Nouns
Minnow: small silver colored salt-water fish
Dock: a wooden structure designed to receive boats.
Railing: top horizontal part of a wooden barrier.
Unison: At the same time e.g. to sing in unison
Dockside: area beside a dock
Downdrafts: currents of air or water going downwards
“Upswirls”: to swirl upwards, to swirl is to move in a graceful arc or spiral
“Arrowing” : gerund of the verb “to arrow”
Longing: a strong lingering desire for something often unattainable
Thread: filaments twisted together for sewing
Verbs
To freight: to carry
To sway: to change the direction of something moving, to bend something over, in incline something, to influence
To hit resistance: to encounter an opposing force
To burst: for a pressurized sac or container to break open and the contents spread outwards
“To arrow”: to move like an arrow
To long: verb of ‘longing’
To glisten: to shine when wet
To thread: to pass through something in a way comparable to passing thread through cloth when sewing
To sift: to put something through a sieve
Analysis
This is not so much a difficult but a complex poem that merits your attention as it will not disappoint you. It is a beautiful study of the way our minds work as well as a study of our perceptions of time and eternity. It both describes the conscious mind as both serial and parallel, but sets out its preoccupations with self, chaos and death.
The poem can be divided into four parts, each one interconnected. The first is an account of what the speaker saw. The second is a reflection on this. In the third part the speaker observes herself giving a sort of verbal conclusion to her experience and the reflection it has provoked. Then she thinks about what she has said to herself. She concludes that nothing was actually said, there were no words. It was an event, an idea.
Let's look at each part in greater detail.
a) Over a dock railing, ...arrowing motion that forces change
The speaker, the protagonist in the poem, is observing minnows over a dock railing. She notices how they move with the current and in fact make the currents visible. They are not strong enough to make current with their bodies. They shine in the light. The currents and the school of minnows are disturbed by a boat wake. This make them change direction and go with the force of this wave.
b) ...this is freedom...the aftershocks of something at sea.
What the protagonist has seen now becomes metaphorical for her notions of faith and may shed some light on the poem's title. The line "...this is freedom." possibly refers to the exhilirating sensation the fish might feel as they are pushed by the boat wake. This introduces the ambiguous notion of 'freedom'. (See also 'The Red Queen' principle in evolutionary theory). Where the minnows do not control the direction inwhich they swim, as they are not strong enough, but are carried by the current and the boat wake. In calling the boat wake "...the force of faith", her meaning could be that the sensation of freedom comes when allowing oneself to be carried or eve controlled by a force. The fish, like the protagonist, are powerless to change or resist the force. This "force of faith" whatever it may be, does not deliver the purity she desires. Instead when it comes it causes her to change in some permanent way.
c) What you get is to be changed ...the aftershocks of something at sea
In this the third part the metaphor and the image of what she saw become completely interwined. She speaks about the nature of this 'force of faith' on her life again using the analogy of the boat wake and the minnows. In the use of the phrase "...each glistening minute..." she compares each minute in our lives to each of the hundreds of tiny fish. At this point the metaphor and the experience of the minnows are the same thing for the protagonist.
"..., through which infinity threads itself, also oblivion, ..."
She goes on to say that just like the boat wake that carries the minnows, so the eternal force of faith and nothingness can be felt in each minute of our lives.
"...the aftershocks of something at sea..."
In this line the poet tells us that for her the present, past and future are moving vertically, upwards and downwards, just like the minnows, in an ocean of eternity. The boat out at sea, we could say it represents God, passes phantom like and produces a wake that pushes the protagonist into another direction and changes her irreversibly.
d) Here, hands full of sand, letting it sift through in the wind...Never
Her comment, "...hands full of sand...sift...through in the wind..." is almost the beginning line of another poem on the same subject. The grains of sands are the equivalent of the minnows which are metaphors for time, the wind the same thing as the current, which is a metaphor for waves of eternity created by the boat, which is a metaphor for God.
"...I look in and say take this, this what I have saved..."
The poem takes a turn now. She reveals that she is aware of her experience and her reflections that result from it. She also exposes that there are two inner voices in our minds and that we are capable of an internal dialogue.
"...this is what I have saved..."
This line is difficult to interpret. The poet seems to be speaking about the overarching metaphor summarized in terms of sand described above, which she offers herself as a mental landmark.
"...And if I listen now? Listen I was not saying anything..."
Now the speaker listens to herself and realizes that there were no words spoken. She questions the internal dialogue as to whether they are constructed of words or just ideas. This is reminiscent of "mentalese" as Steven Pinker calls it the "mindscript" of E.O.Wilson.
In the NPR 'Science Friday' interview Antonio Domasio interprets these last statements as that we know we exist because we are experiencing constant change. Our brains, he says, are the captive audience of our bodies. They monitor the world with its ever changing light and sounds and it is this that reminds us constantly that we exist. 'The self' is a constantly changing and evolving construction of all these sensations. Here the self can be seen as a river or current that is always changing, and as ancient Greek natural philosopher Heraclitus says, "Everything flows," and "we cannot step twice into the same river".
I am free to go
This line gives the impression that the poet's contemplation has provided her with a kind of liberty, perhaps from delusion and illusion of previously held beliefs about time and eternity. But she knows that this moment of clarity, a sort of ephiphany for her, has left her changed. It is an affirmation of selfhood.
It is a ghost posed on my lips. Here: never.
This is one of the most mysterious lines in the poem. What does she mean by it? Here are a couple of ideas. You are more than welcome to add your own.
The 'ghost' could be the non verbal idea that is later translated into words. Graham may see this idea as spirit and I have the impression it is the substance of what we understand to be soul. Because it is pure idea and not made of words, it is not "serial" but "parallel" (you will understand what his means after listening to Group 2) and to a certain extent transcends time, giving it an almost eternal character. This may be exemplified by the last to words, Here: Never. The idea was both on her lips and never on her lips, much like an apparition which is paradoxically both there but not really there.
Alternatively, the closing line restates the idea that the internal monologue/dialogue is there to interpret and communicate deeper and more precise sentiments which are largely beyond words. But in being consistent with the poem's multilayered meaning, the ghost also may also allude to the Spirit which is imparted to her, "...posed on my lips", by the passing force that has answered her prayer.What do you think?
Add your own interpretation to the last line of the poem by leaving a comment.
References
Gaarder, Jostein (1994) Sophie's World. Chapter: 'The Natural Philosophers'. Berkley Signature Edition. New York
Pinker, Stephen (1994) The Language Instinct. Chapter 3 'Mentalese'. HarperCollins, New York.
Wilson, E.O. (1998) Consilience. Chapter 6 'Mind'. Abacus. London.
