The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor | Mutterings over the Crib of a Deaf Child by James Wright
I've been disappointed in the less than voluminous response to Hicok's "O my pa-pa" two days ago. Is today's James Wright poem more pleasing? A more reasonable argument?
I've never felt sure who the two speakers are. Father and mother seem the most likely identities, but there are a couple of spots where that seems off the point.
Do "Mutterings" and Hicok's "O my pa-pa" have anything in common with each other, or with Grace Paley's "Walking in the Woods"?
The Writer's Almanac with Garrison Keillor | Mutterings over the Crib of a Deaf Child by James Wright
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4 comments:
Oh, this may take awhile. Is the other voice god? Or nature?
Interesting! All of the reassuring replies use nature as a basis (including the jolting "He will learn pain," you could say. Birds learn it; foxes learn it). And ditto a god--cool, calm, collected. This is all part of the plan, etc.
Another possibility somebody mentioned years ago (in an article maybe) is an interior dialogue within one speaker, somewhat like Prufrock, I guess.
Is this much ambiguity from Wright OK? I've never felt confident about answering that either.
How many times are we allowed to read this before our access is denied? Wow. What a heart wretching poem. It does seem like parents talking - or a mother with her own mother - a woman of an older generation who doubts a deaf child can be integrated.
Yet an internal discussion/
argument is valid. Don't you have internal discussions like this (okay, not about a deaf child) all the time? I do - what route to take home today, what the chances are of missing something, even what book to read next. Yak yak yak, doubting my own opinion.
Anyway, I can just hear a Grandmother taking the argumentative role. A hopeful daughter, a doubtful grandma. And a child who could be each's joy - but their doubts still ensue.
Ouch. My heart is twisting, Mr. B52!
p.s. - do you listen to Writer's Almanac or seek them out yourself?
Brenda, you raise another interesting possibility. But also what about the reverse? A hardened grandma who's not the alarmist her daughter (son?) is. Pipe down, dearie; it'll be OK.
I've never considered the voice identities you and AH have brought to the table. Thank you.
(Did you also bring fried chicken?)
As for finding the poems, this one I knew, thanks to one of those damnable Writer's Conferences many years ago--the celebrity handed it out for discussion.
I haven't explored the Garrison Keillor site very much, but I want to. However, I have been scouting the Poetry Foundation site. So far, all my selections have been poems I was looking for, but those two sites are well worth exploring--a wealth of stuff. Some excellent commentary as well on Poetry Foundation.
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