Original poem reprinted online here: "The Architecture of Sunlight" by A. E. Stringer
More information about the Poet: A. E. Stringer
So the poem, 3 septets, follows the sunlight and what it illuminates:
Imagine the sandstone sun just
before down, streaming through
the lattice of the garret's
broad windows
But the key here is the very first word -- imagine. The speaker engages the reader not to be in the scene or actually envision it -- but rather to set the scene open to imagination, but it's not necessarily what the light illuminates. Here the light focuses on structure and form -- note the lack of judgement rather the form exposed.
[...] dusk orange
levered up on the far wall
Even your room inclines westward,
somber shadows to begin
So the shift in tone follows the lack of light -- dusk orange. The introduction of the you is to "your room" and the description of the "somber shadows" indicates, maybe too much, something leaving -- perhaps through death or memory, whichever. Know the tone shifts from exposing in the light mystery in the dark.
"As the ceiling admits to evening, / a skylight slopes in the kitchen / Open it slowly," Here the style shifts from the more descriptive lines with the alliteration of "s" sprinkled throughout the poem -- a sort of routine that the speaker builds to a command of "open it slowly" action and tempo shifts for, "a single pane leveling / reflection." What? A lot of adjectives to describe a very specific reflection in which the speaker places the utmost importance to (as though to make the reflection the big metaphor) but moves on, just like light, "Along the hip rafter's / diagonal, a tapestry arcs into the wedge / of a spare room."
So I'm not too sure at this moment if the tapestry represents the light or if it is really an ambiguously described artwork -- perhaps both. The poem plays with actual language with hiccups of metaphorical imagery, but this comes off as a bit too poetic description of a place for me to look into. "Day's heat rises / from downstairs and peaks / and goes out." Now a different image of tactile that eventually "leaves" but feels more transposed to the next image since the line is so abrupt, "Later the candles."
"The way you gaze toward / the sky beyond the glass is no /fiction" Past me feels this part is self-referential because the lines admit a gaze when all the speaker is doing is also gazing and creating a sort of non-fiction fiction. Every image is set for a purpose, I'm pretty sure that's not the truth. "Where all beams / converge is the center of your / thought" and the metaphor expands precisely, "a minor chord scissored, / gimlet sun refueling inward." "Replenish?" is the word I put at the end. So the poem is a construct of the speaker -- through image, metaphor, simile , diction and at the end the artifice sun "refuels" -- this is like how a reflection (single pane or not) refuels the ego.
More information about the Poet: A. E. Stringer
So the poem, 3 septets, follows the sunlight and what it illuminates:
Imagine the sandstone sun just
before down, streaming through
the lattice of the garret's
broad windows
But the key here is the very first word -- imagine. The speaker engages the reader not to be in the scene or actually envision it -- but rather to set the scene open to imagination, but it's not necessarily what the light illuminates. Here the light focuses on structure and form -- note the lack of judgement rather the form exposed.
[...] dusk orange
levered up on the far wall
Even your room inclines westward,
somber shadows to begin
So the shift in tone follows the lack of light -- dusk orange. The introduction of the you is to "your room" and the description of the "somber shadows" indicates, maybe too much, something leaving -- perhaps through death or memory, whichever. Know the tone shifts from exposing in the light mystery in the dark.
"As the ceiling admits to evening, / a skylight slopes in the kitchen / Open it slowly," Here the style shifts from the more descriptive lines with the alliteration of "s" sprinkled throughout the poem -- a sort of routine that the speaker builds to a command of "open it slowly" action and tempo shifts for, "a single pane leveling / reflection." What? A lot of adjectives to describe a very specific reflection in which the speaker places the utmost importance to (as though to make the reflection the big metaphor) but moves on, just like light, "Along the hip rafter's / diagonal, a tapestry arcs into the wedge / of a spare room."
So I'm not too sure at this moment if the tapestry represents the light or if it is really an ambiguously described artwork -- perhaps both. The poem plays with actual language with hiccups of metaphorical imagery, but this comes off as a bit too poetic description of a place for me to look into. "Day's heat rises / from downstairs and peaks / and goes out." Now a different image of tactile that eventually "leaves" but feels more transposed to the next image since the line is so abrupt, "Later the candles."
"The way you gaze toward / the sky beyond the glass is no /fiction" Past me feels this part is self-referential because the lines admit a gaze when all the speaker is doing is also gazing and creating a sort of non-fiction fiction. Every image is set for a purpose, I'm pretty sure that's not the truth. "Where all beams / converge is the center of your / thought" and the metaphor expands precisely, "a minor chord scissored, / gimlet sun refueling inward." "Replenish?" is the word I put at the end. So the poem is a construct of the speaker -- through image, metaphor, simile , diction and at the end the artifice sun "refuels" -- this is like how a reflection (single pane or not) refuels the ego.
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