The next stanza is double spaced before it is continued, giving the impression that the third stanza takes place sometime after the incident. The second stanza begins with “Their lives took a turn”(15), showing that even after some time, the death of Monroe still had a significant impact on their lives—“nightmares, strange/ pains, impotence, depression”(16-17). These symptoms are more an indication of psychological and physical illness rather than simply the trauma of death. The pain of losing a sex icon like Marilyn Monroe did not fade over time, but instead escalated. The trauma increased from not being able to “meet/ each others’ eyes” (13-14) to inability to do daily activities, “One did not/ like his work” (16-17), to being able to love one’s own family the same way, “his wife looked/ different, his kids. Even death/ seemed different to him—a place where she/ would be waiting” (18-21). This last line gives the idea that they’re traumatized because she is a star that these men are deeply captivated with Marilyn Monroe even in her passing, expressing some form of longing for her death.
The third stanza, despite talking about how the men’s lives were turning by the death of a star, seems to be a hint by the poet, as to the magnitude as to which Monroe was a star that symbolizes a sex icon. The nightmares showed Monroe was an angel that prevented these nightmares for these men; seem to start when her life ended. The inability as though Monroe was this erotic seductive pleasure for these three men and that without her. They were to render impotent, as though as the death of such a beauty makes the men unable to perform their duty as an ambulance men.
In the last stanza, the poem becomes more dramatic, as one of the “ambulance men” (1) finds himself simply “standing at night/ in the doorway” (22-23), while everyone is sleeping, simply listening “to a woman…an ordinary woman breathing” (23-25). His insecurity as to whether this woman, possibly his wife, was still alive seems as though in the lives of most men, the two women in their lives were Marilyn Monroe and their wives, and now that they have lost one, they were too afraid to lose the other.
The structure of the poem is also very interesting. Its lack of a rhyme creates an irregular rhythm and seems to be suggesting the impact of Marilyn Monroe’s death, as though her death was enough to shake up the men’s previously routine lives as “ambulance men” to an irregular pattern. The author also gives no setting, but she sets the tone pretty straightforward to imply the impact of Marilyn Monroe was a prominent death for these ambulance men.
The lines more often than not are not complete, with the remainder of the sentences placed at the start of the following line. This adds emphasis on the word that starts off the next sentence. “The ambulance men touched her cold—body” (1-2). The pause in between the words emphasizes the word “body”. The pattern in continued in the first stanza, and emphasizes the words “body…mouth…arms…strand of hair…gravity…down the steps” (2-10). It seems as though that these characteristics that were so highly prized on Marilyn Monroe when she was alive were now slipping away with the succession of the poem. It actually focuses the reader on the death of Monroe, despite the poem on the surface seeming to talk only about the trauma experienced by the men. The incomplete lines also lend themselves to slowing the pace of the poem. It slows down the poem as readers pause for a while before reading the entire line, reinforcing the sadness of Monroe’s death.
In conclusion, the poet successfully portrays the magnitude of the shockwaves that Marilyn Monroe’s death sent throughout society. The death of a star, a sex symbol, and even a sign of ultimate security, supported by all of society, could and can still be barely comprehended. The suitable atmosphere set by the rhythm and the arrangement of the poem allows readers even in a different era to get a sense of the sadness that society felt with her passing. In all, this poem is a success in portraying the intimate connection that every member of society seemed to share with Marilyn Monroe, and how the sudden division of that connection was felt with such sadness, nightmares, impotence, strange pains and depression.
Work Cited
Olds, Sharon. “The Death of Marilyn Monroe.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day, and Robert Funk. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2011, 646
by
ayesha55 (student)
