Louise Gluck – Two Poems
Gretel in Darkness – Mock Orange – A Fable and an Ill-Fated Union
Louise Gluck began her literary career in 1968 with the publication of her first book of poetry, Firstborn; and while she received much praise during the years that followed Firstborn, it was her seventh book of poetry, The Wild Iris in 1992 that won her the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, which seemed to set off a torrent of honors and awards, including being named United States Poet Laureate in 2003.
Gretel in Darkness and Mock Orange come from The First Four Books of Poems, which is as one would imagine a compilation of Louise Gluck’s first four books, published between 1968 and 1980: Firstborn, The House on Marshland Wand, Descending Figure and The Triumph of Achilles.
Gretel in Darkness
Louise Glück delves into her German roots to re-imagine the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel, in the aftermath; told from the perspective of Gretel; as a lonely, emotionally fragile young woman, haunted by memories of her violent near-death experience with her brother:
I hear the witch’s cry
break in the moonlight through a sheet
of sugar...
The result is a fascinating and stirring psychodrama; an ingenious alternate history that expands the scope of the modern poet as fabulist; deconstructing tales ingrained in the psyche since childhood; and in the case of Gretel in Darkness, an exploration into darkly disturbing familial discord:
My father bars the door, bars harm
from this house...
No one remembers. Even you, my brother...
A motherless Gretel fruitlessly searches for comfort in a cold, confused brother, Hansel, who seems to be either in denial, or shock; which leads Gretel, gently guided with a fine hand by Glück, to plead for empathy; to accept the darkness within:
...we are there still and it is real, real,
that black forest...
Gretel in Darkness is a great poem for many reasons; most admirably, Louise Glück's avoidance of the commonly practiced habit by modern writers to overplay the psychosexual subtext in fables and fairy tales. Instead, Ms. Glück chooses to explore the subtle nuances of human emotion.
Mock Orange
Louise Glück's Mock Orange poem is a Cassavetes-like bit of theater, surrounding a woman's exhaustive despair, at having to carry on a long dead relationship:
the low, humiliating
premise of union—
Ms. Glück's talent as a wordsmith is a given, but, it is her unusually deep insight into human desolation and longing, that distinguishes Mock Orange:
split into the old selves,
the tired antagonisms...
Mock Orange is an exquisite example of Louise Gluck's unique voice; as she takes a simple premise, a dissolving love affair, and rather than using a flower simply as a metaphor, the poet utilizes the flower's scent, as a sense memory:
How can I be content
when there is still
that odor in the world?
Louise Gluck
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