Written by By Louise Glück
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Little soul, little perpetually undressed one, do now as I bid you, climb the shelf-like branches of the spruce tree; wait at the top, attentive, like a sentry or look-out. He will be home soon; it behooves you to be generous. You have not been completely perfect either; with your troublesome body you have done things you shouldn’t discuss in poems. Therefore call out to him over the open water, over the bright water with your dark song, with your grasping, unnatural song–passionate, like Maria Callas. Who wouldn’t want you? Whose most demonic appetite could you possibly fail to answer? Soon he will return from wherever he goes in the meantime, suntanned from his time away, wanting his grilled chicken. Ah, you must greet him, you must shake the boughs of the tree to get his attention, but carefully, carefully, lest his beautiful face be marred by too many falling needles. |
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This poem uses reference to the life of Penelope in Homer's The Odyssey. Penelope had to stay home while her husband was out living a better life. The narrator compares her life to that of Penelope's in that her husband has been away for a long time and she is getting frustrated with the monotony of her life and the continuous waiting.
The narrator understands she has flaws too, as mentioned on lines 7-9, but she shortly realizes that she has power too, like Maria Callas did, and her confidence rises. The reference to Maria Callas on line 14, a very prominent opera soprano of the 20th century, is an expression of how the female has to work very hard to get where she is; she starts with nothing or very little and has to work to attain everything that she has. Maria was very passionate about her singing and was able to win virtually any crowd over, even when, later on in her career, they were hissing at weak points in her voice (see the above link to Maria Callas). The narrator feels that she is also as passionate and powerful and can call her husband and divulge her unhappiness to him.
She knows her husband will return, however, and she will have to do the same chores as usual to please him and that it will be hard to break from the monotony and do something new to get his attention. This thought
In the last six lines, 18-23, she resolves that she can't let him know how much it really bothers her when he is gone and comes home expecting things prepared; she doesn't want to trouble him with the knowledge that she is unhappy, especially after his long day of work. The mention of "falling needles" in the last line is a reference to Penelope's sewing of the quilt for her husband's father. This is the narrator's comment on how much she does and has done for her husband that he doesn't even know about; it is above his head in the "branches of the spruce tree" as mentioned near the outset of the poem.
