Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Line 1
Lana Turner has collapsed!
- The poem begins with a bang – Lana Turner has collapsed!
- And just who was Lana Turner? Well, she was a major Hollywood actress who was as famous for her scandalous personal life as she was for her work on the silver screen. (For more on Lana Turner, see what we have to say about her in our "Symbolism" and "Best of the Web" sections.)
- This line raises tons of questions, mostly about the word "collapsed." It's a powerful and evocative word. Has Lana Turner had a heart attack? Is she lying in the street somewhere? Has she had some kind of a mental breakdown? Is she in a mental institution? And more important, why has she collapsed? The poem doesn't give much information yet, so the nature of the collapse is a little ambiguous.
- Also, we have to ask, who is speaking here? And where is this information coming from? Again, we don't know too much just yet.