“Memorials”

For my Extending the Conversation piece in class today I will be looking at Suzanne Gardiner’s poem “Memorials” which can be found on page 69 in the Visiting Walt book. I picked this poem for several reasons but mostly because it presents an interesting twist on the elegiac themes from the poems we read for class. Like in Martin Espada’s poem “Rain without Rain”, “Memorials” talks about a journey to a poet’s birthplace. In “Rain without Rain” the speaker goes to a celebration of Neruda’s 100th birthday, in “Memorials” the speaker visits the home of Walt Whitman. In both poem’s there is a disconnect between the reality of the pilgrimage and what they had expected.

In “Memorials” the speaker notes the commercialization of the town that Whitman was born in, citing “Whitman Jewelry” and “Whitman Fences.” Obviously, businesses which use Whitman’s name as a marketing technique. While in the yard of Whitman’s home the speaker is disappointed that there is not a sense of a deeper connection with Whitman. Instead the speaker notices the trash cans and littered “hamburger boxes.” The speaker imagines a new born baby Whitman growing up within the home but continues to feel the absences of Whitman. In the final lines of the poem the speaker holds hands with a stranger also visiting Whitman’s home, hoping that somehow a connect with a stranger will bring her closer to Whitman. This seems to be closely related to many poems where Whitman energies search for relationships with others.

The idea of trying to draw closer to the dead by visiting their birthplace seems to fail in both Gardiner’s and Espada’s poem. However, the tone of “Memorials” does not seem nearly as heartbreaking as the tone of “Rain without Rain.” This is probably  because of the political nature of the death of the elegy for Neruda while Gardiner focuses mostly on commercialization of Whitman’s birthplace.

For context, I’ve included a photo of Whitman’s birthplace.