While I enjoyed reading Natasha Trethewey’s “Theories of Time and Space,” I noticed how brilliantly she relates the structure of her poem to its content. At first glance the meaning of this poem centers around a simple vague trip to the unfamiliar Ship Island. However, the title of this piece forces the reader to look deeper and find how it relates to the content of this poem. Trethewey uses vivid images, and manipulates form, punctuation, and word choice-- to create a world where time and space are not really what they seem or first appear to be.
From the beginning of this poem to the very end , there is a constant tone of uncertainty. In the first stanza for example the speaker does not indicate the exact starting point:
You can get there from here, though
there’s no going home.
The word “here” could mean anywhere and not necessarily home. In the last stanza, the speaker has an ambiguous ending.
the photograph-- who you were--
will be waiting when you return.
According to the first stanza, the speaker can not return home, so this stanza leaves the reader questioning where the person is going. The ending never satisfies the desire to understand what the poem has to do with space or time. Due to the poem ending on the note about the person returning causes the reader to question the relevance of the title. From this point, I was prompted to find what other factors could help me relate the title and the content.
With a careful eye, I notice that Trethewey used ten couplets, 20 lines, in this poem. The actual gaps of space in between each couplet, made me feel- well, “spacey”- as if there was something missing. She might have used this as a visual technique to make the reader realize the significance of space and how it could relates to the content. The space contributes to one of the main themes or aspects of the poem, uncertainty. As I examine the couplets further, I greatly admire the speaker’s word choice. It conveys the overall dark and unsure mood of this poem.
The first couplet seems like a warning, because it stated that you could not go back home. The speaker continues with this careful word choice in the rest of the poem. Trethewey uses words such as “ticking off,” “dead end,” “buried,”“and “loose stitches.” Her choice of words has dark connotations and with added spaces that are in the structure of the poem makes the reader concerned with the deeper meaning of the poem. The following couplets imply a hidden meaning, which is something that may have been lost and is hard to find because it has been buried and possibly altered.
in a sky threatening rain. Cross over
the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand
dumped on the mangrove swamp--buried
terrain of the past. …
These few lines explain the actual purpose of the trip or journey to Ship Island. The covered mangrove swamp relates back to the title because it implies something is not what it seems, just like the theories of time and space.
What made me truly appreciate this poem was the line breaks and punctuation. Even if the placement of line breaks and punctuation is completely awkward, it has a purpose that contributes to the profound meaning of this literary work. For example,
…
The man-made beach, 26 miles of sand
dumped on the mangrove swamp-- buried
….
this line break, gives you a visual of sand being dumped. This is only one of many of Trethewey’s examples. The punctuation really pulls the poem together. For example, in couplets 2-9, periods are placed in the middle of some lines, instead of the end like it is in couplets 1 and 10. These periods could represent dead ends, or actual blocks. Or it could just be a continued warning sign throughout the poem. But one thing that is clear, the placement of the periods was used to convey uncertainty or randomness in the poem. The commas and periods often come after a phrase that presents some type of obstacle, which leads to concern or even doubt. This prompts the reader to refer back to the title. The placement of periods and commas relates to how time and space could be random or in this case altered. The structure and the content of the poem help the reader figure out the main idea, which is that time and space present ambiguity.
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I liked how you focused on the form. I agree that there is "space' in the poem and that as you mentioned, "here" and "there" and "everywhere" and "somewhere" are all references to a vague territory and have no physicallity. Its all lingering and dead. Ghostly almost.
ReplyDeleteI like the humor of the line "Follow this to its natural conclusion - dead end."
The land of the dead or the death of yourself.Or their death.
Captured in a photograph is "who you were?", cought in between punctuation.
That seemed strange to me. How long are we supposed to take to get to the island? What will have changed when we come back? How long will we stay? Is it a trap? A bermuda triangle?
I felt the discomfort of a sky that threatens to rain but never does. It seems like its fixed in time.
I also felt like she was giving us the directions. They are precise, like she is drawing a map. She gives precise measurements of distance and then it all blurrs into "memory" and "random blank pages" and a trip that has no clear duration, not even an estimate. Will we ever return?
I agree with Char, I didn't really give a lot of thought to how the structure of the poem supports its various meanings, but you made a lot of good points. Char, I also thought your comment provided a lot of insight into the poem as well, especially the part about how long it's supposed to take to get to the island. I thought the connection to the Bermuda Triangle was really interesting.
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