Summary Of The Unquiet Ones By Stanley Kungeng

The Unquiet Ones

In the poem “The Unquiet Ones”, by Stanley Kunitz, the reader is placed in the mind of Kunitz. He describes how his parents stir in his head at night. His parents slip into his conscious often as unwelcomed guests. Stanley uses this poem to give the reader an impression on memory.

In line 2 of the poem Kunitz uses the word “addresses” to symbolize the loss of his parents in his life. Kunitz does not actually mean he lost his parents addresses but lost their place in his head. He uses the line “obscure as moles” to emphasize his disconnection with his parents and how he is unable to find them. He can no longer just call upon his parents in his head as if his conscious has blocked Kunitz from directly pulling them into his conscious. Instead his parents come to him.

When Stanley sleeps his parents come to him without the need to be summoned.

His parents “stirring” and in “separate places” both in life and in death introduces to the reader the disconnection between the parents themselves. Kunitz memory recalls that his parents weren’t together: his mother alive, his father dead. By including lines 10 and 11 he shines light on this aspect of his family. He does the same thing with lines 12 through 15, but this time he directly states that the only time his parents are together is when in his mind. This idea of being two in one is emphasized with the last line of the poem: “of the two-faced god.” This line can be interpreted to be the devil using the parents as tools to destroy Kunitz. This claim is backed by the use of “phantoms” and “dark emissaries” in the last 4 lines of the poem. The last line also lends itself to idea of his parents only being together in his memory, maybe never speaking to each other but at least together. Something Kunitz has always craved. His memory is the formulator of his parents’

connection.
This poem evoked a sense of vulnerability of the author and the reader. With Kunitz opening up so much about the things that caused him to stir at night, it made me think of the things that caused me to stir at night. This effect made me feel vulnerable to the dark memories that keep me up at night. The idea of two things being in one, like Kunitz’s parents and the “two-faced god,” resonated the most with me. All my life I have felt that my being was of two people in one body. The person/image I portray to the world and the person I actually am behind the disguise. Kunitz was able to elicit this emotional response and memory of my childhood in which I was not a two-faced god but a single human.