Running head: INFLUENCES OF THE IMPERFECT IMAGE BASED ON EXPERENCE:

POEMS BY TRETHEWEY, GILBERT, BISHOP, AND RILKE.

Influences of the Imperfect Image Based on Experience:

Poems by Trethewey, Gilbert, Bishop, and Rilke.
Sirinda Yingumnuay
Mahidol University International School

INFLUENCES OF THE IMPERFECT IMAGE BASED ON EXPERENCE:

POEMS BY TRETHEWEY, GILBERT, BISHOP, AND RILKE.

Abstract
The research is mainly about influences of poets experience that effect to the image in the
literature work. This has been done by researching biography of Trethewey, Gilbert, Bishop, and
Rilke, and, analyzing poems; such as, After your death, Genus Narcissus, The Forgotten
Dialect of the Heart, Michikos death, Wild Geese, and Archaic Torso of Apollo. Base on
this focus, it becomes clear that imperfection plays an important role in their idea, which could
cause by losing someone, insulted from society, and breaking other expectation. Therefore, this
research is looking at different images of imperfection in the poem from different poets.

INFLUENCES OF THE IMPERFECT IMAGE BASED ON EXPERENCE:

POEMS BY TRETHEWEY, GILBERT, BISHOP, AND RILKE.

Influences of the Imperfect Image Based on Experience:

Poems by Trethewey, Gilbert, Bishop, and Rilke.
There are many things in the world that similar but none of them are the same. So,
nothing can be determined from the completeness of anything. Moreover, none of us come from
the same place or have the same background because we all have different experiences. Since
some might lose someone in the past, some might be insulted by the society, and some might be
unaccepted from the family. However, those people are still having one thing in common which
is the feeling of imperfection. Therefore, we usually found in the poetry works that people
usually create different images to express their depression and thought. Besides, by looking at
the poetry of Natasha Trethewey, Jack Gilbert, Elizabeth Bishop, and Rainer Maria Rilke, we
can understand how life experiences influence the image of imperfection.
To begin with Natasha Trethewey, she is the one who has an image of dying from
experienced her mothers death. According to Kathleen Kuiper in Encyclopedia Britannica, she
mentioned that Threthwey is the daughter of an African-American mother and white father. She
was born in 1966 in Gulfport, Mississippi. Additionally, her parents divorced when she was sixyears-old, and her mother remarried with another man in a few years later. However, her mother
was murdered by her second husband (2014), which made Natasha depressed from losing her
mother, and, also influenced her works to write about her mother death; such as After your
death and Genus Narcissus poem. Furthermore, Natasha felt that her life is imperfect because
she viewed her mother as a whole world. This is show in her poems that she always has an image
that relates to her mother. For instance, in After your death, she describes herself was clearing
mothers clothes and her stuff. Natasha explained that I emptied the closets of your clothes, /
threw out the bowl of fruit, bruised / rom your touch, left empty the jars (1-3), which remind her

INFLUENCES OF THE IMPERFECT IMAGE BASED ON EXPERENCE:

POEMS BY TRETHEWEY, GILBERT, BISHOP, AND RILKE.

of her mother. Therefore, when she threw out clothes and the bowl, Natasha feels incomplete as
the empathy jar. The reason is that she still sense her mothers touch from things, and cannot
accept the fact that her mother already gone. Moreover, she also creates the image of rotten apple
that half of it was already eaten - I found it half eaten, the other side / already rotting (7-8). The
thing is she compares her mom as the eaten side as her mother already disappeared. On the other
hand, she also compares herself to the rotten side because she feels like her life is almost dark
and nothing left another space emptied by loss (11). Also, she has overlapped images of her
mother and herself as the daffodil in the Genus Narcissus that how theyd dry like graveside
flowers, rustling / when the wind blew (19-20). She explains her mothers death like a dead
flower, and also her heart that has been broken by the fact that she is alone now. Hence,
Natashas images are mainly influenced by her mother lost, in which she feels depress because
she takes her mother as a part of her life.
Besides, Jack Gilbert also has an imperfection that deals with lost, but he turns his
incompleteness regarding language. The reason is his wife whose name is Michiko Nogami, died
after they had married for 11 years (Poetry Foundation, 2012). Hence, Gilbert traps into the
disappointment, which he unable to explain his sadness through words, so he comes up with the
idea of language failure. This was mentioned in the Gilberts interview by Chard deNiord that If
youve ever experienced that - caring about a man or woman in an illicit way - you know that
theres an emotional quality in the apartment that doesnt exist any other place in the world
(2009). The reason is that languages or words, which we use, were made up. We cant feel or see
it completely. So if we compare it to something thats touchable, it would be easier to explain it
to someone. For instance, in The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart, Jack has demonstrate his idea
in the sentence that Love, we say, God, we say, Rome and Michiko, we write, and the words /

INFLUENCES OF THE IMPERFECT IMAGE BASED ON EXPERENCE:

POEMS BY TRETHEWEY, GILBERT, BISHOP, AND RILKE.

get it wrong (2-4), which shows his frustration of trying to express his feeling. Moreover,
Gilbert also points out that some word in some language may not have in another language; such
as French has no word for home, / and we have no word for strict pressure (5-6). Therefore, he
uses objects instead of words to explain his feelings; such as My love is a hundred/ pitchers of
honey (20-21). Additionally, in Michiko dead poem, he also shows the imperfection of his
feeling by comparing it to a box, which refers to the depression from Michikos death. Gilbert
also explains that he cannot handle with this feeling properly, because he doesnt know way to
carry it; for example, He moves his thumbs slightly / when the finger begin to tired (6-7), and,
he carries it on his shoulder, until the blood / drains out of the arm (9-10). However, when he
knows the appropriate way to deal with his wifes death, he describes it as he can hold the box.
This is show in the poem that The man can hold underneath again, so that / he can go without
ever putting the box down (12-13). Besides, by looking at Jack Gilberts poems, we can see his
imperfection from losing his beloved wife, which expressed in term of objects from the idea of
failure of the language.
Nevertheless, sometimes the imperfection is not always negative; such as Mary Oliver,
who reflects it in a positive way by using nature. According to her failure, she gave an interview
to Encyclopedia Britannica about her biography in 2014. She told that she had been attended to
Ohio state University and Vassar College, but she didnt receive any degree from both of them.
However, her life still success from working as the secretary for the sister of Edna St. Vincent
Millay and the poet. Hence, she reflects her past in the poem, to encourage herself and other
people; for instance, Wild Geese poem. Mary has asserted her idea in the first sentence of the
poem that You dont have to be good / you dont have to walk on your knees (1-2), and, love
what it loves (5). This mean person shouldnt be hurt themselves to make them perfect; they

INFLUENCES OF THE IMPERFECT IMAGE BASED ON EXPERENCE:

POEMS BY TRETHEWEY, GILBERT, BISHOP, AND RILKE.

should love who they are and what they like. Furthermore, even they might have many
disappointments in their life, but she shows the sympathy by trying to connect herself to the
people; such as in line 6 of the poem that Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you
mine. Moreover, she uses a repetition of the word meanwhile to make the reader feel that all
those failure and success come together as a cycle of nature, which shows in the poem that
Meanwhile the world goes on. / Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain / are
moving across the landscapes (7-9). Therefore, as she likes to express her feeling by using the
image of nature, she uses geese to illustrate herself and failure in the poem. The thing is geese
could represent people who are not good at a specific thing, but can do everything; as in the
poem that said calls to you like the wild geese (16). Even geese can fly, but they are not good
as birds, and as it can swim but they also not good as fishes. Although, geese still can do both of
them while birds and fishes can only do one of them. Hence, Mary expresses her idea that people
dont have to be good at everything; they just have to do what they love to do so. And, by using
the image of nature and the wild geese, she reveals that imperfection is not always our weak
point.
In addition, Rainer Maria Rilke also has a similar idea as Mary, but he explains it in term
of others view by creating an image of an art. The thing is his idea inspires from the Rodins
sculptural work when he traveled to Paris in 1902, which he states that he had surrendered
himself to the control of the art object (Van den Broek, 2013, p.225). Consequently, this
influences Rilke to write poems that present the idea by using art, such as Archaic Torso of
Apollo, which illustrates the nature beauty and the lost. Furthermore, his idea also reveals by a
missing part from the torso of Apollo; as in the poem that We cannot know his legendary head
(1), and, the beauty of itself as his torso / is still suffused with brilliance from insides (2-3).

INFLUENCES OF THE IMPERFECT IMAGE BASED ON EXPERENCE:

POEMS BY TRETHEWEY, GILBERT, BISHOP, AND RILKE.

However, there is a contrast in the poem that The curved breast could not dazzle you (6), and
Otherwise this stone would seem defaced (9). This means that some people might see the
attraction of the torso, but some people are not. Then the torso will have no different from a
damaged stone because they do not care about it. Additionally, this relates to his life when he
was young. His parents forced him to be a soldier, but Rilke found himself that he like poetry
even nobody cares about his fondness (Poetry Foundation, 2012). Therefore, the torso itself
could refer to his talent or charity in poetry, and the damaged stone is how his family looks at his
choice to study it. This means while he sees the torso is beautiful and perfect; his family sees it
as an invaluable thing. Nevertheless, he mentions in the last sentence that You must change
your life, which he means people, who are not believing in themselves, to change their attitude.
Moreover, For here there is no place / that does not see you (13-14), refers to the reason that
they dont have to make other see as what they see because they know themselves best.
Therefore, Rilke expresses his imperfection from his family view by using the Apollo torso,
which reflects both beauty and incompleteness. And he also believes that the imperfection is
mainly about our attitude. If we feel it as our merit, it will be our good side.
Finally, the imperfection is our feeling and attitude towards us. Sometimes it might
weaken us because some people do not know how to deal with it. And, sometimes it might lose
our confident because others do not see as we see. However, everybody is different; they all
haven't the same attitude and view. The imperfection will be our positive or negative point, is
mainly based on our perspective. Therefore, by looking the poetry of Natasha Trethewey, Jack
Gilbert, Elizabeth Bishop, and Rainer Maria Rilke, we will see the different aspects and images
towards the imperfection that base on their dissimilar experiences.

INFLUENCES OF THE IMPERFECT IMAGE BASED ON EXPERENCE:

POEMS BY TRETHEWEY, GILBERT, BISHOP, AND RILKE.

References
deNoid, C. & Gilbert, J. (2009). The American Poetry Review. An interview with Jack Gilbert,
by Chard deNoid, 38(1), 26-29.
Kuiper. K. (2014). Trethewey, Natasha. Encyclopedia Britannica.
Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=5582a49e-6bec-471e-8b79
9e38dd2d4cd5%40sessionmgr4002&vid=5&hid=4213&bdata=#AN=89408931&db=ers
Nolden, T. (1991). Portrait of the Artist as a Young Soldier: Rainer Maria Rilke's Cornet. The
German Quarterly, 64(4), 443451. Retrieved from http://doi.org/10.2307/406661
Oliver, Mary. (2014). Encyclopedia Britannica.
Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?sid=5582a49e-6bec-471e-8b799e38dd2d4cd5%40sessionmgr4002&vid=3&hid=4213&bdata=#AN=89407420&db=ers
Poetry Foundation. (2012). Jack Gilbert.
Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jack-gilbert#poet [11/11/2015]
Poetry Foundation. (2012). Rainer Maria Rilke.
Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/rainer-maria-rilke [11/11/2015]
Van den Broek, C. Y. (2013). How the Panther Stole the Poem: The Search for Alterity in
Rilkes Dinggedicht. Monatshefte, 105(2), 201-222