1 The sleep of this night deepens
because I have walked coatless from the house
carrying the white envelope.
All night it will say one name
5 in its little tin house by the roadside.
I have raised the metal flag
so its shadow under the roadlamp
leaves an imprint on the rain-heavy bushes.
Now I will walk back
10 thinking of the few lights still on
in the town a mile away.
In the yellowed light of a kitchen
the millworker has finished his coffee,
his wife has laid out the white slices of bread
15 on the counter. Now while the bed they have left
is still warm, I will think of you, you
who are so far away
you have caused me to look up at the stars.
Tonight they have not moved
20 from childhood, those games played after dark.
Again I walk into the wet grass
toward the starry voices. Again, I
am the found one, intimate, returned
24 by all I touch on the way.
I love how Gallagher somehow turned an ordinary, everyday action into a very expressive poem. She takes that one action of walking to the mailbox late at night and puts it in terms of her life thus far. This poem seems a bit vague, but only just enough so that people from all different situations can connect to it. The person that she refers to, who’s “so far away” (17) could be a lover, a family member, a friend, really anyone who is a far distance away. Although this poem overall is rather delicate, I find the underlying story incredibly strong.
Literary Devices –
Personification: the giving of human-like, living qualities to inanimate objects or ideas
- Gallagher gives stars voices in line 22, which shows how she associates stars with her lost lover. She could be very well be referring to Carver in heaven.
Imagery: descriptive language that helps produce an image in the reader’s mind
- Gallagher describes the greenery as “rain-heavy bushes” (8), which produces a very distinct image in my mind of bushes that are weighed down and wet.
Hyperbole: an exaggeration
- The mailbox flag’s shadow leaving an imprint in the above mentioned bushes seems like an exaggeration to me (lines 6-8). This emphasize the importance of the envelope she just put inside the mailbox.
the mill worker and his wife are used in this poem to remind the speaker of something or someone he lost. While they are just going about their daily routine, they are unaware of the impact they have on the speaker when he sees them.
ReplyDeleteLike Pat, I think that the millworker and his wife serve to remind the speaker of a relationship he or she may have had with a significant other prior to their departure. It seems like the daily, mundane tasks such as laying out “white slices of bread” (14) or getting out of bed while it is still “still warm” (16) launch the speaker into a sort of reverie in which they remember sharing moments like these with their loved one. It is almost as if by reflecting on this ordinary scene between a wife and a husband, the speaker wishes to have the simple acts of life completed with his or her significant other by their side.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I think the line “they have not moved / from childhood” (19-20) refers to the positioning of the stars in the sky. Despite all the changes the speaker has gone through after their loved one goes “far away” (17), the position of the stars in the sky remain constant. The “starry voices” (22) provide comfort to the speaker, and just like in childhood, they make the speaker feel like “the found one” (32). I think they know that their loved one is looking up at these same stars, so the stars serve as a way for the speaker to indirectly communicate with their significant other.
I agree with Kathleen’s insight about the stars in line 20. The speaker, who seems solemn and wistful for the nameless person they’re missing, looks up and finds reassurance and an anchor in the stars, which “have not moved from childhood”. Seeing them transports the speaker from their current troubles back to the “games played after dark” and other, simpler times of childhood. I believe when the speaker says in the final line that they are “returned by all I touch on the way” is another reference to the sight of the stars; after seeing them, the speaker is once again grounded and less lost in their troubles.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is awesome. I love minimalist literature and artwork, taking something so small and insignificant and making a comment about something much larger. The millworker and his wife, like Pat said, reveal an inner conflict in the speaker of someone the speaker has lost.
ReplyDeleteI think the mail is just as important as the stars and explicit references to loss in the last two paragraphs. Perhaps what the author is trying to highlight is that he or she cannot escape the thought of the loved one, even through a simple task like bringing your mail out to the mailbox. By contrasting this to the stars in the latter half of the poem, the author is trying to convey that message that it is the little things that reminds the speaker of his or her loss on a larger scale.