Video Blues

“Video Blues” is a lyric poem due to its numerous musical qualities and interest in the interior emotional state of the speaker. The poem opens with the speaker describing her husband’s “crush” (Line 1) on actress Myrna Loy and the way he “likes to rent her movies, for a treat” (Line 2). The use of the phrase “for a treat” (Line 2) establishes a humorous tone of sarcastic annoyance by indicating that, while her husband certainly enjoys the movies he rents, the speaker does not. This is made clear when the speaker admits that watching the movies “makes some evenings harder to enjoy” (Line 3). Over the course of the poem, the speaker fluctuates from poking fun at what may just be a quirk of her husband’s to feeling pangs of real insecurity in her marriage. Phrasing her husband’s interest in the actress as a “crush” (Line 1), for example, indicates that while the speaker may not initially see the attraction as a true threat to her marriage, she recognizes the negative impact it may be having on their relationship nonetheless.

The second stanza reverses the direction of the attraction by stating “the list of actresses who might employ / him as their slave is too long to repeat” (Lines 4-5).