“After Years”
Ted Kooser http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/after-years/ In this poem, Ted Kooser describes the tumultuous feeling of love. A person, who will be presumed a man for the sake of this post, is said to have seen his lover walking from a distance. It does not say this directly in the poem, but I think the man has not seen this woman in a long time for the work is titled, “After Years.” This poem is probably the most ambiguous, heart-wrenching poem I have ever read. You can tell Kooser is meticulous with the examples he gives of nature because each one specifically applies to the man’s emotions. For example, after the man sees the woman Kooser wrote, “without a sound, the glittering face of the glacier fell into the sea.” This can be interpreted as the man’s heart dropped at the sight of his lover’s face. I would imagine not seeing your lover after many years would get your stomach doing some cartwheels. The next example Kooser gave of nature was, “An ancient oak fell in the Cumberlands, holding only a handful of leaves.” This example seems more like a melancholic metaphor, because imagine--a tree that has been standing for years, centuries even, finally falling with a loud boom on its weak trunk that has diminished in both color and strength. The once young, mighty tree now only has feeble branches and a few leaves adorning its sides. This example must appeal to the man’s sense of sorrow, which leads me to think that something happened between him and the woman he’s looking at. Did she hurt him in some way? Did he hurt her? In order to understand the man’s feelings, we must dig deeper. Kooser’s next metaphor is, “an old woman scattering corn to her chickens looked up for an instant.” This example is oddly specific, and if I am going to be honest, I am not quite sure what it stands for. There are many allusions to this specific setting, so maybe the relationship the man and the woman had before their breakup was a kind one? Kind enough to catch the attention of a sweet old lady? Kooser’s last metaphor, and distinctly my favorite because I am an astronomy buff, is, “a star thirty-five times the size of our own exploded and vanished.” This supernova of mass proportion can relate to the man’s intense sense of love. A supernova is bright, hot, fast, and powerful- not unlike the feeling of love. It is there one second and gone the next. Now, it is safe to assume that something drastic happened between the man and the woman- something that caused them to leave each other within a few days. Kooser wrapped up the poem by saying an astronomer saw the green flash of the supernova, “as he stood on the great open dome of my heart with no one to tell.” Through this metaphor, I figure that the man and the woman are no longer on speaking terms, haven’t been for years, and it would be odd for him to confess his love to her out of nowhere. This could be a tale about first love, and seeing that special person later on in life--how the man craves to express his affection for this woman to the world, but just can’t. It’s too late.
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March 2017
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