the young man who understood very little

This image shows a blackout poetry piece created from a page of Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”. Select words and phrases have been cut from the page, reordered into a new poetic message, and pasted onto a patterned background. Images of planets and plants decorate the page.

By Natasha Butler-Rahman

the young man who understood very little
went into the garden and conversed in broken accents,
The girl met him
Soon after this
helped to relieve him of sadness.

In the meanwhile
The days passed
bestowed on him
her affection and embrace
and opened before the stranger
a wide field for
tears of sorrow and delight.