Analyzing Marie Howe's Poem 'Watching Television'

Watching Television Analysis
Everyone feels alone at times, but the way we cope with it internally, is different. In Marie Howe’s poem Watching Television she starts by telling us about a mother spider who has a hundred babies, who were learning how to spin their webs. But, the poem switches and she starts talking about herself and how she imagines herself places where she is isolated. She explains that she is arguing with the man she loves, she hasn’t heard from him and she stands and waits for him to show up, but he never does. She finishes the poem with saying “Anything I’ve ever tried to keep by force I’ve lost,” which is a harsh ending.
Marie Howe’s feelings are expressed after arguing with a man who plays a significant role in her

Her poem switches from positive to negative. She starts the poem with the story of the mother spider and her babies which has a happy ending, but then she goes into talking about herself. In Marie Howe’s essay, she says “…a white frame house, and rising, / and I thought of a room it was shining in, right then, / a room I might live in and can’t imagine yet.” From this quote we notice that she is imagining a house that she could possibly live in one day. Maybe it’s the man’s house and she is thinking one day she could live there with him, but not yet. She says “And this morning, I thought of a place on the ocean where no one is, / no boat, no fish jumping, / just sunlight gleaming on the water, humps of water that hardly break.” This quote provides a sense of loneliness, to think of a place on the beach that is deserted, there are no other people, little noise, and there is nothing there to keep you company. Then she says, “We argued about one thing, but really it was another,” this shows that there was a lack of communication between the two, which could cause Howe to feel like she was alone. Part of one of her quotes, “unbroken by footprints”, created a huge sense of loneliness. She is all alone, awaiting the return of the man she loves, and he hasn’t yet shown up. The fact that the path leading to the front door hasn’t been walked on in two days, would make the reader wonder if anyone besides the man would normally visit her, or if Howe has even left her home in those two days. The last line in her poem is “Anything I’ve tried to keep by force I’ve lost”, and she uses this to provide a sense of emptiness. The movement of her poem from positive to negative is what helps create that feeling of being