In Mysteries of Small
Houses by Alice Notley, I took a special interest on “I – Towards a
Definition” despite one of being one, this spoke to me deeply. “Grief isn’t
empty it’s black and material I’ve seen it,” the persona stating that grief is
visible, it’s not an empty entity you feel inside you, it’s something you feel
outside. Meaning, one could spot a person in grief and identify that, that
person is in grief. “It is Black” meaning it's a dark thing to encounter. "It's a force, independent, and eats you while you're sleeping," the persona is saying that grief has energy and it's self sufficient, grief has an effect in your sleep such as nightmares, or sad dreams. Notley thoroughly personifies grief in this poem. The remnant of the persona's husband, Ted remains in the apartment. Even though Ted had died, his belongings in the apartment bring grief into the persona's life hence her saying "whirled around me like burnt paper" meaning that the grief surrounds her. After time awhile, the grief is starting to shape the persona's life. "Could hardly stand up some days that year because of it" and feels like she is losing herself in the "sea of grief it's a battle." She mentioned that dealing with grief is like a war, and her past feels like grief because of her current condition. The persona continued to describe grief as a war, "and to accept her after such war, after the tears of/ myself as a general have hardened into semiprecious / ivory or coral, is sad and/ defeating no victory" she went deeper in her battle describing more how influential this grief over Ted's death. However she seems to be moving on from this grief when she acknowledged that "the universe is ruled by love and countervalent sorrow" meaning that where there's life there's death, where there's love, there's sorrow. Then she mentioned again that "Grief is visible, substantial, I've literally seen it" after repeating herself that grief is not just emotional, but also physical she said she had "seen" it which is a past tense, which leads me to think that she had moved on from this grief, but a little part of it will stay in her heart forever like a scar. (Done)
1 comment:
I know you're not done but I'll interject since I chose the same one. The poem is her experience and interpretation of grief. While I have the same line of thought as you, most of the first stanza can also be in reference to the fact that Ted was a smoker. In the second stanza, if the sea of grief is a battle then the battle has been wearing off on her. The grief is chipping away at her life. I'm guessing the last line is some odd circular logic of "art imitates life".
"No luxuriance in this process no dolorous" I believe is her way of saying that there is no way to ease the pain, not even through monetary means.
Being a general implies that she has been going through this for a long time, and that she can't win at it. She has to accept this and unfortunately she had to learn the hard way, you cannot always be happy. You will have to suffer some sort of grief sometime in your lifetime.
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