“In 1976, When She Was Born” [a sonnet by Molly Arden]
Gerhard Richter 1994
Life was dull in 1976.
Dad had to read “Ivanhoe” and write a report.
Sex was not yet Mom’s favorite sport.
The only rhyme that came to mind was “dicks.”
Mom was somewhere north
of the Mass / NH border.
She was just following an order,
not calculating its moral worth.
She was on vacation
feeling unclever
and not happily after ever.
He promised to wait
for her return to the state
of eternal temptation.
See also http://www.coconutpoetry.org/arden1.html
Posted by The Best American Poetry on November 20, 2020 at 01:20 PM in “Coconut”, Molly Arden | Permalink
Comments
How would one distinguish this composition from someone’s diary notes, notes of thoughts and notions to be developed further, as time allows? In other words, where is the artfulness, where is the care to cut away the dross, to reveal a glossy nugget of wisdom, which poetry invented itself to do?
Posted by: Dave Read | November 21, 2020 at 08:13 AM
Dear Dave, Thank you for commenting. You make a cogent case for “artfulness” and the value of the “glossy nugget of wisdom” that we find in, for example, any of three dozen of Robert Frost’s poems, which I love. Yet I enjoy poetry that obeys a different imperative in its goal of giving pleasure, which Wordsworth wrote is the poet’s first obligation. This poem by Moly Arden charmed me, because of its calculated artlessness. It sounds so very random, yet the poem rhymes, it has a formal unity; and in its casual way it is symmetrical (“She” begins stanza four, “He” begins stanza four) and hints at a narrative — of the breakup of a marriage. So I guess I would defend “diary notes” while loving, advocating and teaching the sort of poems that would, I imagine, meet your criteria as well as mine (e.g. The Canonization, The Garden, Tintern Abbey, Tithonus, Prufrock, Sunday Morning). — DL
Posted by: David Lehman | November 21, 2020 at 09:55 AM
Dear Dave, We have described the poles well enough; if we’re not careful, someone will suggest a third way! Thank you for your service, on all of our behalf.
Posted by: Dave Read | November 21, 2020 at 01:20 PM