“Dusting”
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/55631 This poem is all about a girl named Beulah, and her flashback to a prior love. The poem describes her mindlessly cleaning," Under her hands scrolls and crests gleam."While doing her daily duties her mind starts to wander and she slips into a moment of nostalgia. She begins picturing the day that she met a boy at the fair "...that silly boy at the fair with the rifle booth?" I get the feeling that she is having trouble recalling the name of a boy that she met at the fair. "Not Michael . . . . Wavery memory". In the final stanza we see that Beulah remembers the man’s name and talks about marriage. From this I infer that she was daydreaming about a past lover. I think this is a happy and nostalgic poem about a piece of a woman's life, where she remembers being truly happy. Rita Dove chose the title “Dusting”, I feel like this strongly relates to the poem in many ways. To begin dusting is what Beulah was doing when she started thinking about her past. Dusting can also be connected to the idea that when we are reflecting on past memories we are cleaning away the cobwebs of the mind. The slow rhythm of Dove's "Dusting" connects to the long path down memory lane and the time it takes older minds to remember once-clear details. As the main character moves about her home, she is also figuratively moving from place to place in her memory, stopping to admire loving details in her mind. Dove's concluding image, "sun's accomplice, the tree" suggests that the minor flirtations of her youth have grown into something more lasting and meaningful...perhaps a marriage and children. Personally I found this poem really beautiful, it showed the struggle to remember a lover in a beautiful light and painted a beautiful picture for me as a reader.
2 Comments
Eng
11/4/2016 05:40:28 am
Nice poem and analysis. What do you make of the speaker's father giving her up? Why is the name so important to the speaker?
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11/4/2016 06:14:22 am
I think the speakers father giving her up really shaped her whole life and molded her view on things. And the mans name is important for her because that is what connects her to the memories.
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AuthorCassi LeCompte |