Wolfe Poem 4 Intro
“A Summer Garden” by Louise Gluck is flourished
with nostalgia in this take on the speaker’s mother’s past. Much like Gluck’s
other works, the poem has a prose feel to it. Chronologically reading each
section into the poem is like cutting into the layers of an onion, each one a
deeper aspect into the core of the time. The scenery through use of imagery is
ironic, as the setting includes a cheerful, sunny day. There is a sense that
the setting of a photograph does not capture the essence of the moment at all. Section
four clarifies this idea once and for all, assuming that Beatrice is the
speaker’s mother, as the poem states that the picture is more or less a surreal
form of calmness, as the world had only just ended intense warfare. It was a false
sense of peace that no one, not even the viewer of the picture, could fully
appreciate unless they had gone through the memories of the rough times of war.
However, the speaker clearly empathizes, and wishes that the experiences of the
past never go unrecognized or unappreciated. “The sun moved lower in the sky,
the shadows lengthened and darkened./ The more dust I removed, the more these
shadows grew.” Inevitably, the shadows of the past are hidden as they are out
looked by the sun, but the rough times deserve to be appreciated just as much
as the better times deserve to be celebrated, which is the basis of the poem.
with nostalgia in this take on the speaker’s mother’s past. Much like Gluck’s
other works, the poem has a prose feel to it. Chronologically reading each
section into the poem is like cutting into the layers of an onion, each one a
deeper aspect into the core of the time. The scenery through use of imagery is
ironic, as the setting includes a cheerful, sunny day. There is a sense that
the setting of a photograph does not capture the essence of the moment at all. Section
four clarifies this idea once and for all, assuming that Beatrice is the
speaker’s mother, as the poem states that the picture is more or less a surreal
form of calmness, as the world had only just ended intense warfare. It was a false
sense of peace that no one, not even the viewer of the picture, could fully
appreciate unless they had gone through the memories of the rough times of war.
However, the speaker clearly empathizes, and wishes that the experiences of the
past never go unrecognized or unappreciated. “The sun moved lower in the sky,
the shadows lengthened and darkened./ The more dust I removed, the more these
shadows grew.” Inevitably, the shadows of the past are hidden as they are out
looked by the sun, but the rough times deserve to be appreciated just as much
as the better times deserve to be celebrated, which is the basis of the poem.
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