All poems have a speaker, that is, a voice behind the words of the poem. This voice is not the same as that of the poet. It is the voice of the invisible persona whose personality and spirit are projected into the poem.
Dual Point of View in a Poem
That speaker of the poem determines the point of view of the poem. To appreciate the full feeling of the poem, the reader needs to discern from whose vantage point the perceptions, observations, and incidents of the poem are filtered and expressed.
Below is the first part of the poem, "Memories Graveside." The poem is written in first person, where "I" is telling what happens. The reader will discern that "I" is the daughter of a dying mother:
"Memories Graveside"
by Laura Bernell
Mom said, "You're wonderful,"
Brown eyes peering
Over lavender sheets
Trained steadily on me.
"You're staring at me."
"Yes. It is to take your
Image with me to the grave"
Where there will be no memories.
Poetic Irony Through Dual Voices
But perhaps there is also another speaker, an outsider, also narrating the poem. It is important for the reader to notice whose voice is speaking in each line of the poem. In the lines above, a new voice is heard where the quotation marks end, and that voice notes that in the grave "there will be no memories."
Whose voice is that?
It seems to be an omnipotent voice, the voice of a wiser persona who understands things that the characters within the poem may not understand. Or perhaps it is the voice of the narrator, "I," looking back at the incident being described. That line without quotations is removed from the immediate events in the poem, providing distance, perspective and therefore, ironic possibilities. Distance and perception are two literary elements that can create irony.
So we know in the poem so far that the mom is staring at the daughter in order to take her daughter's memory to the grave. But the wiser over-voice reminds the reader – but not the mother – that in the grave, no one has memories.
Poetic Distance Equals Poetic Irony
Here is the is the middle of the poem:
And, sitting on their
Marriage- now her death-bed
I said, "I love you," and she
Touched my face with four
Fingertips. This was a task --
Pushing an arm out from under
The sheets, lifting her hand
To my cheek. Four slight white
Fingers hovered above my face.
In these lines, the first-person speaker, the daughter, is retelling what happened that day she spent with her dying mother. This, indeed, is the daughter's memory of what happened. But the event is being told in an immediate sense, without distance. It is a very intimate memory. The poem increases in the intimacy, as the first-person speaker continues telling her story:
Soft as butterfly wings, she
Touched my face, and still,
Touching my face
As though mine were the most
Precious face in all the world
And would be, for all Eternity.
Irony Contributes to Depth of Meaning
Notice the emphasis on the word "mine." This emphasis helps the reader understand how important the daughter's point of view is to the meaning of the poem. It turns out that the memory in this poem is the daughter's memory, not the mother's. The daughter is recounting a beautiful memory. But this memory - like all memories - will die with the one who remembers. And that is partly the irony of the poem.
This exquisitely tender moment between a mother and daughter will be memorialized only for the lifetime of the daughter. A paradox is offered: The daughter wants to believe that her mother will enter eternal life with a memory of herself, yet she knows that the moment of tenderness is an "as though" moment. The words "as though" let the reader know that the daughter is projecting into that moment her own imagination and desires. The daughter remembers this precious loving touch from her mother "as though" her mother would cherish it for all eternity.
The irony is that the poem is the daughter's memory, not the mother's. That ironic, paradoxical twist is made possible only by making the daughter the speaker of the poem, with the one intrusively ambiguous but all-important line "where there will be no memory."
What comes through in this poem, out of the ironic crack, is that the daughter yearns for singular, eternal love from her mother. In her memory of the moment captured in the poem, the daughter attains what she yearns for. She will always feel that her face is the most precious face in the world to her mother.
Memory and Imagination
An irony is that this perception is through the eyes and heart of the daughter. Readers are brought to question if the whole incident, as perceived and remembered by the daughter, is not just a projection of the daughter's desire: Did the mother really say she wanted to take her daughter's image with her to the grave, or is that part of the daughter's imagination? Did the memory of this incident change to fit the daughter's depth of yearning for her mother's deepest and most devoted love?
In the end, what matters is how this poem affects the reader. Readers sensitive to the ironic softness of the poem will feel the tenderness of love – and the universal yearning for undying motherly love – conveyed in this poem.
Leah Abramovitz - Laura Bernell, Professional Writer since 1984; Community College Adjunct English Instructor since 1982.
Join the Conversation