“My house”
is now also my house
because you stayed in it too.
its walls have been printed
with your shadow.
coming home
there is still a faint
something of cigar
and a nickel that must have
fallen from your pocket.
and my bed
remembers your weight
as easily as my fingers do your hair.
Friday night and
the springs of the mattress
give an almost groan
not quite accepting me on my own.
Dreaming Frankenstein, 1984
Liz
Lochhead
Source: Dreaming Frankenstein & Collected Poems
Source: http://www.nls.uk/writestuff/heads/wee-lochhead.html
This paper is going to be focused on the
analysis of the poem “My House” which
has been written by Liz
Lochhead. First of all I think it’s important to have a look at Liz’s
biography and study why she wrote in that strange way. Liz was a Scottish poet
who was born in
Liz Lochhead lives in
The poem to be commented has been chosen
from her Collected Poems in order to
analyse it from Liz’s feelings: broken relationships and strange feelings are
all around her poems.
It is important to say that Liz uses an
anti-hegemonic literature, that is because her Scottish mind, against men, and
because of her feminine nature. As done by hegemonic writers Liz also possesses
the conflict between “we” and “I”, I mean, her voice and tone in her
poetic style, the person narrating the poems (the speaking voice, the “I”). (Scottish Literature, Poetry)
Liz’s poem “My house” is about couple relationships with frustrated endings
where the feminine sex is the one who receives the worst place in the story.
The poem is about the falling out with her partner that leaves her a loneliness
feeling. This loneliness is valued especially when she has to go back home, to
the same house which she shared with her sentimental partner.
In the 1st and 2nd
verse it is told that the house has lost its condition of a private property
because now its owner considers it as hers by the fact that they have been
living together in the same house for a long time.
In verse three and four, an exaggeration
created by the author in order to emphasize the imaginary presence of her lover
in the house is found, as the words “its
walls have been printed with your shadow” state. Liz says that his shadow
is drawn permanently on the walls. This exaggeration also helps us to
understand that the aspect to mention is the antithesis found between “walls” (typically white) and “shadow” (black); we can observe that in
verse three and four.
In the following verses we are aware of
the couple’s separation which took place recently. The masculine genre has left
a special scent of tobacco floating over the atmosphere and a “nickel” which “must have fallen from his pocket” as it is said in verses five to
nine. From verses 10 to 13, two personifications are found: the author says
both the bed and her fingers miss the presence of the couple’s half-masculine.
It is important to say that the reader is
situated on “Friday night” in 15th
verse. We have to point out that this is the only word in the poem which begins
with capital letter. She uses the capital letter to exceed the semantic
features of a specific term as it is a characteristic use in Liz Lochhead
poetry. In this case, through the usage of capitalization, Liz is emphasizing
the fact that Friday night is one of the most suitable nights for couples to
have sexual relationships. But now, in spite of being Friday night, she is
going to be alone because her lover is out of her life. It looks as if she
could not conceive a Friday night without sex.
In verse 14 another personification
appears when it is said that “the spring of the mattress” emits a kind of moan
when they realised that the protagonist is going to bed alone. So, the conjugal
bed also misses the man.
If we focused our study on the tone used
in the poem, it is sad but a rancorous one is used too. On one hand, the woman
feels sad because of the sentimental failure but, on the other hand, she is
also angry when she realises it is not an easy journey to forget her lover, as
she could imagine.
Talking about the structure we can
distinguish between three different easy-found parts; they are recognised
because each of them opens with a different temporal reference; the first part
would take the verses one to four and make reference to a present tense which
is called “now”; the second one would
make reference to “coming home”
stated in 5 to 20 verses, and lastly, the 3rd part would be the last
stanza “Friday Night·”.
It could be possible to talk about the
lack of capital letters in Liz Lochhead’s My
House; this strange peculiarity gives a special charisma to her work. She
forgets the orthographic rules in which a capital letter could not be forgotten
after a full stop or a simple stop. This technique helps her to highlight those
exceptional words she wants to emphasize; this capitalization is used in order
to emphasize some aspects which go beyond the semantic field.
To conclude, it’s very difficult to
distinguish between a man or a woman when reading poems but if I should find
different features I would say that women use a sweeter, rhyming and
home-related vocabulary. They have the ability to make words and are better to
understand because they know both colloquial and formal language and this fact
makes the right word when they want to transmit a specific idea.
Opposite, men use colder words and always
try to be formal when using the words for their poems. What they want is to
show the reader that they have a very high cultural level. That is my opinion.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
· Liz Lochhead, Copyright © British Council
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth154 02.05.06
· National Library of
http://www.nls.uk/writestuff/index.html 05.05.06
· Scottish Literature 1, Ms Aileen Christianson, 2005
http://www.englit.ed.ac.uk/studying/undergrd/scottish_lit_1/Handouts/ac_lochhead_poetry.htm
06.05.06