ShenshenZhang

= "Singapore" By Mary Oliver (1990) = // Shenshen zhang //In Singapore, in the airport, a darkness was ripped from my eyes. In the women's restroom, one compartment stood open. A woman knelt there, washing something in the white bowl.

Disgust argued in my stomach and I felt, in my pocket, for my ticket.

A poem should always have birds in it. Kingfishers, say, with their bold eyes and gaudy wings. River are pleasant, and of course trees. A waterfall, or if that's not possible, a fountain rising and falling. A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem.

When the woman turned I could not answer her face. Her beauty and her embarrassment struggled together, and neither could win. She smiled and I smiled. What kind of nonsense is this? Everybody needs a job.

Yes, a person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem. But first we must watch her as she stares down at her labor, which is dull enough. she is washing the tops of the airport ashtrays, as big as hubcaps, with a blue rag. Her small hands turn the metal, scrubbing and rinsing. She does not work slowly, nor quickly, but like a river. Her dark hair is like the wing of a bird.

I don't doubt for a moment that she loves her life. And I want her to rise up from the crust and the slop and fly down to the river. This probably won't happen. But maybe it will. If the world were only pain and logic, who would want it?

Of course, it isn't. Neither do I mean anything miraculous, but only the light that can shine out of a life. I mean the way she unfolded and refolded the blue cloth, the way her smile was only for my sake; I mean the way this poem is filled with trees, and birds.

Way 1: First Impressions
My first impression when reading Mary Oliver's poem is that this poem is to sing praise of a women who works hard to earn a living but still shows love and passion for her life. The woman is doing a job washing the tops of the airport ashtrays using the toilet water. For the speaker, who is the poet herself, she first finds scene disgusting, but finally she argues the point that "a person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem" (line 16). She thinks that people in the world are too flashy and live only on the surface, and the woman in the poem is doing job with her labor and she is beautiful in the poet's eyes. I have some questions when reading the poem. Oliver uses symbolism in her poem to describe good poem, she writes that " A poem should always has birds in it", what does "birds" means in a poem? Also, what does "kingfisher", " trees" and "river" stands for? (7, 8, 9). I also have difficulty in interpreting her sentence "If the world were only pain and logic, who would want it?" (26).

Way 2: Engaging with the Text
This poem has no rhyme scheme. The poem is very clearly expressed and easy to read. This makes the readers to focus more on the content itself. There is one repetition sentence “A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem”. When reading it several times, this sentence seem to have a signficant function in interpreting the poem. The first appearance of this sentence emphasize the idea that normally in the poem, people wants to hear from happy stories and the hero and heroines in the poem should lead a happy life (line 11, 16). However, at the second mention of the sentence, the author put it in a different way, she is questioning this sentence and she makes the point that we actually need more than “a happy place, in a poem”, instead, we need to look around and find things that are beautiful. In the final stanzas, the poem follows strict format in the last three sentences. Starting with “the way”, the poem finally sublime its theme to emphasize that the beauty of the woman, her love for her life and that we need to discover the beauty by ourselves (30, 31, 32).

Way 3: A Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
This poem is in the form of free verse with the story telling a working woman in the Singapore airport. The use of free verse gives the poem more freedom, instead of a fixed structure to express one's ideas (Brown and Yarbrough 93). With the freedom, the idea of this poem changes fluently. With the first two stanzas, the speaker shows a "disgust" when she sees the woman "washing something in the white bowl". However, in the next three stanzas, the speaker seems to change her original mind. She begins to doubt the need of "pleasant" things such as "birds", "trees", "river", "waterfall" and "fountain" in the poem (7, 8, 9, 10) and she wonders whether "a person wnats to stand in a happy place, in a peom". Instead, she realizes the "beauty" of this woman who works for her own living (13). In the sixth stanzasm the speaker "do[es]n't doubt for a moment' anymore, she understands the logic of the world (21, 26). In the final stanzas, the poet uses the repetition of "the way" to emphasize how she now understands the "trees" and "birds" in the poem. It is the "smile" of the woman (31, 32).

Way 3: Another Point about Form and Its Relationship to Conten
Although this poem is a free verse, there is no particular rhyme structure in the poem. However, there is one place that applies alliteration into the poem. In the fourth line, the poet writes " [a] woman knelt there, washing something in the white bowl." Using alliteration, the three words "woman", "washing" and "white" are emphsized. The sound repetition suggests that these three words are important.The sound repetition not only shows who the person is, but also shows what she is doing in the poem.

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
In this poem, the poet uses some symbols. She mentions the objects such as "trees". "bird', "fountain" and "river" in the poem(7, 8, 9, 10, 11). When we think about things such as trees and river, we consider these things as easy and comfortable, which gives people a pleasant feeling. These objects are all things that aroung us. This represents the setting of the poem, which should be pleasant to readers. However, when the poet writes about "[a] woman knelt there, washing something in the white bowl', this is definitely something unpleasant or even "disgust". This coinincides with a 'happy place" in the poem, a main role in the poem who lead a happy life gives the readers an easy and comfortable feeling. However, when the speaker sees this woman who works to earn a living and her smile on her face, she realizes a easy and comfortable feeling of the poem doesn't necessarily need something pleasant. Finally, she compares the "smile" with "trees" and "river", which are the pleasant things as others regarded(31, 32).

Way 4: Unpacking Another Instance of Figurative Language
Another symbol lies in line 8 is the "Kingfisher". Kingfisher is a kind of bird who lives in the ocean and with very strong power, just as the poem mentioned, it has "bold eyes and gaudy wings". In the poem here, it represents the protagonist in the poet should be strong and good looking. However, when the poet sees the protagonist, she is nothing like an heroine, "knelt[ing]" and "washing something in the white bowl" (line 4). She is leading a hard life and seems to be very poor and helpless. These two figure has very obvious contrast, and it is the reason why the poet have doubt of "a happy place in a poem" (11).

Way 4: Unpacking Another Instance of Figurative Language
Another symbol the poet uses in the poem is "the crust and the slop"(23). When we think of the crust and the slop, it seems to be something hard and unbreakable. Here, in the poem, it represent the hardship of life. When the poet "want[s] her to rise uo form the crust and the slop", she simply wants the woman to overcome the hardship of her life. When then the poet want the woman to "fly down to the river", as analysized before, it stands of the pleasant feeling of life. So the whole sentense means the poet wants the woman to leave the hardship of life and lead a happy and pleasant life.

Way 4: Unpacking Another Instance of Figurative Language
In line 21, the poem also uses one simile "[h]er dark hair is like the wing of a bird'. Oliver compares the protagonist 's dark hair with the wing of a bird. Judging by the appearance, the two things has a similarity of both have a hair of feather with dark color. But this is the textual meaning of the metaphor. The sub-textual meaning that we can interpret is from the former symbol of "kingfisher" and the bird's "gaudy wings". The wings of the birds stands for the power and firm believe of life. So, the woman's "dark hair" suggest the hardness that the woman possesses.

Way 5: Analyzing the Setting
The key setting of this poem is one compartment of women's restroom. When talking about the restroom, usually the feeling about it is nasty and disgusting, just the speaker feels "disgust argued in my stomach"(line 5). This is a call-and-response part to what the woman is doing in the woman's restroom. The woman is "knelt[ing] there, washing something in the white bowl"(4), which is also something that people consider to be disgusting. The setting is also important in the comparison to the pleasant things such as river, trees, fountain, and waterfall in the poem. The pleasant things stands for what usually a poem is like, "a happy place in a poem"; the woman stands for another side of it, which is what the real world is like that "everyone needs a job"(11, 15). However, as the speaker continues, she do think the what the woman is doing is disgusting, but considering she works "at her labor", the speakers point of view changes. She considers the women in "a happy place in a poem"(17, 16).

Way 6: identifying and Analyzing Point of View
The poem is using the first-person point of view, which is from the speaker's side. The speaker is a common people therefore when she sees the woman doing cleaning work in the compartment of women's restroom, she feels disgusting as other people would feel. However, as the speaker is also a poem. She also judges things from a poet's point of view. That is why she mentions the readers usually needs a happy position in the poem while the woman is not in that pleasant place. However, as an artist, she is able to identify that the woman works at her labor and works to earn a living. This makes her view of the woman changes from disgusting into appreciation.

Way 7: Analyzing Complexity, Ambiguity, & Difficulty
The difficulty I have in interpreting the poem is to identify things such as trees, river, fountain, birds.... At first, I considered them to be some symbols and they each should stands for something in the poem. What is the meaning of these symbol? And how are they connected to the woman in the restroom. However, as I read again and again, I realized that these objects mentioned above are not symbol, they just simply means something "pleasant" (9). In other words, "a happy place in a poem" (11).

way 8: Considering Canonicity
The aesthetic value of the poem lies in the fact that it showes the readers a positive figure of the life and her attitude towards the love of life. Although the poem first sets the story and the main character in a nasty and disgusting woman's restroom "washing something in the white bowl" (4), the main character is later describes to have a sweet smile on her face and an attractive appearance in the poet's eye (14, 21). As for the cultural part, the poet first states her concerns of the woman in the poem as she mentions that usually the protagonist in the poem should stand in "a happy place in a poem", which is also the traditional view of the general public. However, the poet finally persuades herself that the woman is in a pleaseant and happy position as she needs a job and she is working hard for her life. This all shows her postive attitude towards life.

Way 9: Biographical Context
In the poem, Mary Oliver mentiones scenes such as "river", "birds", "Fountain" and ect (9, 10), this is related to her own life when she takes a walk near her home in Princeton, Massachusetts. she saw scenes such as shore birds, water snakes, the phases of the moon and humpback whales. She loves walk and her poem are all inspired by nature scenes(Poetry Critism 282). Her daily life of living in a quite town and take a walk daily in the natural scene showed me how the poem has such images such as "river", "fountain" and etc..

Way 10: Historical and Cultural Contexts
Mary Oliver is an American who lived in the time of the woman who started to have their own rights. Women started to own rights such as being educated, going to colleges and getting a job besides being a full-time housewife. For Mary Oliver, She is a well-educated woman without a college degree. When I read the poem and relate the woman in the poem who is cleaning the airport ashtray in the women's restroom for a living, it enlightened me that this is related to the cultural contexts of American woman as Oliver is praising her independence from the man and can get a job and make a living by her own. Americans are considered to have open thoughts and open minds. When I read the poem, I can see the poet's mind changed quickly. At first, she thought it to be nasty when the woman is cleaning, but later, she found the woman in a pleasant place in the poem. This is all due to the culture of Americans as they are considered to be open minded.

Way 11: Theoretical Application
Brown and Yarbrough noted in their book that once man power is the only power noted in the work of literary work (229). In the Oliver's poem, she is writing about the diligence woman working and living on her own. This is showing the power of a woman. That woman "needs a job" that she is "washing something in the woman's restroom. But for her, this is a "happy position" and 'she [is] smil[ing]". The feminist literary criticism might argue and question about the role and the power of this woman in her position and Oliver's postion of the woman as she being a female herself. Usually, in literary work, the woman is standing in a weak position or in a suppressed position. In this poem, the woman is the leading role and as a female writer Oliver herself, the women are the waking power of the themselves. Just as Brown and Yarbrough stated in their book that the women are realizing their value in a way of both economy and identification (226).

Way 12: Another Theoretical Application
Another theoretical application that can be applied to the work is the Psychoanalysis Approach. As a woman herself, the poet is standing in the point of view as both a woman and the author. When writing the poem, she is unconsciously showing symphathy for the woman in her poem because she has the same gender as the woman. She writes in the poem that "She smiled and I smiled" (line 14) as she is responding to the woman. The cristists might argue that how closely is the writer relating her character in the poem to herself as she is the same gender as the woman. What is her unconscious attitude towards the woman? Certainly, in some point, Oliver is relating the woman to herself and feeling sympathy for the character. But there is nothing much that the woman in the poem has some similarity that Oliver is relating herself to since she is an educated American woman that lives her life as a poem. One thing that is worth mentioning is that the Americans are calling for the power of women for years, so there might be an unconscious idea in Oliver 's mind that this woman is a typical model of the power of woman.

Way 13: Unifying Interpretation
When I first read the poem, I thought this poem is simply about the poet's appreciation about the woman she saw in the aiport of Singapore. However, as I read and read, there are serveral things that should be noticed when interpreting the poem. First of all, Mary Oliver uses some natural objects such as "river", "fountain" and "birds" in the poem for several times (10). The reason for her use these objects is due to the fact that she uses these objects to symbolize the pleasant things in the poem. Also, according to Oliver's biography, she tends to use natural scenes in her literary work, which is an influence of her adulthood experience taking a walk along the river. These natural pleasant things are also the opposite side to the disgusting reality that the woman is cleaning in the restroom. Secondly, the theme of the poem is about a woman who is cleaning in the restroom, which is quite disgusting to most people. But the poet later finds it to be "pleasant" since she discovers that the woman is doing her job and making a living of her own. The poet points out to us that not only are the beautiful things pleasant, but we can also find these unpleasant things beautiful. Also, the theme is about the woman working for a living, which shows the power of the woman and the woman gaining economy independence themselves.

Works Cited and Consulted
Brown, James S. And Scott D. Yarbrough. __A Practical Introduction to Literary Studies.__ Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005.

Gale, Thomson. __Contemporary Authors Online__ 15 June 2005. Gale Literature Database. 23 July 2009. []

//Poetry Criticism//. Ed. Michelle Lee. Vol. 75. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. 280-345. //Literature Criticism Online//. Gale. University of Wisconsin Colleges. 23 July 2009 []

"Mary Oliver". Wikipedia. July 24, 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Oliver