Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Dara Wier’s "Midge in the Morning" is a dazzling burst of imagery, transforming an ordinary morning routine into a surreal and electrified experience. The poem’s language is playful yet precise, imbuing its subject, Midge, with an almost mythic presence through a series of kinetic, metaphor-heavy descriptions.

The poem opens with Midge described as "purely a perched peach, pretty as a water blister, / supine on her green satin pillow." The alliteration of "purely a perched peach" gives the line a buoyant rhythm, immediately placing Midge in a delicate, ornamental state. Comparing her to a "water blister" suggests both fragility and an almost translucent quality, something on the verge of bursting. The "green satin pillow" adds a luxurious yet artificial setting, reinforcing the sense of an image poised between beauty and discomfort.

Her romantic or domestic situation is quickly dismissed with irony: "her froggy prince’s price nowhere too much." This line plays on the fairy-tale trope of the princess and the frog, suggesting that if there is a prince, he is either absent, insignificant, or not a high cost to her in any meaningful way. Midge exists in her own scene, self-contained.

The next line sharpens her mood: "She is serene as a kitchen match soon to be struck." This is a brilliant contradiction—serene, yet full of combustible potential. The image suggests quiet intensity, a stillness that will inevitably be disrupted. The metaphor of a match waiting to be lit builds anticipation; Midge, at rest, is on the brink of ignition.

Her hair, caught up in curlers, becomes the centerpiece of the poem’s transformations: "Her brush rollers bristle, each wire mesh another crawfish trap. / In fact." The curlers are no longer just tools of beauty preparation but small cages, resembling traps used for catching crawfish. This comparison adds a sense of entrapment—her hair (and by extension, perhaps she herself) is caught, contained, waiting. The blunt "In fact." acts as a sudden, almost cinematic cut, as if to say: Yes, this is real. Let’s move on.

Then the imagery explodes: "Her hair turns a fire of stinging caterpillars, pirouettes a jumping / teapot top, white, hot, rollicking, a blister propped ringing, stung, steaming, lickety-split." This passage is a whirlwind of movement and sensation. Her hair, once restrained in curlers, is now "a fire of stinging caterpillars," evoking the itchy, chaotic, swarming energy of insects. This metamorphic image suggests irritation and liveliness, an almost magical transformation. The phrase "pirouettes a jumping teapot top" intensifies this movement—her hair is now as active as a tea kettle at full boil, rattling and ready to burst with steam.

The final line, "white, hot, rollicking, a blister propped ringing, stung, steaming, lickety-split," piles on sensation after sensation, a chain of breathless, rapid-fire images. The words suggest heat, motion, and a touch of pain—the "blister propped ringing," the "stung" sensation, the "steaming" release, all culminating in "lickety-split," which signals both speed and finality. The pace mimics the experience of a hot morning, of hair unfurling in unpredictable ways, of energy barely contained.

Wier crafts a morning scene that is at once humorous and intense, transforming the everyday into a wild, evocative spectacle. "Midge in the Morning" is a portrait of barely controlled chaos, a moment of preparation that feels more like an eruption. Midge, in her curlers, is not merely getting ready—she is undergoing a small revolution.

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