The Universe: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

In its entirety, the poem is the soundtrack of all time and space. Smith frames the poem as the soundtrack of a film, though, and not a music album. This is an important distinction. Smith wants readers to come to the poem with a basic understanding of the progression of the universe from the Big Bang to the eventual death of everything. With this knowledge in mind, readers can read the poem as the music to a film they’ve already seen.

By focusing on a soundtrack, Smith allows the poem to follow a traditional narrative structure without truly having a plot. The poem has no characters or real story, but it still has a beginning, middle, and an end. When it overlaps with the narrative of the universe’s existence, the music makes sense.

Smith uses this structure so she can place the poem in the domain of metaphor, and so she can invoke unique sensory feelings with the use of sound. If she were to write the poem as the visual narrative of the universe, she’d be telling the story in a comparable way that people have already seen it. By focusing on a symbolic retelling through music, Smith crafts an exceptionally unique poem and adopts a fresh

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