The first time I read through "Almost Autumn" it was difficult due to the line breaks, namely. Hearing Estes read her work it was as if the lines were broken into seamless, complete thoughts. The thing that did catch my attention was the way in which she used verbal emphasis while reciting. In like 6 she clearly drew attention to "O" in such a way that reflects the emphasis written in the poem by means of capitalizing "O" and setting it between the alliterated "initial" and "illuminated." The idea of a circle I found to be important throughout the poem. Something I personally find interesting, is the concept of cyclical time in poetry. In this poem, the title is "Almost Autumn" and discusses the movement of the seasons, one of the most clear examples of natural, cyclical time. Again towards the end, in line 34, she talks of the "ocean waving." The tides being another example of cyclical time. They are affected by the moon's movement around the earth and are constantly moving in and out.
Another place where Estes put clear emphasis was in line 28 "for Livia, livid, ever, seem" these words were clearly separated and emphasized in the recitation, but for the life of my I do not know why. I looked up Livia and found that she was the wife of a Caesar, but that's about it. In relation to God, I'm not sure of her significance. For the reading I gathered that Rome is a significant place for Ms. Estes. She displayed a clear, first hand experience of the city and it presents itself in much of her work, leading me to believe this is the correct Livia. If anyone has interpretations of line 28 I would love to hear them.
I'm intrigued by your question about the line "Livia, livid, ever, seem". I agree with your interpretation that the "Livia" of the poem is the Livia of Roman history. I did a little research on Livia and noticed that she was at one time called "The Mother of Rome" and was later deified. Perhaps Estes' is invoking Livia as a sacred mother figure to compliment the figuration of God as a sacred father. The images of nature and the motif of "cyclical time", as you put it, seem to suggest a theme of evolution or evolving bodies. The separation between the words reminds me of the demarcated steps, which I interpret as a linear progression of ideas. I looked up origins of the name "Livia" and found that in a modern context it is a diminutive of "Olivia". Perhaps this implicit "O" was intentional on the part of Estes' to fit with the "initial O" from God mentioned at the beginning of the poem.
ReplyDeletegreat questions and comment! I'd say it is significant that Livia is a mother figure, perhaps likened to Gaia, a personification of the earth. It also seems significant that Livia has lost her "O"--ie. that she no longer includes the cyclical nature of nature. Consider the context of the line: what does it suggest to label the Earth a "blue plastic float"? What imagery is introduced here? How does it make us think about the earth? The poem begins with the pecan blossoms and what God must have felt "creating the stars in an initial O, illuminated / in a fifteenth-century manuscript." Here, she makes a connection between spring's rebirth of blooms and the faith in God expressed in medieval manuscripts. In that world, nature's cycles reinforced belief. But the poem goes on to offer less positive images: for example, "not one pecan / survived the summer" and she is trying to decide "whether these split-shingle cardinals are mottled / or molting—probably more like melting." In these lines, we get the sense of something off kilter with nature's cycles: the pecans didn't survive the growing season, and birds ( which also suggest religious authorities in the Catholic church) are melting in the heat (which is definitely not normal). Since the poem has linked nature and faith, we can see Estes introducing problems into both: if nature is not acting like it should, how can we still believe in the God who "inflated / the cosmos" around the earth? When we get to Livia, we are thus prepared to notice the sequence as a litany of difficulties: "Livia, livid, ever, seem, until a slip / of his tongue lights up oblivion, believe." Livia missing her "O" suggests a mother earth without her cycles, one who is no longer a "green marble" but a bluish color, discolored like a bruise (OED, "livid" 1) or pale with rage (OED, "livid" 3). "Ever" and "seem" suggest the once permanent has become only seeming, and the act of creation now seems a "slip" rather than a deliberate act. As the earth suffers under an inundation of plastic, faith flails and fails.
ReplyDeleteConsidering this, how might we read the poem's final stanzas?