Why I love "Ode to American English"

With its interesting diction and free verse form, “Ode to American English” by Barbara Hamby presents a diversion from the poems we currently have been reading in class.  Hamby published her book of poems, Babel, in 2004 which included many unique poems similar to this ode.  When I came across this ode a few years ago, it instantly became one of my favorite poems and, by far, my favorite ode.  I cannot read over it without saying each line aloud and hearing how the words clash with their sounds mix into an odd cacophony. 

The speaker of this poem loves the English language—specifically, American English.  She expresses her longing for American English while in the midst of “French verbs/ slitting [her] throat”, and she does not hide her dislike of British English which “is… too cultured by half”.  The free verse form of the ode allows for the duplication of common speech patterns, lacking structured meter and rhyming, which speaks to the seemingly uncultured nature of American English.  The author’s diction throughout the poem exemplifies the very essence of what the speaker loves about this language.

“I miss the…/… smart-talking, gum-snapping hard-girl dialogue,/ finger-popping x-rated street talk, sports babble,/”

The choice of hyphenated words visually breaks apart the writing allowing the choppiness of the informal speech to truly be seen as well as heard when read aloud.  Indeed, Hamby realizes the “fragmented fandango” “Hungarian goulash” nature of the language by featuring various elements that allow the readers to hear the language as the speaker describes it.  Throughout the ode, the examples of consonance, sibilance, and the particular emphasis on alliteration (the “unguent of utter unhappiness”) and onomatopoeia ( the “nouns zipping”), create a poem that can be heard—very important for a poem that primarily focuses on the auditory aspects of English.

However, this ode functions on another level aside from describing this type of English.  Though the speaker mainly discusses the language, the concrete images she employs to characterize the language additionally characterize the nation and American culture.  

“hotrod,/ hotdog, hot flash vocabulary of the U.S. of A,/”

“Cheetoes, Cheerios, chili dog diatribes…”

Both lines contain nouns typically associated with the American culture with which the speaker uses as adjective to describe language components. Ultimately, the ode functions as a commentary on the American culture, or at least what this speaker believes defines America. 

However much I enjoy the undertones of cultural analysis found in this poem, I simply love the ode mainly for the way it reads.  When Hamby emphasizes the uniqueness of American English with her great variety of literary elements, I remember how fun it can be simply to hear English, and I recall what makes me love this language I speak—the harsh, sometimes awkward, but generally beautiful sounds of American English.