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Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained | |||
"The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me" by Eavan Boland is a richly layered poem that interweaves themes of memory, love, and the passage of time through the symbol of a black lace fan. The fan, a gift from a man to a woman in prewar Paris, becomes a vessel for exploring the intricacies of their relationship and the enduring impact of those moments on the speaker's understanding of her own heritage and identity. The poem opens with the fan's origin story, marking it as the first gift the man gave the woman, purchased for five francs in the Galeries. This initial transaction is set against the backdrop of a stifling Parisian summer, filled with stormy nights and the tension of waiting—she always early, he invariably late. This setting establishes a mood of anticipation and unease, which permeates their meetings and the early stages of their relationship. Boland's attention to detail—the emptying streets, the oppressive heat, the anticipation of rain—paints a vivid picture of the moment when the fan is given. The physical description of the fan, with its appliquéd wild roses in silk and tortoiseshell frame, conveys not only the object's beauty but also its complexity and the craftsmanship it embodies. The "worn-out, underwater bullion" suggests both the fan's age and the depth of history it carries, while the "inference of its violation" hints at the personal and perhaps painful memories associated with it. The lace fan, overcast "as if the weather it opened for and offset had entered it," serves as a metaphor for the relationship between the man and the woman, and more broadly, for the way objects can become imbued with the emotions and events of their time. The fan is not just a decorative item but a repository of stories, unspoken words, and the atmospheric tension of a particular historical moment. As the poem progresses, the narrative shifts from the past to the present, from the specificity of the fan's history to the broader contemplation of how we understand and reimagine the past. The "empty café terrace" and "airless dusk before thunder" evoke a sense of absence and the unreachable nature of the story's conclusion. The man's fate, and the outcome of their relationship, remains unknown, leaving the speaker—and the reader—to "improvise." The final stanza introduces a blackbird on a sultry summer morning, a creature of the present that unexpectedly connects to the fan's past through the act of spreading its wing. This gesture, "the whole, full, flirtatious span of it," mirrors the opening of the fan, linking the natural, instinctual behavior of the bird to the human, emotional world of the fan's history. In this moment, Boland suggests the continuity between past and present, the natural and the crafted, and the ways in which objects and memories can resonate across generations. "The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me" is a testament to Boland's skill in weaving complex narratives that explore the intersections of personal history, memory, and the tangible objects that carry our stories. The poem invites readers to reflect on the artifacts of their own lives and the hidden histories they hold, reminding us of the power of memory to connect us to the past and to each other. POEM TEXT:https://archives.newyorker.com/newyorker/1987-10-19/flipbook/040/
| Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CHINESE FAN PAINTING by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER ON FINDING A FAN by GEORGE GORDON BYRON A PAINTED FAN by LOUISE CHANDLER MOULTON A JAPANESE FAN by MARGARET VELEY WRITTEN ON THE LEAVES OF A FAN by FRANCIS ATTERBURY ON A FAN by MATILDA BARBARA BETHAM-EDWARDS THE POMPADOUR'S FAN by HENRY AUSTIN DOBSON FOR A FAN by RICHARD WATSON GILDER BALLADE OF THE FAN by WILLIAM FREDERICK KIRK |
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