Skip to main content

Analysis of "The Young Husband" by Marianne Boruch

Original poem reprinted online here: "The Young Husband" by Marianne Boruch
Originally read: May 24, 2013
More information about the Poet: Marianne Boruch





 The poem is written in couplets which is quite fitting because the scene of the poem has to deal with a husband and wife having conversation with his wife.

But I do want to note the title first, "The Young Husband."  While husband is defined as is in the poem, "young" in all its denotations: like age and lack of experience gets explored in the poem. 

But the first couplet, "All vision is / peripheral: sideways, and under eave" comes off as didactic like the speaker is pointing out "though this is how you should read this poem -- this is the core of the poem."  The following is more of an exposition  -- "the young husband / on his cell to his wife, talking, smoking."

Here's where the poem starts to focus, "not talking, no longer waiting / to tell the strange part. / the funny part, not in that order."  Note, that through careful adjective the poem offsets each other to create a mystery -- whatever is being said, it's trying to connect to someone and order matters.

The next line, "Perphiral: loss of detail." Further complicates the poem through denotation that becomes personal with, "you kept telling me, and color,." 

The complexity is who is the "you" speaker, and who is the "me".  The assumption could be that  this is the young husband telling this tohis wife -- or that the poem is playing off the foreshadow of "strange part, funny part." 

Strange definitely follows after this line as there are fragments of, "True and true, and only true / my old enough to be / moved by anything."  They mystery transforms from what is the stuff he is saying, to what is the wife responding to.  The relationship, shown through fragments, isn't reciprocal because, weirdly, the husband has more to say and flounders; meanwhile, the wife is saying something, perhaps, but is silent.

Past me wrote this, "colloquial chit-chat.  Meaningful intent/meaningless words."  I agree in a sense that the intent is meaningful to one side, furthermore, the words are meaningful to the speaker,

     because no, they've
     been texting, because

     it's good to
     talk finally.

Note the word choice of talk, although would fit with colloquial sense of the poem, shows that one side is talking.  There is no conversation per se.

The fragments also form a sense of interruption as past me point out with the final couplet, "you, out of the weather still -- / the body loves that."  And without context to the conversation, there is only incoherent talk.

Comments