Welcome back, peeps. Merry Christmas! I hope you and your family are staying safe. Let's have a look at another poem from Ada Limón's Bright Dead Things poetry collection.
Down Here
By Ada Limón
The dog does this beautiful thing,
it waits. It stills itself and determines
that the waiting is essential.
I suppose this eternity
is the one inside the drawer,
inside the buttonhole.
All the shouting before
was done out loud, on the street,
and now it's done so shushing-ly.
There is a saying down here,
I'd never heard before,
I hate it for you.
It means, if the dog pees
on the carpet, I hate it
for you, Too bad for you.
It means, if you're alone,
when love is all around,
We all tip our lonely hats
in one un-lonely sound.
Thoughts going through my mind:
"The dog does this beautiful thing, / it waits." = Implying that humans can't wait? A criticism towards society? Looking to nature for answers?
"saying down here" = as seen in the past six poems, "Down Here" continues to display the narrator's journey of adapting to a new environment
Stanza 3 also points out the differences between old and new home (the contrasting ambiances present in city and country life)
"I hate it for you" = a phrase allowing for connection and sympathy
In an interview with The Adroit Journal, Limón said the following when asked about the Southern phrase I hate it for you: "As someone who loves language (and is frustrated by its limitations), I’m always hearing some phrase or landing on some new word that’s pushing me into a poem. I love accents, too. I can listen to new accents in new places forever. It feels like I’m being let in to another world. I am in love with long road trips where you can stop and hear someone speaking in an entirely different vernacular than you did just five hours before. There are all kinds of terrible problems with our country, but traveling it makes you realize how large it is, how insane it all is, and how sometimes it’s a miracle we all get by at all." --> just thought this would be interesting to share with y'all
The uncertainty of "Down Here" and ambiguity of "Here" allows the readers to connect with Limón and reflect on our own moments of attachment/change
"We all tip our lonely hats / in one un-lonely sound" = a sense of camaraderie, connection, presence, and mindfulness
That's it for now. If you would like to share anything, feel free to send me a private memo or drop any comments below. I'll see you tomorrow.
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