Reading Blog 2

For today's commentary we will be discussing picture poems. Yet again, I had several options, and I hope that I chose one that most of my classmates have not commented on. For tonight's assignment, I have chosen Mourning Picture by Adrienne Rich.

It's fair to say that this is a dry poem. With that being said, I believe that it is necessary to realize the tender and sensitive nature of the narator. To help me make my point, I have included a copy of Ms. Rich's poem below.

"They have carried the mahogany chair and the cane rocker
out under the lilac bush,
and my father and mother darkly sit there, in black clothes.
Our clapboard house stands fast on its hill,
my doll lies in her wicker pram
gazing at western Massachusetts.
This was our world.
I could remake each shaft of grass
felling its rasp on my fingers,
draw out the map of every lilac leaf
or the net of veins in my father's
grief-tranced hand.

Out of my head, half-bursting,
still filling, the dream condenses-
shadows, crystals, ceilings, meadows, globes of dew.
Under the dull green of the lilacs, out in the light
carving each spoke of the pram, the truned porch-pillars,
under high early-summer clouds,
I am Effie, visible and invisible,
remembering and remembered.

They will move from the house,
give the toys and pets away.
Mute and rigid my mother
will ride the train to Baptist Corner,
the silk-spool will run bare.
I tell you, the thread that bound us lies
faint as a web in the dew.
Should I make you, world, again,
could I give back the leaf its skeleton, the air,
its early summer cloud, the house
its noonday presence, shadowless,
and leave this out? I am Effie, you were my dream."

This poem does not tell the story of a romantic couple, the excitement of a fire engine, or the fascinating nature of an old man. This poem is a message of anguish. For my previous assignment I was talking about the blues, and how someone in a blues song can at least fight their situation.
But in this poem, our narrator is a young child who has been unfairly deprived of her life. After her death her parents remove all of her belongings from the house and linger in depression. This poem is the child's last stand, against the events occurring in the world which she left behind. This can seen in the accompanying portrait. You will notice the doll she mentions is in the front lawn (along with her pets). The girl is facing away from her parents and the house, but her head is turned back signifying that she does not want to leave. It is so very sad, when we realize that she is trying to comfort her parents. It is so sad to watch as she tries to bring color and happiness back to a world that is devoid of such things in her death.