Descending Figure by Louise Glück
"Descending Figure" by Louise Glück is a poignant exploration of grief through the lens of familial loss, specifically focusing on the speaker's relationship with her deceased sister. The poem is structured in three distinct sections, each reflecting different aspects of mourning and connection. The first section, "The Wanderer," captures a sense of dislocation as the speaker walks through twilight, grappling with feelings of emptiness and longing for her sister who has passed away. This yearning is intensified by the presence of another sister, who embodies the loneliness caused by death.
In the second section, "The Sick Child," the imagery shifts to a tender yet unsettling portrayal of a child and mother, hinting at the inevitability of loss as the child faces mortality. The speaker's plea to let the child be free from memory underscores the complexities of grief and attachment. The final section, "For My Sister," blends hope and surrealism, suggesting a haunting connection with the dead as the speaker reflects on her sister's presence. The poem concludes with vivid imagery that ties back to the earlier sections, evoking the enduring nature of loss and the intricate emotional landscape navigated by those left behind. Overall, "Descending Figure" invites readers to contemplate the multifaceted experience of grief and the lasting bonds of family.
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Descending Figure by Louise Glück
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1980 (collected in The First Four Books of Poems, 1995)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
In a meditative tone, “Descending Figure” chronicles the grief process of the speaker, who longs for her dead sister.
The first of three sections, “The Wanderer” describes the persona going into the street at twilight. The contrast of the sun which “hung low” and “the iron sky, tinged with cold plumage” underscores the speaker’s sense of dislocation, her longing to fill “this emptiness.” She describes playing with her “other sister, whom death had made so lonely.” The speaker’s question, “Why was she never called?” emphasizes the idea of this sister being left out.
In the second section, “The Sick Child,” the images of stars shining above a wooden chest and the child relaxing in her mother’s arms are at first soothing, but the next line describing how “the mother does not sleep” but “stares fixedly into the bright museum” introduces a disturbing note, which is then confirmed by the statement, “By spring the child will die.” The speaker decides that it is “wrong, wrong to hold her” and pleads with the mother, “Let her be alone, without memory.”
The third section, “For My Sister,” also begins on a hopeful note, with the speaker describing how her sister is “moving in her crib” but then adds a note of troubling surrealism with the next line: “The dead ones are like that.” The speaker speculates that if her sister “had a voice, the cries of hunger would be beginning,” and she concludes that she should go to her sister. The ending image of her sister with “skin so white, her head covered with black feathers” echoes the image of the sun’s plumage against the iron sky in the first section of the poem.
Bibliography
Diehl, Joanne Feit, ed. On Louise Glück: Change What You See. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2005.
Dodd, Elizabeth. “Louise Glück: The Ardent Understatement of Postconfessional Classicism.” In The Veiled Mirror and the Woman Poet: H. D., Louise Bogan, Elizabeth Bishop, and Louise Glück. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1992.
Harrison, DeSales. The End of the Mind: The Edge of the Intelligible in Hardy, Stevens, Larkin, Plath, and Glück. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Upton, Lee. Defensive Measures: The Poetry of Niedecker, Bishop, Glück, and Carson. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 2005.
Upton, Lee. “Fleshless Voices: Louise Glück’s Rituals of Abjection and Oblivion.” In The Muse of Abandonment: Origin, Identity, Mastery in Five American Poets. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1998.