A ray of hope? Nov. 1, 2012
A day after posting a poem about the devastation of a storm,
she picks up on a similar theme, a resurrection out of the ruins in the guise
of a phoenix.
Most offend associated with Greek and Egyptian mythology as
symbolizing immorality, resurrection and life after death, reborn from the
ashes of its predecessor. It is often associated with sun worship, which she
makes good use of in this poem.
The use of it as resurrection is apt considering the pattern
of her life which has seen similar regenerations and comes at a time when she
is once more reinventing herself with her new job in public relations for her
mayor and his collection of scallywags.
A big fan of the Harry Potter series, she may well also see
the phoenix as a symbol of rebellion and entitlement. The wizard Dumbledore
makes use of the Phoenix to make his escape from self-deluded superiors in the
Ministry. Perhaps more importantly, the mystical bird aids Harry Potter and his
loyal band of junior wizards in his conflict against the evil Lord Voldemort.
It is uncertain whether she intended to Potter analogy, but
certainly the poem comes at a time when she is at her lowest, and she is
resurrected.
In the poem, there is great relief in tone as she claims to
be astounded by the rising of the son after “a long, long night of cries and
unwelcome surprises.”
This alluding to other poems that describe her waking in the
early morning hours in fear, the locking and unlocking, the dread and danger
she feels.
But the poem goes on to talk about unfulfilled joy,
situations not fully explored or understood, which she apparently was deprived
of.
And now, at the point where she assumed that all that “could
have happened,” has happened, leaving her in darkness, a ray of hope appears,
the flaming peaks of dawn’s arrival, the first hint of a new day, a dominant
idea in her life, resurrection, reaping what she has gone through, a surprise
perhaps because she failed to anticipate what has happened so often before.
The poem clearly shows her surprise at the pattern of her
life, how – as her previous poem suggested she being among the ruins of a
previous life – a new incarnation is born.
The sun is rising after a long darkness filled with despair
and the presumption that things have come to an end, the poem alluding to all
the trials and tribulations she has suffered leading up to her resignation,
only to see hope arriving on the horizon, filled with the musical refrain that
has become a motif of her life, almost a deus in machina in which the heroine
is saved last minute by some unforeseen force setting the stage for the next
verse in her long life.
The poem is structured using light and dark, the rising sun
near the opening and closing, hinting of fire with the use of the word
“smoldering,” and “flaming peaks” of pink and orange near the horizon, leaning
heavily on the Egyptian myth of the Phoenix which is strongly associated with
the sun.
There is a musical reference “symphonic motif” that also
suggests a repeated pattern of reprise, rebirth, even salvation.
Unlike other of her poems, nearly all the descriptions in
this poem are surface images, external observation, not a mix of internal
monologue that would give the poem a deeper expression of feeling or would
define a truly emotional response. The dawn is just arriving with color on the
horizon, but she is not completely confident in what it means.
While clearly overjoyed at the promise of redemption, she
fails to provide any internal reference to support this feeling, and so we get
a kind of “wait and see” tone to see how it all turns out before she gets too ecstatic.
We are still at the dawn of this thing, and while it may
still prove to be extremely positive, she clearly not yet committing herself to
it emotionally.
It still has the potential to go up in flames.
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