The Basic Narrative of the Poem
The poem Blindness by Tateneni expresses the deep sorrow that the narrator had after the loss of a loved one (77). The author of the poem has presented the narrative in a highly skillful manner to demonstrate how grief can transform into depression, making one lose a sense of meaning to events and objects in the immediate environment. The use of diction in his sentences leaves no doubt that there is a deep sense of loss and the narrator is waking up to a reality that he or she knows not how to deal with appropriately. It is necessary to analyze the poem to determine how the author passes the message.
The author has used different stylistic devices to narrate the poem. The voice in this poem is telling a story. In the first stanza, the narrator opens up by explaining the pattern of thoughts in the mind. In the first line of the first stanza, a sense of sadness already comes out when the voice says, “When I sit here in the dark” (Tateneni l. 1). The audience is left wondering why the narrator is sitting in the dark, probably alone, listening to the melody of organ music. The choice of words in the second stanza, the second last line, which reads “glowing at dusk, a shrouded welcome” is a further confirmation of the sorrow in the mind of the narrator (Tateneni l. 13). According to Huye, sunrise in the world of literature is a sign of birth and happiness (285). On the other hand, sunset is a sign of death and grief. The events in the first and second stanza culminate in the last stanza.
The third and fourth stanza reads “after your mother’s death, say, or earlier, before her last trip to surgery” (Tateneni l. 16-18). The fact that the narrator is depressed is confirmed in the second last and last line of the last stanza that reads, “You see ghosts, waiting all these years to be named” (Tateneni l. 20-21). The emotional torture that the narrator has to go through is only comparable to having an encounter with ghosts. That use of metaphor helps to pass the message to the audience. The narrator is trying to say that after a long period of denial, s/he now has to face reality. However, facing reality is just as difficult as having to encounter and name ghosts. The voice also informs the audience that after many years of trying to avoid the reality, after the attempts to listen to the melody of the organ music to forget the sorrows, it finally dawned on him/her that the reality had to be faced, however ugly (ghostly) it appeared to be. It ends on a very sad note when the voice finally faces the ghosts.
The Emotional Tone of the Poem
The tone of the voice that comes out clearly from the first stanza to the last stanza is grief. The narrator is sad, and attempts to divert attention from the mental torture by listening to music bears no fruit. To the narrator, listening to slow melody music, meant to relax the mind and ease the mental pain is just like taking a journey away from trouble. After the trip, one is expected to come back home, and when that happens, he or she will have a shrouded welcome home, back to the pain that s/he was trying to avoid. The phrase ‘loss of sight’ is used symbolically (Tateneni l. 15). It refers to the loss of focus as a result of grief. The sorrow drove the narrator to try ways of overcoming the heartache. Listening to the melody of the organ music was meant to make the narrator feel better. It achieved little success because the mind drifted back to the harrowing memories. However, when hit by reality, the voice states that everything was the way they were and that the way forward was to deal with it in the best way possible.
Psychological Movement of the Poem
It is necessary to explain the movement of thoughts of the narrator when analyzing the poem. Huye explains that the analysis of the psychological movement of a poem also helps in understanding the message that the author tries to bring out (284). In the first stanza, the first two lines show that the narrator is mentally troubled. When the audience is informed that the narrator is sitting in the dark, the first question that comes to mind is why one should sit in the dark. Then there is a sense of fear that is brought up in the second, third, and fourth lines create a sense of fear.
It reads, “I’m given to wonder what it must be to wake one day from blindness to the confusion of shapes and colors” (Tateneni l. 3-5). It points out a deep-rooted fear that the narrator is trying to avoid by listening to the music. Amineva explains that understanding the meaning of a poem requires one to be keen on the choice of words (1870). The sense of fear is also presented in the second stanza where the narrator has to come up to an unpleasant welcome. In the last stanza, the fear is then transformed into horror. First, the voice talks about the painful surgery of a loved one and the final death. Then the last two lines of the last stanza are an encounter with the ghosts. What is even more horrifying is that the narrator cannot escape from the ghosts. They are there, waiting to be named (Tateneni 21).
The Central Image in the Poem
The central image in this poem is the loss of vision. It is present in the title of the poem, Blindness, and it recurs throughout the poem. In the first stanza first line, the use of the phrase ‘in the dark’ demonstrates the inability to see. The fourth line of the first stanza also uses the word blindness. In the second stanza, the author uses the word dusk in the fifth line, which also focuses on the issue of unclear vision. At dusk, one is unable to see clearly, and the choice of the time (dusk other than dawn) is an indication that the vision is expected to be worse. The last phrase in the second stanza ‘you can’t see’ also furthers the argument of impaired vision (Chai et al. 372). In the last stanza, the narrator talks about the loss of sight in the second line. There is a transformation in the fifth stanza where the eyes open, and behold, the horrors that the narrator was trying to avoid. It brings out the theme of denial. Even without the sight (the first and second stanza), the narrator knew that there was a reason to fear. When s/he opens the eye in the final stanza, the fear is confirmed.
Works Cited
Amineva, Venera, et al. “Aesthetic Interference and Untranslatability as Concepts of Comparative Literary Studies.” Medwell Journals, vol. 10, no. 7, 2015, pp. 1868-1872.
Chai, Ningli, et al. “Ling Classification Applied in the Preoperative Safety and Effectiveness Assessment of Poem.” Surgical Endoscopy, vol. 31, no. 1, 2017, pp 368–373.
Huye, Holly. “Using Poetry and Art Analysis to Evoke Critical Thinking and Challenging Reflection in Senior-Level Nutrition Students.” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, vol. 47, no. 3, 2015, pp. 283–285.
Tateneni, Krishna. “Blindness.” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, edited by Robert DiYanni, McGraw-Hill, 2007, pp. 77-78.