Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Marie Howe’s "From My Father’s Side of the Bed" is a brief but haunting meditation on childhood fear, the vulnerability of parental protection, and the unconscious inheritance of dread. The poem situates the reader in an intimate domestic scene—a child nestled beside a sleeping father—yet beneath this seemingly ordinary setting, a sense of looming danger pervades the lines. The speaker describes the weight of her father’s arm, a physical manifestation of his presence and authority, but also a barrier she must gently evade. The movement away from that embrace is not a rejection but an act of preparation, a subtle readiness for something unspeakable.

The tension in the poem is introduced through the child’s action of "nudging him a little, not to wake him— / but so that he would sleep more lightly and wake more easily." This paradoxical impulse—to let him sleep but to keep him on the edge of wakefulness—suggests an early understanding of both dependence and responsibility. She does not wish to alarm him, but she needs him to be alert, to be ready. The reason for this calculated disturbance is what gives the poem its gravity: "should the soldiers, maybe already assembling in the downstairs hall, / who were going to kill my father and rape my mother, / begin to mount the stairs."

The sudden eruption of violence into this quiet, domestic space is shocking. The child?s imagination constructs a scene of invasion and devastation, borrowing from the horrors of history or inherited trauma. There is no direct indication that the speaker has personally witnessed such events, but the fear is real enough to shape her actions. The word "maybe" suggests uncertainty—perhaps this is not a real threat but one that lingers in the mind, a product of overheard stories, cultural memory, or even the primal fear of losing one?s protectors. Yet, the specificity of "kill my father and rape my mother" echoes a historical pattern of wartime atrocities, a collective memory that children, even in safety, somehow absorb.

The poem captures the complexity of a child’s psychology—the blurred boundary between imagination and reality, the instinct to prepare for catastrophe even in moments of warmth. It also reflects the weight of parental presence and the silent burdens carried by those who sense the fragility of protection. The father sleeps heavily, unaware of the fear that moves beside him. The child, already imagining a world where his strength might fail, practices a form of vigilance, embodying both trust in his ability to protect and a quiet, terrible knowledge that no one is ever entirely safe.

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