Comparing At Dusk And Maddie Clifton

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“Myth,” “At Dusk” and “Maddie Clifton” are heavy, burdensome poems that are hard at first consumption. Death is an uncomfortable topic; loss is immeasurable and grieving can be lifelong. These three poems share a deep, raw reality of this unforgiving and universally unavoidable topic.
“Maddie Clifton” is a most horrific telling, as it is based on a true story, ripped right the headlines of The Florida Times-Union. Told from the perspective of the 8-year-old murder victim, this poem speaks loudly to the bond only a mother and child can share. I found my eyes welling up several times, thinking of my own mother and I’s close, close relationship. Being forced to relive this nightmare each night in your own slumber, thinking you are reuniting with your child, walking peacefully along the shore, your words flowing like the wind to the ears of your daughter, and suddenly, forcefully, without fail, that serenity and peace is shattered. No, it is stolen.
In much the same way, Natasha Tretheway’s “Myth” wrestles with that nightly robbery, an act committed each time the morning overtakes the poet’s slumber. In her dreams, she is reunited with her mother. She is there with her, engaged, present; and then as in “Maddie …show more content…

Tretheway presents this view by magically and vividly painting the cat owner, calling her cat to return home for the evening. Eventually, her words trail off and she forgoes the begging. She returns to her home and lets the cat make her decision as “to bound onto the porch, into the steady circle of light,” or fall back to the “flickering” fireflies near her head. The use of light is masterful by Tretheway in that while in life, or returning home – the light is constant, a “steady circle.” In death, or misdirection or misguided choice, the light is flickering, not all the way

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