YouTube Poem

The union forever
go on, say it
fast as you can
I do

I remember
that dress looks nice on you
I will
now that I know

promise what you will
because forever is a promise
maybe, not

When I began to think about this Youtube poem assignment, I was inspired by J.L Austin's "How to do Things with Words," and the idea of marriage. The utterance of "I do," is an example Austin gives to his readers of a performative sentence. My mind jumped to David Bazan's song, "I Do," a song about marrying his wife because of their child, and possibly regretting it. "His utterance is perhaps misleading, probably deceitful and doubtless wrong, but it is not a lie or a misstatement," says Austin (11). Is this still true when later in marriage, there are doubts? Is the statement of "I do," considered a lie when it is truthful at the time and later disintegrates? By promising you are not only uttering words that make up a statement, you are creating a bond with these words.