The woman is as round
as the new ring
ambering her finger.
The mirror weds her.
She has long since been bedded.
There is
about it all
a quiet search for attention,
like the unexpected shine
of a despised utensil.
The oils,
the varnishes,
the cracked light,
the worm of permanence –
all of them supplied by Van Eyck –
by whose edict she will stay
burnished, fertile,
on her wedding day,
interred in her joy.
Love, turn.
The convex of your eye
that is so loving, bright
and constant yet shows
only this woman in her varnishes,
who won’t improve in the light.
But there’s a way of life
that is its own witness:
Put the kettle on, shut the blind.
Home is a sleeping child,
an open mind
and our effects,
shrugged and settled
in the sort of light
jugs and kettles
grow important by.
as the new ring
ambering her finger.
The mirror weds her.
She has long since been bedded.
There is
about it all
a quiet search for attention,
like the unexpected shine
of a despised utensil.
The oils,
the varnishes,
the cracked light,
the worm of permanence –
all of them supplied by Van Eyck –
by whose edict she will stay
burnished, fertile,
on her wedding day,
interred in her joy.
Love, turn.
The convex of your eye
that is so loving, bright
and constant yet shows
only this woman in her varnishes,
who won’t improve in the light.
But there’s a way of life
that is its own witness:
Put the kettle on, shut the blind.
Home is a sleeping child,
an open mind
and our effects,
shrugged and settled
in the sort of light
jugs and kettles
grow important by.
This is the poem that first brought Eavan Boland to my attention. I had heard of Boland in class and I had casually read through some of her poems online. But it was when I found “Domestic Interior” that Boland’s writing became much more personal and relatable to me. In this poem she is again writing about a woman, but Boland brings up thought-provoking issues that I myself have pondered on. Specifically, this poem makes me think about my future and how I want to be a wife but that a wife and mother seems to be a boring, thankless job most of the time.
In this poem Boland highlights the simple beauty of common objects and events like a kettle, shutting the blinds, or a sleeping child. She manipulates the common phrase ‘to see something in a new light’ as she describes how everyday objects like a kettle or jug can gain value in a different light. This is also emphasized by her repetition of the word light, which appears three times in the poem. She relates her poem’s idea of light to how an artist uses light to focus in on different objects in his work. This poem is in fact based off of the painting the “Arnolfini Wedding” by Jan Van Eyck. Boland utilizes this allusion to the painting to give the reader a new interpretation- a woman’s interpretation- of Van Eyck's famous work. Van Eyck chose the light in which he would paint the picture (placing an open window as the source) but Boland creates a slightly different way of viewing the painting by figuratively putting it in new light. One line that shows this is line 19 with “interred in her joy”; interred is usually an ominous, depressing word that means to bury someone in their grave. Interred in her joy is a paradox. The woman is interred because she is stuck in the painting forever but Boland might also be saying that the young woman is stuck in her marriage forever. Boland’s poem also contains a lot of assonance especially in the second and sixth stanzas. The second stanza repeats the “eh” sound a lot with the words quiet, attention, unexpected, despised, and utensil. This causes the reader to notice these verbs more and it gives the stanza a sort of plinking sound like rain drops, with each word subtly emphasized. The sixth stanza’s assonance is found in the words life, blind, child, and mind. Another key literary device found in “Domestic Interior” is the personification of the mirror, in line 4, and the ring, in line 3. "The new ring/ambering her finger": amber is a sticky substance that can be very beautiful when it hardens. Sometimes flecks of wood or small bugs get caught in amber and are forever trapped there. The beautiful ring ambering the woman’s finger binds her to her husband in marriage. "The mirror weds her" is a more complicated line. I believe it is a reference to the painting, which has a mirror hanging on the wall behind the couple. The mirror gives another point of view because it is a reflection of the couple's backs and also what is in front of them (which is otherwise invisible to the painting’s viewer). The mirror reveals another person in the painting which I assume is the preacher who will wed the couple. At first Boland appears to be showing the confines of marriage but then I believe she describes how a person’s outlook changes when they are married and how little things that seem boring and trivial at first become special and valued.
To get the ball rolling... do you think Boland portrays the woman as happy or unhappy with her marriage? What other literary devices does Boland use? Any comments or additional information or insight on the Arnolfini Wedding painting?
ReplyDeleteFrom this poem, I can tell Boland has a lyrical style of poetry in that she utilizes intricate literary devices and word choice in order to create a mood, rather than tell a story prosaically. Also in the reflection of the mirror in the painting by Jan Van Eyck, there are actually two people. One being someone there to witness the marriage/preacher, but I recall that the other is the artist, who painted a self-portrait amidst the scene. To finish, Boland clearly describes the suffocating bind a woman feels when entering a marriage, "as the new ring/amber[s] her finger" (lines 2-3). I thought that this poem was clever in the way it played off of the painting, creating another dimension by narrating the poem from the woman's perspective.
ReplyDeleteI think the woman in the painting/poem is both excited about her wedding day, and the prospect of loving and being loved forever, but at the same time she has an understanding of what her responsibilities will become at home once married.
ReplyDeleteThis may make no sense at all, but is she pregnant? It talks about her being round, and being "bedded"(which can have to do with sex). I know dresses used to be very puffy in the olden days but the way the lady has her arm over her stomach makes it seem as though she is pregnant.
I think Pat may be right about this woman being pregnant. In addition to being “as round / as the new ring” (1-2), Boland also uses the word “fertile” (17) which may allude to this idea as well. I could be reading this wrong, but I think that the woman may be feeling ambiguous and anxious about entering into a marriage. If she is in fact pregnant, she could feel obligated to marry because it is the next step that must be taken. Having a child out of wedlock may have been both unacceptable and shameful. At the same time, being a mother and taking care of a “sleeping child” (29), an image Boland creates to conjure feelings of innocence and affection, the speaker may also discover happiness and satisfaction in marriage. These conflicting feelings relate back to Marianna’s note about the line “interred in her joy” (19) being a paradox.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I believe she is pregnant. By the painting and the aforementioned details of the poem, it seems as if it is entirely plausible that she is bearing a child. From this perspective, one can assume that the narrator is speaking about the future and pondering what her place is in this household. I don't think that the narrator is either happy or upset with her place as the mother of the household. I believe this poem is revealing an inner conflict within the mother about the issue: can one value their life on such simple work? I think the last stanza is important in proving this point...
ReplyDelete"and our effects,
shrugged and settled"
meaning that they are not necessarily appreciated by other members in a household. But a woman, to value her life, must take pride in her work. This is evident in the last lines of the poem.
"in the sort of light
jugs and kettles
grow important by."
I thought this was a very interesting and thought provoking poem, and I enjoyed how it took on the perspective of an otherwise anonymous figure in a painting, giving her personality and depth. Reading the poem, I found it was difficult to discern the woman’s true feelings and that the speaker sort of hinted at the subject rather than saying outright whether or not she was happy. I believe this was intentional, however, and the confusion the reader feels might be intended to mirror the simultaneous hope and doubt that the woman is struggling with; at once she is joyous on her wedding day and looking forward to the “open mind” that is home, yet also perhaps she fears that her life will lose some of its meaning when she is forced to devote it to her future child. Yet the final line of the poem, “our effects … in the sort of light jugs and kettles grow important by” suggests to me that she will be able to find importance in raising a family without sacrificing her own identity.
ReplyDeleteWhen I began reading this poem, I interpreted the woman as trapped (into marriage by her pregnancy). The first stanza made me feel this way immediately because everything in her life relevant to what the poem discusses has been done /to/ her. What I mean by this: The woman does not wear an amber ring, the new ring ambers her finger; She does not marry, the mirror weds her; she does not go to bed with the man in the painting, he has bedded her.
ReplyDeleteI carried the sense of the situation that the first stanza gave me throughout the rest of the poem but maybe that is an inaccurate interpretation, as the poem is named “Domestic Interior” and it does seem to end by throwing yet another “light” on the role of wife and mother.
I can’t brush off the feeling that she does not want to be there though. In the third and fourth stanzas for example, it says that she will stay here for eternity because of Van Eyck’s /edict/. In the fifth stanza, it says that the woman is shown “only ... in her varnishes, / [and] won’t improve in the light.” I took this as her varnish meaning her external/outward appearance/facade. The poem continues to say that she will not improve even if you change the perspective (light) from which you view her ... But then the last two stanzas assure the reader that this is one way of living too... a bit confused.
Also, does anyone know why her wedding dress is green?