The Deer & The Salt Lick

While reading “Salt Lick,” by May Sarton I began to wonder if she used the deer as a metaphor for humans or men or just people in general. If so why did she choose deer and a salt lick to compare us to? You see, at first I thought the narrator was referring to just a deer and a salt lick. But, what do they represent?

The first stanza reads, “They come like deer to a salt lick, they come without fear, come from far and near to lick and lick.”  Who is they? This is what frustrates me about poems in general. They leave so much room for assumptions. Again who is they? Also, why do “they come without fear, come from far and near to lick and lick?” Why do they want the salt so badly? Is the narrator really referring to salt?

The second stanza states, “The salt, a mystery, the written word, not me.” Does the narrator mean that she doesn't know what the salt is that they want so badly? “The written word not me,” is the narrator saying that the words that have been written aren't her? If so I will ask, who is the narrator?

The third stanza states, “But the deer, you see, are confused. I, not the word, am used to fill their need like salt or bread.” My next question is, who is the narrator? Again, who does the deer represent? Why are the deer confused? I don’t understand what “I, not the word” is supposed to mean. “I” as in the letter? That sill means I right? As in the narrator?

So, I’m going to assume she is referring to the narrator. I am also going to assume that the deer are people in general. The “person” or “people” are confused and the narrator, “fills their need like salt or bread.” What is their need? Are “they” taking advantage of the narrator’s kindness?

“On some cold winter day I shall be licked away through no deer’s fault, there will be no more salt.” Here the narrator says “I shall be licked away…” do “you” (narrator) mean that you will be “gone” like the salt lick? “Through no deer’s fault,” this is where “I” as the reader become more confused.

Through the whole poem we read about “deer” coming to lick the salt. If it is not the deer’s fault then who could it be? Also how can there not be any more salt if the deer don’t lick it?

I chose to write about “Salt Lick,” because it is very hard for me to understand. I feel the narrator changes positions so much as well as the “deer.” I feel I had the response I did because I  understand. I believe that the writer wrote in riddles to make the reader read between the lines. This personally bothers me. Why can’t the writer just say what she means? Versus writing in riddles. Although this poem frustrated me I rather like it, after reading it several times I began to understand the meaning of it.  I believe her work would have not been published if she wouldn't have written in this manner, and I rather would prefer reading it this way.

Sounds of the Day By: Norman MacCaig

Sounds of the day? What day is it that you speak of? Are you talking about a specific day of the year? What sounds do you mean? Certain sounds on a certain day?  

While reading Sounds of the Day, a poem by Norman MacCaig very many questions came to mind. Like, what is a lapwing? It is a bird that is popular in Europe. But, what is its significance? Why was it escorting you off of the premises of its private marsh? Was this a place that you and a loved one once shared? Was this place by the water close to the home of you and the loved one you speak of?

“When the door scraped shut, it was the end of all the sounds there are.” When who left is what I might ask? Are you talking about a lover, your wife or your mother? If it is in fact a lover I would believe that the day they left would be the end of all sounds, because all joy is gone and there is nothing left to hear and when there is nothing left to hear there is nothing left to feel.

“You left me beside the quietest fire in the world,” once again who left? What is the fires significance? Could it be a reference to the flame in your heart not crackling like it is supposed to; instead it is silent? Why did your lover leave you? Why was it the quietest fire in the world?

“I thought I was hurt in my pride only, forgetting that, when you plunge your hand in freezing water, you feel a bangle of ice around your wrist before the whole hand goes numb.” When someone you love leaves you, you never only hurt in your pride you hurt in your heart as well. When you refer to your hand are you also playing around with the idea that it is your heart that is numb, from whoever left you leaving your heart in shambles.`

In this short poem I have asked questions about the things that puzzle and mystify me. I believe the point the writer is trying to get across, is that when he was in love, everything that his lover and he shared had sound. I think that when his lover left the last sound he heard was the door scraping shut. He was left by a quiet fire. When I think of a fire I think of a good time and laughter and the fire hot and crackling. But, the narrator says he was left by a quiet fire, how lonely must that be? But, could the fire be symbolizing his love for the person he is talking about? The narrator goes on to say that he was “hurt in my pride only, forgetting that, when you plunge your hand into freezing water…before the whole hand goes numb.” Like I said above I believe he is referring to his heart going numb from his lover leaving him.

David's Escape to Wonderland

In the Graphic Novel Stitches, David Small uses many references to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Small uses Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; to show how David uses this childhood story as an escape from the mental and physical abuse caused by his parents, grandparents, and other people around him.

In the opening of the book Small depicts David laying on the floor of the living room drawing the bunny rabbit from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This is the first reference from the book that the reader sees. Here in the opening the reader does not yet know about David's way of "escape". But, it can be inferred that he is distracting himself with it because David goes on to talk about his mother Betty's "language"; "...the slamming of the kitchen cupboard doors....That was her language"  (Small 14). This small reference to the kitchen cupboards that David makes can be taken insignificant at the beginning of the book. The reader soon learns how significant it really is because when his mother is mad she slams things.

David's mother goes to play golf and leaves the care of David in his brother’s hands for four hours. Tim, David's older brother tells David to go upstairs with him so they can go look at their father’s books. David gets disturbed by what he sees and goes into his own world "It was time to play Alice" (55). In this part of the book David wraps a yellow towel around his head. He believes that what gives Alice the "magic powers" to go to Wonderland is her hair. So David runs around town trying to find his way into Wonderland he ends up at a public playground. There, boys call him names for wearing the towel on his head and he is forced to retreat back home. There he finds his way into Wonderland through his drawing paper (62).

After David's second surgery. He finds out that his parents lied to him about the cyst on his neck. It wasn't a cyst after all it was cancer and his parents didn't tell him. He also finds out that the small amount of kindness that was showed to him at the hospital, was all because his parents thought he was going to die. So, after David has his second surgery he begins to feel invisible because of the loss of one of his vocal cords. David begins to retreat inside of himself because he cannot use his voice. One night he has a dream that like Alice's Adventure in Wonderland, he enters these doors and they continue to get smaller and smaller until the smallest one he can fit through. Opens up into this room filled with clutter. The reader then infers that the clutter in this room represents the obstacles he must overcome in his life. Which will include the physical and mental abuse he has incurred from his parents, grandparents and as well as the cancer that his parents kept from him.



Works Cited

Small, David.  Stitches: A Memoir.  New York: Norton, 2009.  Print.