Question 3 - Spoof

Sexton calls this poem a "spoof" because of how she contrasts objects in her poem. The title "Venus and the Ark" starts off the spoof of this poem by referring to a deadly toxic planet, Venus, and a safe haven for war and destruction, the ark. As the poem goes on you come to find out that the "safe haven" of travel is actually a missile inside a missile, and that Venus, a planet that is deadly to the point of combustion if you enter its atmosphere, is actually the second Earth when the first one is destroyed. Coupled with the fact that people of Earth's press give the fantastic and mind-blowing news of sustainable life on another planet a total of 15 minutes of coverage until they are back to war. Then this poem is clearly as spoof on how people perceive importance and value.