Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Dorianne Laux’s "Prayer" offers a richly sensual reimagining of the divine figure of Jesus, depicting him as a man in need of salvation not from death but from the weight of his sacred destiny. Through intimate, earthly imagery, Laux constructs a narrative of love, desire, and domestic simplicity, presenting a compelling tension between the sacred and the profane. The poem serves as both a prayer and a plea, a meditation on the human desire to hold onto the beloved and shield them from an inevitable end.

The poem’s speaker addresses Jesus directly, urging him to abandon his foreordained sacrifice and embrace the solace offered by a devoted woman. This intimate framing blurs the line between prayer and dialogue, creating a tone that is at once reverent and deeply personal. The invocation, “Sweet Jesus, let her save you,” immediately repositions the traditionally divine role of savior, granting the power of salvation to the woman. This inversion sets the stage for the poem’s exploration of love as a redemptive force.

The woman depicted in the poem is tender yet powerful, offering Jesus not divine glory but the pleasures of human connection. Laux’s imagery is lush and tactile, evoking a sense of sensuality that is both grounding and elevating. The woman’s gestures—holding Jesus’s hands to her breasts, slipping off his sandals, laying him on “sheets beaten clean against the fountain stones”—are acts of care and devotion that transform the domestic into the sacred. These moments suggest an alternative kind of holiness rooted in physical love and the ordinary acts of life.

Laux contrasts this intimate tableau with the ominous presence of Jesus’s foreordained fate, symbolized by the “brick lip of a well” and the “rope and bucket” that glint and clang, hinting at the inexorable pull of his destiny. The well becomes a metaphor for the mystery and depth of the divine calling, its allure juxtaposed against the warmth and immediacy of the woman’s love. The speaker pleads for Jesus to resist this pull, to remain in the safety of the domestic sphere where the light “storms the windows” and peaches rest in a wooden bowl—a sanctuary of life’s simplest joys.

The woman’s home is imbued with a sense of sacredness through its ordinariness. The “black pots hung from pegs,” the “bread braided and glazed on the table,” and the “clay jug of violet wine” evoke a sense of ritual and communion that is deeply human. These details emphasize the sanctity of the everyday, suggesting that divinity can be found not only in sacrifice but also in the acts of creation and sustenance.

At the poem’s heart is the idea that love and devotion can offer an alternative form of salvation. The woman’s “fierce and complicated” eyes, her labor to create a peaceful home, and her small acts of care—washing her feet, carving toys for children—are presented as equally sacred as any divine mission. The speaker implores Jesus to choose this life, to allow himself the “daily sacrament” of ordinary pleasures and the quiet end promised by love’s embrace.

The final lines of the poem emphasize the inevitability of death but frame it within the context of love’s permanence. “Let your death be quiet and ordinary,” the speaker pleads, suggesting that even the most ordinary life, lived fully and intimately, holds its own form of transcendence. Whether Jesus chooses to fulfill his divine mission or remain in the woman’s arms, the poem asserts that his story will end in love, in “her arms.” This closing sentiment ties together the themes of mortality, devotion, and the redemptive power of human connection.

"Prayer" challenges traditional notions of divinity and salvation, offering a vision of holiness grounded in the sensual and the mundane. Laux’s poem is a testament to the beauty of human love, elevating the ordinary to the extraordinary and asserting that salvation can be found not only in sacrifice but also in the simple, profound acts of living and loving.

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