A Rediscovery of Juvenilia by Douglass Dunn
The poem is written as eulogy to the poet’s wife, and the somber tone is instantly evident. However, the title suggests the unearthing of a mislaid youth. The speaker of the poem speaks of sorting through old belongings, and he seems to take sentiment from things that at the time were just part of every day errands.
’A rusted paperclip has left its print,
its mineral reflection on something I ‘sent out’ twenty years ago’.
The mood is quite despondent and melancholy, almost as if the speaker is finding it hard to struggle along with the formalities of everyday life that seemed trivial when his wife was alive, but have now taken on a new meaning, as each task and belonging has some forgotten sentiment. This effect is achieved by sharp and short lines of verse.
’They wave across my years, which are theirs also’
It is almost as if the loss of his wife also signifies the loss of his youth and the joys of life that have long since past him by.
The poet uses a variety of poetic devices to convey the speaker’s feelings.
The use of an ellipsis at the end of the first stanza suggests unspoken thoughts, that perhaps the speaker’s grief has cast a shadow over what it is he intends to write about, or in fact what he feels.
The poem is constructed using a regular form, which perhaps implies that behind this formal pretense, the true desperation and devastation he feels may be concealed. Yet no rhyme scheme is used, which suggests that although there is a regular form, there is evidence of an irregularity in the poem.
This is reflected in the theme of oxymorons that appears to run throughout the poem. The first example of this consists of how the speaker’s senses seem to be confused, implying an uncomfortable mood, yet the confusion is contrasted with the pleasure he gets from the bringing back of joyful memories. The oxymoron being that this bereavement has resulted in him feeling discomfort and yet comfort at the same time.
’I am a time-traveler! / Here too is a line, a lost one’
The poet also uses synaesthesia to convey the control that he as the poet can wield over normal human orientation, and the power to confuse. The confusion adds to this sense of lacking clarity, as we are not quite sure if the speaker is saying what he is feeling, or is hiding his feelings behind the mask of the poem’s regular form and formal content.