Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Linda Pastan's poem "Penelope" is a poignant and introspective meditation on waiting, loss, and the passage of time, drawing on the mythological figure of Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus, who waited for his return from the Trojan War. Through vivid imagery and subtle allusions, the poem explores themes of patience, longing, and the gradual fading of hope and vitality.

The poem begins with a depiction of the sun as "scarcely / a shadow of itself," suggesting a diminished, weakened state. The sun, which "bled into the sea / all last week," is now "bandaged away," waiting out "the long, long / month of rain." This imagery of the sun bleeding and being bandaged conveys a sense of injury and convalescence, as if the natural world itself is recovering from some deep wound. The "long, long month of rain" evokes a sense of enduring melancholy, a period of gloom and waiting that seems to stretch indefinitely. The sun's diminished presence mirrors the speaker's own state of waiting, emphasizing the shared experience of weariness and longing.

As the poem continues, the color grey becomes a central motif: "Grey fades to grey. / The horizon is / the finest seam between / water and water, sky and sky." This repetition of grey suggests a world drained of color and vitality, where distinctions between elements blur into each other. The horizon, described as "the finest seam," symbolizes the thin, almost imperceptible boundary between different realms—whether it be earth and sky, or the emotional boundaries between hope and despair. The merging of "water and water, sky and sky" further emphasizes the idea of an indistinguishable, monotonous existence, where time and space seem to dissolve into one another.

The poem then introduces the movement of the tide, which "still moves, / leaving the print of its ribbed bones / on the abandoned sand." This image of the tide's bones suggests a skeletal, almost ghostly presence, as if the tide itself is a relic of something that once had more life and substance. The "abandoned sand" echoes the sense of desolation and emptiness that permeates the poem. The tide's imprint on the sand is likened to the mark left by the absent lover: "as you left yours on me / when you moved imperceptibly from my embrace." This connection between the natural world and the speaker's personal experience deepens the sense of loss and the passage of time, as the physical world reflects the emotional landscape of the speaker.

The final stanza shifts to the speaker's daily tasks: "I must wring out the towels, / wring out the swim suits, / wring my eyes dry of tears." These repetitive, mundane actions symbolize the continuous, almost mechanical process of managing loss and grief. The act of "wringing out" suggests an effort to extract every last drop of emotion, to empty oneself of tears in the same way one might wring water from fabric. This imagery of drying out parallels the earlier depiction of the sun and the overall sense of fading and exhaustion.

The speaker, "watching at a window / on one leg, then the other, / like the almost extinct heron," embodies a posture of vigilance and waiting. The comparison to the "almost extinct heron" underscores the idea of rarity and near extinction, suggesting that the speaker's endurance and patience are themselves on the brink of vanishing. The image of standing on one leg at a window evokes the patience and balance required in waiting, but also hints at a fragility that might collapse under the weight of continued absence.

"Penelope" is a deeply evocative poem that captures the emotional toll of waiting and the slow erosion of hope over time. By drawing on the myth of Penelope, Pastan weaves a narrative of fidelity and endurance, but also one of melancholy and resignation. The natural imagery of the sun, tide, and heron reflects the speaker's inner world, where the boundaries between past and present, presence and absence, become increasingly indistinct. The poem ultimately conveys a sense of enduring loss, where even the smallest movements and tasks are imbued with the weight of waiting for something—or someone—that may never return.

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