saying” causing curiosity in the readers’ minds. This makes the reader want to read continuously and attracts people with its unique style Other poetic devices such as rhyme and repetition also play a role in the poem. With rhyme, some lines end in rhyme, making the poem a little less solid and easier to read in a specific mood For instance, in lines 4 and 5, it ends with the word “Day” and “Way”, and in lines 12 and 14, it ends with “What” and “That”. However, with the poem being free verse, the rhyme seems to be less important than others With repetition, as each line is to be repeated from the bottom to top after reading it straight down, it could be considered a repetition. Each line is repeated one more time so that in total, they would have two of the same lines used in the poem This represents the cleverness of the author with how the same lines when reading in the opposite direction creates an opposite theme and mood.

To conclude, the author’s choice of using enjambment and other specific structures in writing a poem so that it can be read in two directions, to deliver two different messages, made the poem very unique and interesting. The poem was easy to understand and the communication between the author and the reader was very clear It made the reader think more deeply by creating different possibilities of interpretation for specific sections of the poem. It also attracts people with its writing style, encouraging them to read the poem multiple times and allowing them to make personal connections. Thus, this poem, with an unique structure, would be considered one of the most clever poems that a lot of people can relate to.