Emotional Response to “Snow and Dirty Rain”

Richard Siken tellingly uses pen and paper to manipulate the readers psyche and emotional state. Siken is not only a successful contemporary poet, but also a filmmaker and painter. His first published collection of poetry, Crush, won the prestigious 2004 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. This collection was a defining moment in his career as a poet and helped Siken gain recognition within the community. The collection immerses the reader into many realms of mania and heartbreak and is predominately about Siken’s tragic experiences as a gay man. Siken’s use of language is able to combine the readers perceptions of love, tragedy and chaos to create beautiful pieces of poetry. This is most evident in Siken’s poem, “Snow and Dirty Rain” where he evokes emotion in the reader by using various linguistic techniques.