The poem Medusa by Louise Bogan is a piece of writing which describes the situation when a speaker came to the house of Medusa and stoned. The poem repeats the myth about Medusa, a beautiful Gorgon, who made people stoned when they looked at her. The author retells the myths, however, it is possible to predict that Gorgon and the possibility to make people stoned is just a good symbol the author uses trying to express her personal vision of how people are to read her poems. During the whole poem the speaker wants to have a look at the famous hair of Medusa, however, when she does it, she becomes a stone and the whole surrounding world enters an entire activity which never stops however, which is stable,
The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep on the ground (Bogan, 2011).
Analysis
Reading the poem Medusa by Louise Bogan, it becomes obvious that it is created from the first person, singular, however, the author never shows his/her identity. It is possible to predict that the speaker of the poem is the author itself. The idea that the speaker of the poem is the author becomes obvious with the following line, “And I shall stand here like a shadow” (Bogan, 2011).
Having read the poem for several times, it is possible to predict that being stoned the author wanted to show how people perceive her poetry and staying like a shadow is the metaphoric presentation of the idea that her poetry cannot leave people indifferent and the shadow of the author and her ideas will always stay with the reader. The poems of the reader seem to be symbolic and philosophic, they make people think about their lives, about the surrounding worlds, etc. Such dare preposition is based on the last lines,
And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away.
Remembering the myth, the author hints the reader about the consequences of looking at the hair of Medusa. The same happens with those who read the poems by Louise Bogan. The first feeling is a great desire to read and to understand the poems. When the reader manages to understand it, he/she sees a real meaning and a reader becomes influenced. This is the idea which comes to my mind reading this poem.
Speaking about Medusa and the author’s attitude to it, it should be mentioned that the author admires her hair, she wants to see it and she is looking forward to make her dream come true,
When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door…
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind (Bogan, 2011).
It seems that e author knows what is going to happen and looking at the hair of Medusa, the speaker knows that she is going to die. The speaker comes at home to Medusa, she knows where she goes, “I had come to the house, in a cave of trees, / Facing a sheer sky” (Bogan, 2011). The readers know that they are going to be affected by the poems of the author and they consciously read them.
Reference List
Bogan, L. (2011). Medusa.