“The Witness”
Ted Kooser https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=35644 When I first read “The Witness” I was enveloped in a mysterious, unsettling aura. The woman on trial seemed calm, cool, and collected despite the atmosphere. Court rooms to me always seem to have an air of desperation, either to prove for or against a case. This contrast between the woman and the courtroom played on my sense of setting. The cool demeanor of the woman later makes sense at the end of the poem, although it takes some digging and interpreting to find out why. Kooser wrote a powerful last line because it revealed to me the mystery behind the whole poem. The first line in the first stanza mentions that the woman is in front of a divorce judge. Here, the reader can assume that the woman is a witness in her divorce case. What makes the first stanza particularly interesting, though, is the connotation Kooser uses. For instance, he uses phrases such as, "best dress," "smooth," "white bouquets," "veil of lace," and "kiss of the sunlit windows." These phrases are related to the joys and atmosphere of weddings. This is interesting because the woman is currently standing in front of a divorce judge, a task that is usually dismal. The second stanza is the unsettling one. Kooser uses several similes and metaphors to describe what happened in the relationship between the man and the woman. What Kooser wrote about the lake can be interpreted many different ways, but my mind saw the darkness in the situation. When he wrote, "where years have sunk and settled to the floor" I took it as the wife murdered her husband and threw his body into the lake. Kooser then used a metaphor to relate the voices in the courtroom to boats rubbing against a dock. This may be an effect of the action on the wife's subconscious. The last line in the poem is designated as the most significant one because Kooser gives it its own stanza. It shows that the wife committed the murder and is about to go in front of the court to lie about it. It holds no remorse- it's very solid and shows that the woman has thought a great deal about the situation at hand. "The Witness" is a classic example of suspense. When I first read the poem, I did not realize what the woman had done, but re-reading it over again led me to believe that the wife was the murderer of her husband. In it, Kooser adds feelings of nostalgic, good-old sweetheart times but takes a dark turn in the last few lines. This poem displays the dark side of love that is often unseen.
5 Comments
Sarah Marlow
12/5/2016 06:18:41 am
Great analysis of the poem. I like how you went in depth and analyzed each stanza separately. The analysis of the last line is very important as this seems to be significant to the overall meaning of the poem. Keep up the good work!!!
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Elizabeth
12/5/2016 06:27:08 am
Your analysis is really insightful! I would have never guessed the woman on the stand is going on trial for her husband's murder from a first read through. But I totally see the irony with the fact that the woman is wearing white, apparently wearing a white veil, and was or is holding a bouquet, typically symbols for a wedding when she is in front of a divorce judge. Great job!
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Tanvee W.
12/5/2016 06:33:20 am
I really liked your analysis of the poem! I didn't catch the significance of the courtroom and the "unsettling aura", but after you explained it, it became really clear. It is really interesting how the author used the setting and the woman's demeanor to create irony throughout the poem!
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Aisha
12/5/2016 08:48:44 am
I really enjoyed how you understood the poem in your own way. It is cool how you were able to close the case and figure out what the woman had done using the techniques of the poem.
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