The Embrace Analysis

You weren't well or really ill yet either;
just a little tired, your handsomeness
tinged by grief or anticipation, which brought
to your face a thoughtful, deepening grace.

I didn't for a moment doubt you were dead.
I knew that to be true still, even in the dream.
You'd been out—at work maybe?—
having a good day, almost energetic.

We seemed to be moving from some old house
where we'd lived, boxes everywhere, things
in disarray: that was the story of my dream,
but even asleep I was shocked out of narrative

by your face, the physical fact of your face:
inches from mine, smooth-shaven, loving, alert.
Why so difficult, remembering the actual look
of you? Without a photograph, without strain?

So when I saw your unguarded, reliable face,
your unmistakable gaze opening all the warmth
and clarity of you—warm brown tea—we held
each other for the time the dream allowed.

Bless you. You came back so I could see you
once more, plainly, so I could rest against you
without thinking this happiness lessened anything,
without thinking you were alive again.


Submitted by Jason Clapham

.: :.

The persona created by Mark Doty is representation of a woman, who is embracing the moments she had with her husband in a dream. The line "you handsomeness tinged by grief or anticipation" describes his situation, where he is ill to the point of death, yet his handsomeness is still shining through. Then the persona or the wife is embracing the time she has in the dream because when she wakes up her husband will be gone. The last stanza creates the whole idea of the poem, letting the reader know that the entire poem was a dream, and that she got to see her husband once more without thinking about him being alive again.

| Posted on 2008-09-18 | by a guest