Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Naomi Shihab Nye’s "Ducks" is a quietly devastating poem that intertwines personal history, war, and the solace of nature. The poem moves between an intimate reflection on books, cultural identity, and exile, culminating in a meditation on the distance imposed by war. Written in free verse, it has a conversational, almost fragmentary quality, reflecting both nostalgia and loss. The structure mirrors the speaker’s shifting thoughts, moving between past and present, between Iraq and America, and between human concerns and the natural world.

The poem begins with an assertion of identity: "We thought of ourselves as people of culture. / How long will it be till others see us that way again?" This immediate contrast between self-perception and external judgment suggests a loss of dignity, likely due to war or political conflict. The unnamed "Iraqi friend" becomes a focal point for this meditation on displacement and memory.

The next few lines paint a picture of her childhood home, where books are imbued with a kind of radiance: "each book had a light around it." This suggests both intellectual vibrancy and a reverence for literature, a motif that recurs throughout the poem. "The voices of distant countries / floated in through open windows, / entering her soup and her mirror." The mixing of literature, sound, and daily life conveys an openness to the world, a cultural richness that extends beyond national borders. The phrase "entering her soup and her mirror" suggests that literature was both nourishing and reflective, an essential part of her existence.

The poem then shifts to an observation about books in Iraq: "In Iraq a book never had one owner—it had ten. / Lucky books, to be held often / and gently, by so many hands." The communal sharing of books stands in stark contrast to the later image of "American libraries" where books remain unread. This distinction underscores a cultural difference in the way literature is valued—not as a commodity but as a shared experience. There is an implicit sorrow in the "sad" books, their silence mirroring the speaker’s growing sense of exile.

The transition from books to ducks introduces an unexpected but poignant metaphor. The speaker’s Iraqi friend, now living in "a country house beside a pond," keeps three ducks: "two male, one female." The small domestic scene becomes a microcosm of tension: "She worried over the difficult relations / of triangles. One of the ducks / often seemed depressed. But not the same one." The shifting sadness among the ducks mirrors the unpredictability of war and displacement—the shifting roles of victims and survivors. The "triangles" may also allude to love, power, or the complexities of loyalty in a fractured world.

Then, in a stark and painful shift, the poem places us in the reality of war: "During the war between her two countries / she watched the ducks more than usual." The distance between Iraq and America is no longer just geographical—it is an unbridgeable chasm created by violence. The inability to communicate is crushing: "She could not call her family in Basra / which had grown farther away than ever / nor could they call her." The phrase "farther away than ever" is particularly heartbreaking—it is not just physical distance, but an existential one, making Basra unreachable in a way beyond geography. The passage of "nearly a year" without knowing "who was alive, / who was dead" encapsulates the cruel uncertainty of war, where even survival is a mystery.

The poem concludes with a simple yet profound image: "The ducks were building a nest." This closing line, quiet and unembellished, is an act of resilience. While war devastates human lives, the ducks continue their instinctive cycle of renewal. The contrast between the speaker’s uncertainty and the ducks’ quiet persistence suggests both futility and hope—life goes on, even in exile, even in the shadow of war.

"Ducks" is a deeply layered poem, juxtaposing personal displacement with the impersonal rhythms of nature. The imagery of books, ducks, and war coalesces into a meditation on loss, survival, and the ways in which small, observable details can offer both solace and a haunting reminder of absence. Through its understated, elliptical narrative, the poem captures the fragmentation of identity caused by war and exile, making the personal political and the political deeply personal.

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