"Poppies in October"
Nor the woman in the ambulance
Whose red heart blooms through her coat so astoundingly —
A gift, a love gift
Utterly unasked for
By a sky
Palely and flamily
Igniting its carbon monoxides, by eyes
Dulled to a halt under bowlers.
O my God, what am I
That these late mouths should cry open
In a forest of frost, in a dawn of cornflowers.
I wrote a comment from my phone that didn't post. I'll try to reproduce.
ReplyDeleteI started reading an analysis, but thought I'd break the poem into facts. What do we know from the poem? At least according to the narrator. I'm going to try to format into fact and inference.
Facts- Inferences
A woman is in an ambulance- probably bleeding.
Poppies are out in October even know it's fall and frost out- probably abnormal conditions for flowers.
That's about it for me. But this gets my ideas going. And now I see a woman trying to die, but being saved by modern medical system. Unasked for, like the flowers wanting to pass on, but the sun and conditions keep them alive?
I did a couple poppy searches and I cannot figure out how unlike poppies are to bloom in the fall. They can be invasive, that's an interesting connection. Is our medical system an invasive system against death?
The first thing that comes to mind upon seeing “poppies” is the Wizard of Oz...the lion in the field put fast asleep...a reference of opium?...a reference for death.
ReplyDeleteThis theme definitely keeps coming up- man saving what wants to die...quite a modern view in elongation of life within the elderly population nowadays, but what about those that seek for death?? One of my friends has scars from such a thing...and yet somehow she continues to choose life for now.
Have you ever seen another author not use their titles at least somewhere within their stanzas? She gives us so much with just the title alone...??
I always told my students to pay attention to titles. I could see Plath as the queen of titles. This title sets the poem.
DeleteOther poets do too. But we will have to pay attention to that for now on.
Absolutely on the lookout. It varies so much from Dickinsonʻs lack of titles. They seem to hold the opposites ends of my heart together.
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