Hey gang,
Not ashamed to say this poem stumped me completely. Ah, my travails with modern poesy...I enjoy writing commentaries, but I have a bunch of questions this time.
My initial readings of the poem yielded several potential meanings, but the one I settled on was reminiscence/remorse. My reason for this is the repeated motifs that point (apparently) to remorse over nature being "forgotten."
Estes seems to be saying that everything else in this life receives some kind of special personal recognition from people, hence the "my darling" repetition which, to me, indicates a kind of personal identification with things. Nature, however, is bereft of this personal connection with people. The breakdown in my reading of the poem happens as it progresses through ideas. I fail to see the connection between things--well, at least, the right connection. I suppose my issue stems from the fact that I don't know just how much the material points to/honors/references old tropes and ideas about nature.
Certain things do seem apparent, i.e., the owl references all seem to mention a kind of wisdom commonly associated with owls. So too, the relationship Estes creates between words and the owl seem to indicate that the former have suffered from the degradation of the latter.
However, when Estes mentions concepts like those in 16 - 18, she seems to be saying that human appreciation has sunk to the same low level that the appreciation of nature has, i.e., begging the question "who cooks for you (my darling)" in the call of the white-winged dove echoes the same idea that interpersonal relationships have been forgotten like nature.
But these are just my very weak theories. The issue of past trope relevance makes me unsure as to my readings of the poem, so any clarification on Ms. Estes' use of image would be great. I hate bringing in archaic ideas too much into modern poetry, partly because I know how hard some poets strive to avoid such things.
As the poem continues, the main thing that becomes clear to me is the relationship between memory, wisdom, and death, i.e., the issues of the loved one having died move the poem from interpersonal relationships to something else. What that something else is, grief, remorse, etc. I am not sure of.
Not ashamed to say this poem stumped me completely. Ah, my travails with modern poesy...I enjoy writing commentaries, but I have a bunch of questions this time.
My initial readings of the poem yielded several potential meanings, but the one I settled on was reminiscence/remorse. My reason for this is the repeated motifs that point (apparently) to remorse over nature being "forgotten."
Estes seems to be saying that everything else in this life receives some kind of special personal recognition from people, hence the "my darling" repetition which, to me, indicates a kind of personal identification with things. Nature, however, is bereft of this personal connection with people. The breakdown in my reading of the poem happens as it progresses through ideas. I fail to see the connection between things--well, at least, the right connection. I suppose my issue stems from the fact that I don't know just how much the material points to/honors/references old tropes and ideas about nature.
Certain things do seem apparent, i.e., the owl references all seem to mention a kind of wisdom commonly associated with owls. So too, the relationship Estes creates between words and the owl seem to indicate that the former have suffered from the degradation of the latter.
However, when Estes mentions concepts like those in 16 - 18, she seems to be saying that human appreciation has sunk to the same low level that the appreciation of nature has, i.e., begging the question "who cooks for you (my darling)" in the call of the white-winged dove echoes the same idea that interpersonal relationships have been forgotten like nature.
But these are just my very weak theories. The issue of past trope relevance makes me unsure as to my readings of the poem, so any clarification on Ms. Estes' use of image would be great. I hate bringing in archaic ideas too much into modern poetry, partly because I know how hard some poets strive to avoid such things.
As the poem continues, the main thing that becomes clear to me is the relationship between memory, wisdom, and death, i.e., the issues of the loved one having died move the poem from interpersonal relationships to something else. What that something else is, grief, remorse, etc. I am not sure of.
Rabble rabble rabble... so I got the chance to ask Estes "why owls?" to which she replied "I was in Ohio at the time and I saw an owl take flight in the middle of the day. It was amazing." When I sat back down with this poem I got the felling of being put in the eye of a major storm with a TV in front of me live streaming the destruction. I think this feeling came from the lines "In her strip search of scripture, St. Teresa was seized, my darling, rapt amid the chatter and flutter of well-coiffed words" giving St Teresa being seized as if she is the common weed man. St Teresa being seen as the darling cause we don't speak of her as a holy person in holy context in the middle of rapture of little pretty birds who speak coiffed words which is ironic because of the strip search of the scripture... I am not sure if I am making sense. I do know I feel something... rabble rabble, rabble... rabble.
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