Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "The Trick" by Mark Wunderlich, the poem delves into themes of desire, power dynamics, vulnerability, and self-identity. Through a charged and intimate narrative, the speaker explores the complexities of sexuality, longing, and self-perception, highlighting the tension between physical control and emotional surrender. The poem's vivid and sometimes unsettling imagery offers a deep reflection on the human need for connection and the darker, more complicated aspects of intimacy.

The poem opens with a description of the speaker’s sexual encounter with a man who embodies the "hugely muscled, lean" body that the speaker has always desired for themselves. This desire for a body that represents strength and control is echoed in the man's actions, as he "kept pulling my arms / up over my head, pinning them there, pressing me down." The forceful imagery here suggests both physical dominance and a sense of helplessness, with the speaker’s submission to the man’s control becoming a key theme. The shift from this physical dominance to the man’s whispered plea—“Please kiss me”—introduces a vulnerability and a longing that contrasts sharply with the earlier display of power. The sudden sweetness in his request adds emotional depth to the encounter, complicating the speaker’s feelings of control and surrender.

The man’s earlier reference to a program about lions, "admired / how they took their prey," introduces another layer to the poem’s exploration of power. The lion metaphor, where the predator chooses the "misfit, the broken one," mirrors the speaker's own vulnerability, as well as the dynamic of being "taken." The calm of the wildebeests after the killing is juxtaposed with the lions' continued feeding, further deepening the poem’s exploration of death, consumption, and the complex emotional aftermath of violence. The metaphor of being chosen, consumed, and then left in a state of numbness connects to the speaker's own desires and feelings of being overwhelmed by the experience.

The poem then shifts to a reflection on the speaker’s earlier life and desires. "As a teenager, I wished to be consumed, / to be pressed into oblivion by a big forceful man," revealing the speaker’s longstanding yearning for dominance and destruction in the form of sexual power. However, this desire is tempered by the speaker’s earlier experiences with self-denial and emotional detachment: "It never happened. Instead I denied myself nourishment— / each un-filled plate staring back satisfied me, deprivation / reduced to a kind of bliss I could lie down in." This passage reveals the speaker's attempt to control their desires and their body, finding solace in deprivation. There is a sense of self-imposed emotional starvation, as the speaker derives satisfaction from being "unmoved, untouched" and retreating into a space of emptiness.

The speaker’s internal struggle is further elaborated when they mention how they were "taught that the body was a cage," and illness was framed as a "battle fought with chaos." This conditioning speaks to the larger societal and emotional forces that shaped the speaker’s relationship to their body, particularly the repression of sexuality and desire. The imagery of the "pastel chamber" where sex exists only in the context of procreation contrasts sharply with the speaker's actual experiences, which involve a more complex, possibly darker engagement with sexuality. The longing for "being taken in the dark" and "humiliated and liking it" signals the speaker’s deep-seated need for emotional and physical release, which goes beyond the traditional, sanitized understanding of sex.

The tension between control and surrender comes to a head in the final stanzas, where the speaker is physically overpowered by the man, their struggle becoming a moment of both physical and psychological confrontation: "pushing me chest up against his chest, arms straining / against the bed, until some younger, hungrier / version of myself lay back on top of me and took it." This passage illustrates the speaker’s experience of being overtaken, not just physically but in terms of their emotional and sexual identity. The reference to a "younger, hungrier version of myself" indicates the presence of a more primal, perhaps repressed version of the speaker that is finally allowed to emerge, seizing the opportunity to "take it." The final imagery of "the heaving back, the beard, the teeth at the throat" conjures an overwhelming sense of surrender, where the speaker’s body becomes both a site of consumption and release.

"The Trick" is a poem about the complexities of desire, power, and vulnerability. Through the speaker’s raw and intimate narrative, the poem examines the way sexual experiences and power dynamics intersect with the individual’s sense of self. The shifting between dominance, submission, desire, and denial reflects the speaker’s internal conflict between the need for control and the yearning for release. The poem’s intense imagery and physical language invite the reader to consider the darker, more complicated aspects of human sexuality and identity, where power and submission are not always clear-cut but are deeply entangled with the self.

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