Growing a Bear by Hannah Gamble
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/56478 This poem is about the speaker, a married man presumably in his “over-the-hill years”, yearning to fabricate a bear out of just simple “fertilizer, chunks of raw meat, handfuls of blackberries, two metal rakes, and a thick rug,” the normal qualities and characteristics things you think of when first thinking of a bear. This poem brings in ideas such as “midnight occupation,” “wrong kind of shadow,” and “cold nights like these… forbidding as it should be,” to give the reader a suspenseful and dark spirited feel to the poem. When reading I kept picking up hints of Hannah’s distasteful feelings towards marriage and growing old. She brings in elements such as the speaker wanting to shower with his wife, yet the wife having no desire to and the fact that she goes on with her life by herself and he “ just happen[s] to be next to her.” This gave me the feeling that Hannah believes marriage becomes less personal as we grow older and that sometimes, growing old together makes couples grow apart. This poem contains the contrast between young and old. The themes behind this poem lead me to believe that the “bear” is a metaphor for an affair. An affair is forbidden and normally done as in secret. She includes the sections about “it’s nothing you’ve done,” referring to his wife. She also writes that, “Past the age of college athletics, most friends don’t even know what each others’ bodies look like, flushed, tired, showering, cold.” This sentence brings back the young vs. old contrast and also makes me think about the intimacy behind an affair. When Hannah Gamble wrote this poem she was a young adult. I think this poem was her way of exploring growing older and the idea of marriage. This poem had underlying meanings that made me have to think in a different way than just at the surface of the meaning of the poem.
1 Comment
Myla
11/4/2016 07:41:26 am
Wow I never thought of growing apart as you grow older. I only thought of growing closer. This poem showed me a whole new perspective. You did a wonderful job explaining the poem. I also enjoyed how you talked about the theme!
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AuthorI am Ashlyn BLUEberry and welcome to my literary thoughts. |