Original poem reprinted online here: "Grief" by Richard Brostoff
Originally read: April 20, 2013
More information about the Poet: Richard Brostoff
When I first read this poem I thought two things. 1) How risky it is to title a poem "Grief." There's a higher percentage of sentimental verse and personal cringe-worthy experiences which can turn off a reader. 2) What does Sargasso Sea represent in all this? So after rereading this a couple of times, I go back to the speaker who weaves together the allegory of the vortex to grief.
In the first stanza, the mention of the Sargasso Sea is puzzling still. I think I did look it up and the Sargasso Sea has a history of having vortexes -- but I was looking for more of an allusion. I'm pretty sure the allusion is quite obvious if I took some time, but it wasn't the focus of the poem for me, rather the language used, " disappears into itself" where the ambiguous pronoun works for the sea and the idea of grief.
The second stanza has that dual reference with this line, "Vortex how you repeat / a single gesture," where the direct object, the vortex, is mentioned, but it can't be helped to see grief as a "repeat of a single gesture."
The third stanza is where I think I should know the allusion to Sargasso Sea. The "cup full of questions, / perhaps some curl of wisdom, / a bit of flung salt" seem to be the outcome or feeling during grief, but not so much the vortex. The third stanza doesn't fit in with me that way. I think this would be a strong last stanza, but the last stanza is pretty important to the poem.
Yes, it is the epiphanic last stanza which states, "You hold an absence / at your center, / as if it were a life" where the speaker describes the grief/vortex through the simile of life. Past me wrote, "Emotion or person going further into the internal to take memory of life, but not actually changing or developing from grief."
Originally read: April 20, 2013
More information about the Poet: Richard Brostoff
When I first read this poem I thought two things. 1) How risky it is to title a poem "Grief." There's a higher percentage of sentimental verse and personal cringe-worthy experiences which can turn off a reader. 2) What does Sargasso Sea represent in all this? So after rereading this a couple of times, I go back to the speaker who weaves together the allegory of the vortex to grief.
In the first stanza, the mention of the Sargasso Sea is puzzling still. I think I did look it up and the Sargasso Sea has a history of having vortexes -- but I was looking for more of an allusion. I'm pretty sure the allusion is quite obvious if I took some time, but it wasn't the focus of the poem for me, rather the language used, " disappears into itself" where the ambiguous pronoun works for the sea and the idea of grief.
The second stanza has that dual reference with this line, "Vortex how you repeat / a single gesture," where the direct object, the vortex, is mentioned, but it can't be helped to see grief as a "repeat of a single gesture."
The third stanza is where I think I should know the allusion to Sargasso Sea. The "cup full of questions, / perhaps some curl of wisdom, / a bit of flung salt" seem to be the outcome or feeling during grief, but not so much the vortex. The third stanza doesn't fit in with me that way. I think this would be a strong last stanza, but the last stanza is pretty important to the poem.
Yes, it is the epiphanic last stanza which states, "You hold an absence / at your center, / as if it were a life" where the speaker describes the grief/vortex through the simile of life. Past me wrote, "Emotion or person going further into the internal to take memory of life, but not actually changing or developing from grief."
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