Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Linda Pastan's poem "A Craving for Salt" delves into the complex interplay between memory, longing, and the anxiety of facing an uncertain future. The poem captures a deep sense of nostalgia and the human tendency to cling to the past, especially when the future feels unreliable or threatening. Through evocative imagery and a poignant allusion to the biblical story of Lot’s wife, Pastan explores how memories can transform into a powerful, almost visceral yearning that rivals a physical craving.

The poem opens with a direct admission of mistrust: "Because I don't trust the future." This line sets the tone for the entire poem, revealing the speaker's anxiety about what lies ahead. The future, often seen as a source of hope or potential, is here depicted as something untrustworthy, prompting the speaker to focus on the past instead. This distrust drives the speaker to constantly "look back over my shoulder wherever I go," a physical manifestation of their preoccupation with what has already occurred. The image of someone who looks back while moving forward suggests a divided attention, where the speaker is unable to fully engage with the present or future because they are so fixated on the past.

Pastan uses animal imagery to further emphasize this tendency: "like one of those fish with eyes at the back of its head, or an owl who swivels its face around full circle." These creatures, with their unique abilities to see behind them, symbolize the speaker's own desire to keep the past within sight, even as they move through life. The fish and the owl represent beings that are constantly aware of what is behind them, mirroring the speaker's fixation on the past and their inability to fully face forward.

The poem then shifts to a reflection on the nature of the past: "And though the past is made up of ordinary things, they smolder in the heat of afterlight." Here, Pastan captures how even the most mundane elements of the past can take on a heightened significance when viewed through the lens of memory. The "heat of afterlight" suggests a kind of glowing or burning that occurs after the fact, as if the past continues to radiate with an emotional intensity that transcends its original ordinariness. This transformation of memory into something more potent and charged leads to "longing," a deep, unfulfilled desire that is "as strong as a craving for salt."

The comparison to a craving for salt is particularly evocative. Salt, essential to life yet overwhelming in excess, represents a basic human need that can become an all-consuming desire. This metaphor captures the intensity of the speaker's longing for the past—an instinctual, almost physical need that is difficult to ignore or satisfy. The craving for salt suggests something elemental and necessary, just as the speaker's longing for the past feels essential to their sense of self, even if it is ultimately unattainable.

Pastan concludes the poem with a powerful allusion to the biblical story of Lot's wife: "Ask Lot's wife who knew that what she left behind was simply everything." Lot's wife, who famously looked back at the burning city of Sodom and was turned into a pillar of salt, serves as a cautionary figure here. Her inability to resist looking back, even when commanded not to, parallels the speaker's own compulsion to dwell on the past. The phrase "simply everything" underscores the magnitude of what the past represents to the speaker—it's not just a collection of memories, but the entirety of what they value and cherish. The allusion to Lot's wife adds a layer of tragic inevitability to the poem, suggesting that the act of looking back, though dangerous, is driven by a profound sense of loss and longing.

In "A Craving for Salt," Linda Pastan masterfully captures the emotional complexity of longing for the past in the face of an uncertain future. The poem explores how ordinary memories can become sources of intense yearning, likened to a physical craving, when viewed through the lens of time and distance. Through vivid imagery and the powerful invocation of Lot's wife, Pastan delves into the human tendency to hold onto the past, even when it might be more prudent to let go. The poem is a meditation on the enduring power of memory and the deep-seated desire to reclaim what has been lost, even at the risk of being consumed by it.

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