Adrienne Rich poem
November 19, 2013 8:56 AM Subscribe
Poetry question: Do you think Adrienne Rich's "November 1968" is literally about burning leaves? Does she intend that month and year to mean something to the reader? Any other thoughts?
(So far, I've found one brief analysis by someone who reads it literally and doesn't address the significance of the month.)
November 1968
by Adrienne Rich
Stripped
you're beginning to float free
up through the smoke of brushfires
and incinerators
the unleafed branches won't hold you
nor the radar aerials
You're what the autumn knew would happen
after the last collapse
of primary color
once the last absolutes were torn to pieces
you could begin
How you broke open, what sheathed you
until this moment
I know nothing about it
my ignorance of you amazes me
now that I watch you
starting to give yourself away
to the wind
(So far, I've found one brief analysis by someone who reads it literally and doesn't address the significance of the month.)
November 1968
by Adrienne Rich
Stripped
you're beginning to float free
up through the smoke of brushfires
and incinerators
the unleafed branches won't hold you
nor the radar aerials
You're what the autumn knew would happen
after the last collapse
of primary color
once the last absolutes were torn to pieces
you could begin
How you broke open, what sheathed you
until this moment
I know nothing about it
my ignorance of you amazes me
now that I watch you
starting to give yourself away
to the wind
Best answer: In November 1968, "National Turn in Your Draft Card Day" lead to thousands and thousands of young men burning their draft cards in large bonfires and rallies across America, especially on college campuses. Rich was a strong anti-war voice in the late 60's, and taught at Swarthmore and Columbia University, so it would not surprise me if this was connected.
posted by juniperesque at 9:03 AM on November 19, 2013 [21 favorites]
posted by juniperesque at 9:03 AM on November 19, 2013 [21 favorites]
I always assumed it was about Vietnam.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:04 AM on November 19, 2013
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 9:04 AM on November 19, 2013
One reading is that "you" is someone recently dead, and that the poem is an expression of grieving.
posted by ottereroticist at 9:06 AM on November 19, 2013
posted by ottereroticist at 9:06 AM on November 19, 2013
While we're at it, you may want to look at Jane Hammond's "Fallen" which uses a very similar metaphor, albeit in a different artistic medium, about a different war.
posted by The Bellman at 9:12 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by The Bellman at 9:12 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
RFK was assassinated in June of 1968, so there's that.
posted by jquinby at 9:33 AM on November 19, 2013
posted by jquinby at 9:33 AM on November 19, 2013
This isn't a homework question, right? Because it sounds like a homework question.
First off, of course the date has significance, or the author wouldn't have made it the title of her poem.
Secondly, the analysis you linked to really doesn't take the burning leaves literally, either. What it says is that the author deliberately uses the image of burning leaves to invoke the sensations of change. The leaves serve as a metaphor for the death of one thing and the beginning of the other. In this analysis (which I don't particularly agree with), the leaves represent a commonality that has now been replaced by individual thought and expression. The author's perception has changed due to her individual growth; she is rejecting conventional mores and appreciating for the first time a particular person's unique outlook, whereas before she had accepted the common wisdom.
If you look at the author's life and the progression of her own changing ideals, I think you will be better able to understand what she is trying to express in her poem.
In the 1960's, Adrienne Rich was intensely involved in anti-war, civil liberty and feminist rights activities, to the point where she and her husband divorced over them. The divorce was probably inevitable, anyway; Rich's comments later in life make it obvious she was in denial of her own lesbianism at the time and married because that's what she was expected to do.
The point is that this is a woman who was extremely political, whose beliefs underwent a major shift in her own life, and so of course the poem naturally reflects that change. The "you" in the poem most likely represents her own self, who she is only now really beginning to understand, because she denied herself for so long.
The burning leaves could represent her former life, the death of her beliefs, or even the burning of draft cards at the time, which echo and reinforce her own developing anti-war sentiments.
posted by misha at 10:49 AM on November 19, 2013
First off, of course the date has significance, or the author wouldn't have made it the title of her poem.
Secondly, the analysis you linked to really doesn't take the burning leaves literally, either. What it says is that the author deliberately uses the image of burning leaves to invoke the sensations of change. The leaves serve as a metaphor for the death of one thing and the beginning of the other. In this analysis (which I don't particularly agree with), the leaves represent a commonality that has now been replaced by individual thought and expression. The author's perception has changed due to her individual growth; she is rejecting conventional mores and appreciating for the first time a particular person's unique outlook, whereas before she had accepted the common wisdom.
If you look at the author's life and the progression of her own changing ideals, I think you will be better able to understand what she is trying to express in her poem.
In the 1960's, Adrienne Rich was intensely involved in anti-war, civil liberty and feminist rights activities, to the point where she and her husband divorced over them. The divorce was probably inevitable, anyway; Rich's comments later in life make it obvious she was in denial of her own lesbianism at the time and married because that's what she was expected to do.
The point is that this is a woman who was extremely political, whose beliefs underwent a major shift in her own life, and so of course the poem naturally reflects that change. The "you" in the poem most likely represents her own self, who she is only now really beginning to understand, because she denied herself for so long.
The burning leaves could represent her former life, the death of her beliefs, or even the burning of draft cards at the time, which echo and reinforce her own developing anti-war sentiments.
posted by misha at 10:49 AM on November 19, 2013
OK, this is fun - let's do it! Keeping both the "death" and "draft card burning/Vietnam War" themes above in mind (JFK in July just doesn't seem to be related, since the poem specifies November).
Stripped
you're beginning to float free
Works for both metaphors.
up through the smoke of brushfires
Draft evaders evade the smoke and fire of war.
and incinerators
Works for both metaphors.
the unleafed branches won't hold you
Works better for death: your lifeless body won't hold you.
nor the radar aerials
Escaping the military's notice: draft.
You're what the autumn knew would happen
Death.
after the last collapse
Death.
of primary color
The November election, where the war loomed heavily.
once the last absolutes were torn to pieces
Works for both metaphors.
you could begin
Works better as a metaphor for starting life anew in Canada.
How you broke open, what sheathed you
until this moment
Works for both metaphors. Could be breaking out of earthly bounds, or breaking free of the Establishment and the War Machine (that both sheathed him in safety, and trapped him in a trajectory to death in war).
I know nothing about it
my ignorance of you amazes me
now that I watch you
starting to give yourself away
to the wind
Works for both metaphors. Either she realizes she never knew him/her as well as she would have liked while alive, or... I never expected you to go, and now you can never return (from Canada).
posted by IAmBroom at 10:52 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
Stripped
you're beginning to float free
Works for both metaphors.
up through the smoke of brushfires
Draft evaders evade the smoke and fire of war.
and incinerators
Works for both metaphors.
the unleafed branches won't hold you
Works better for death: your lifeless body won't hold you.
nor the radar aerials
Escaping the military's notice: draft.
You're what the autumn knew would happen
Death.
after the last collapse
Death.
of primary color
The November election, where the war loomed heavily.
once the last absolutes were torn to pieces
Works for both metaphors.
you could begin
Works better as a metaphor for starting life anew in Canada.
How you broke open, what sheathed you
until this moment
Works for both metaphors. Could be breaking out of earthly bounds, or breaking free of the Establishment and the War Machine (that both sheathed him in safety, and trapped him in a trajectory to death in war).
I know nothing about it
my ignorance of you amazes me
now that I watch you
starting to give yourself away
to the wind
Works for both metaphors. Either she realizes she never knew him/her as well as she would have liked while alive, or... I never expected you to go, and now you can never return (from Canada).
posted by IAmBroom at 10:52 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: 1968 was also a year of huge turmoil - not only Vietnam but also the Prague Spring, widespread strikes in France and a lot of protests round the world as well as the civil rights movement in the US, the death of both MLK and RFK..
I think juniperesque captures a direct metaphor that is very relevant here, but more generally the idea of passing seasons as change, the beginning of something new, of things breaking open and being replaced by new ideas, people and ideologies was a massive theme of the time. Old absolutes were challenged and replaced in a decade that began with the sexual revolution ended with baby boomers asserting their sheer numbers and ripping up the rulebook.
For Rich personally her life was changing significantly. She was became intensely political, her marriage was falling to bits (and her husband would go on to kill himself less than two years later) and it is likely that Rich was more aware of her sexuality.
The imagery is pretty strong - burning, bare trees, primary color, things being unsheathed (which is often a sexual metaphor), the freedom of floating away on the wind.
I read this as an intense personal journey rather than political commentary. Why? Because she tells you.
I think juniperesque captures a direct metaphor that is very relevant here, but more generally the idea of passing seasons as change, the beginning of something new, of things breaking open and being replaced by new ideas, people and ideologies was a massive theme of the time. Old absolutes were challenged and replaced in a decade that began with the sexual revolution ended with baby boomers asserting their sheer numbers and ripping up the rulebook.
For Rich personally her life was changing significantly. She was became intensely political, her marriage was falling to bits (and her husband would go on to kill himself less than two years later) and it is likely that Rich was more aware of her sexuality.
The imagery is pretty strong - burning, bare trees, primary color, things being unsheathed (which is often a sexual metaphor), the freedom of floating away on the wind.
I read this as an intense personal journey rather than political commentary. Why? Because she tells you.
I know nothing about itposted by MuffinMan at 10:54 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
my ignorance of you amazes me
now that I watch you
This poem also brings to mind the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc and the famous photographs of him that were circulating at that time. The actual act happened five years earlier, but I wonder if she's drawing a subtle connection between his act and the burning of draft cards by American students that was happening in November of 1968 - one fire ignites another.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 11:08 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by pretentious illiterate at 11:08 AM on November 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Nixon was elected in Nov 1968, capping a hugely tumultuous year including MLK's assassination, race riots in response, riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, RFK's assassination, etc.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:08 PM on November 19, 2013
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:08 PM on November 19, 2013
I remember an English teacher insisting that this poem was an internal monologue of a woman burning her bra in the late '60s.
Since he was there and we weren't, we kind of accepted it.
posted by Sphinx at 6:39 PM on November 19, 2013
Since he was there and we weren't, we kind of accepted it.
posted by Sphinx at 6:39 PM on November 19, 2013
Best answer: As someone who was there and politically active (Clean for Gene!), "November 1968" automatically means "Nixon elected" (I thought nothing could be worse until I saw Reagan elected, and I thought nothing could be worse than that until I saw W elected), and it would be impossible for anyone who was politically aware then not to have that association. I hadn't initially thought of the "Turn in Your Draft Card Day" juniperesque mentioned, but now that I'm reminded of it, yeah, that must be part of it. The political interpretation and death go together quite well—there's no need to pick one. Poetry is multivalent.
> I remember an English teacher insisting that this poem was an internal monologue of a woman burning her bra in the late '60s.
That's ridiculous and you should demand your tuition back. To take only the most obvious problem, woman didn't actually burn their bras.
posted by languagehat at 8:14 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]
> I remember an English teacher insisting that this poem was an internal monologue of a woman burning her bra in the late '60s.
That's ridiculous and you should demand your tuition back. To take only the most obvious problem, woman didn't actually burn their bras.
posted by languagehat at 8:14 AM on November 20, 2013 [1 favorite]
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