Louise Gluck Meadowlands

Louise Gluck, “Meadowlands”, explains to the readers that there are many sequences that is going on with these poems. Some parts are talking about family relationships, love, and other parts in the book talk about marriage, lies, power, and abandonment. Most of the poems are constructed in free verse and in single-stanza. There are many speakers throughout the story. These poems are something that some individuals can relate to are many individuals that may feel lost, hurt, confused and trying to figure themselves out just like Telemachus experienced in Meadowlands. Telemachus speaks about his parents’ lives and feels like he is the third wheel.
In the poem “Telemachus’ Detachment”, the language in this poem speaks on a memory that he has

had as a child and realizing that his parents showed insufficient love for him. He considered his parents’ marriage as heartbreaking when he was a child, but there is a deeper meaning to this poem and what I understood from this moment is that it seem as though Telemachus was trying to get his parent’s attention because his parent’s could’ve been more focus on the complications that they were having at the moment. He really didn’t get the attention he was looking for so it talks about the detachment he had from his parent’s as a child. The poems about Telemachus are the ones that were most powerful to me. Gluck showed the different perspective that Telemachus had on life and about his parents.
Gluck wrote in a conversational tone than lyrical. There were some parts that were lyrical but there are also many poems that had more of a conversational tone. The poems are very dialogue especially when the husband and wife comes into the picture. They speaks on the problems that they were experiencing with one another and how much trouble they brought into one another’s lives at the last section of the book. The structure in this poem is also very unique Meadowlands shows how a marriage itself has a tone. The book Meadowlands has a realistic and outlook on marriage.
Gluck’s book has imagery in some sections of the book but she uses a lot of metaphors in her poems. One of the metaphors that she used in the poem “Circe’s Power”, “I never turned anyone into a pig. Some people are pigs: I make them look like pigs” (Gluck, pg 37). This line shows a little bit of humor and it indicates how men behave in certain ways towards women. Usually when a woman says that men are pigs, they ascribe the bad qualities of pigs to men. The point that Circe was making was how you can’t turn a person into a pig when they were already one to begin with. Another thing that Gluck talked about was how she never turned man into a pig she makes them look like one. It symbolizes magic and how she used magic to show how men really acted.
In closing, “Meadowlands” is a deep poem but also very complicated to figure ut. In some parts it make me feel like I was in the writers shoes than other parts it was a little difficult to understand. Telemachus parts were very relatable because when my parent’s marriage was failing it seem to have took a toll on me and it seem as though they were more concerned about arguing all the time instead of showing my siblings that everlasting love from your parents. It was a great message and a message that most individuals can relate to.