The Nerve Meter Response

When first reading The Nerve Meter, I struggled to understand what the poem was about or where it was coming from. What I did initally enjoy about the poem at the first read, was the fantastic visuals that the poem provided with me with and the rich methaphors that are rife throughout the poem. Phrases like: "The clockwork of the soul", "Voluminous abysses", "Fleshy anguish" and many more  provide me with powerful and strong visuals that help me connect with the poem emotionally even though I did not understand what the poem was about. When first reading the poem I knew nothing of Antonin Artaud which made the reading all the more interesting as I was trying to figure out what the author was like aswell as what the poem was about. I got the impression that Antonin was disabled with lines like: "In sleep, nerves tensed the whole length of my legs". I wondered if Antonin had some kind of physical impairment that was inspiration for the poem.  After doing slight research I realised although he was not physically impaired he was somewhat mentally, which I was not suprised to hear. The poem kind of sums up how fractured Antonins mind was and comes across as Uber intelligent ramblings of a man describing his mind.