Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Rebecca Wolff’s "I Liked It So Much He Gave It to Me as a Present" is a cryptic meditation on inheritance, gendered power, and the uneasy intersections of psychoanalysis, horror, and language. The poem’s fragmented syntax and shifting allusions create a sense of dreamlike instability, where Freud, maternal imagery, and cinematic horror merge into a landscape of obscured meanings. The title itself—suggesting desire, transaction, and perhaps an ironic commentary on possession—frames the poem as an engagement with what is given, what is received, and what remains untranslated.

The opening line—“Freud’s letters freight the nightstand, a tacit rejoinder.”—immediately invokes the weight of psychoanalysis, particularly Freud’s extensive correspondence, which often contained his most candid thoughts on sexuality, hysteria, and the unconscious. The word “freight” suggests both a burden and a transport of meaning—something heavy, something carried. That these letters are a “tacit rejoinder” implies that they respond to something unspoken, perhaps an unarticulated question or a psychological inheritance that cannot be directly addressed. The presence of Freud’s letters in the domestic, intimate space of the nightstand suggests that the unconscious is never far from the waking world.

“I dream pure hysteria: vines writhing, porthole of wisteria / through which to view pale reason’s dense mandate.” Here, the poem shifts into the language of dream and disorder. “Pure hysteria” evokes Freud’s theories of hysteria, a condition historically attributed to women and linked to repressed trauma, bodily symptoms, and the unconscious. The image of “vines writhing” suggests both organic growth and entrapment, a natural force that moves unpredictably. The “porthole of wisteria” presents an opening—perhaps a small glimpse into an otherwise enclosed space—through which “pale reason’s dense mandate” can be viewed. This contrast between the organic (wisteria, vines) and the imposed order of reason hints at a tension between nature and structure, the unconscious and the rational, the wildness of hysteria and the oppressive demands of logic.

“Zoom in on mother’s nipple, latent closeup.” This abrupt shift in imagery mimics the language of film, as if the reader is being directed into an extreme close-up. The mother’s nipple suggests nourishment, primal attachment, and, within the context of Freudian thought, the origins of desire and lack. The word “latent” reinforces the idea of something hidden, waiting to be revealed, much like the unconscious itself.

“Real content is mystery—a girl’s dark skull swivels: Suspiria, Italian frightfest, young TV’s nascent bosom.” The phrase “real content is mystery” posits that what is truly significant remains obscured, inaccessible to direct interpretation. The mention of Suspiria, a 1977 Italian horror film known for its surreal visuals and psychological horror, deepens the poem’s engagement with the themes of feminine fear and transformation. The phrase “young TV’s nascent bosom” suggests both the emerging sexuality of youth and the medium of television as a space where these anxieties and narratives are played out. The use of “swivels” for the girl’s skull adds a mechanical, almost possessed quality, reinforcing the horror-inflected atmosphere.

“Some kind of matriarchal code—worms mapping out a nest of lingerie—tells me the bloom is off the rose.” This passage introduces the idea of an encrypted female lineage, a knowledge system that is both biological and cultural. “Worms mapping out a nest of lingerie” presents an unsettling image—something associated with decay (worms) intertwined with something intimate and feminine (lingerie). This juxtaposition suggests both the inheritance of femininity and its inevitable disintegration. The phrase “the bloom is off the rose” implies that something once fresh and desirable has faded, whether it be youth, passion, or illusion.

“The road to sense, translation, to the NEA / ‘restructured’ as in old Russia.” These lines introduce a political dimension, suggesting that the pursuit of meaning—of “sense” and “translation”—is fraught with institutional barriers. The mention of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) being “restructured” alludes to governmental interference in artistic funding, drawing a parallel to censorship or ideological control in Soviet Russia. This reinforces the theme of constrained expression—whether in art, language, or the unconscious.

“Crude mode of rapprochement, badly dubbed DNA.” The final lines return to themes of transmission and distortion. “Crude mode of rapprochement” suggests an awkward, insufficient attempt at reconciliation, whether between ideas, people, or histories. The phrase “badly dubbed DNA” plays with the idea of genetic inheritance as something mistranslated, as if identity itself is subject to the same kind of misalignment and artificiality as a poorly dubbed foreign film.

Throughout "I Liked It So Much He Gave It to Me as a Present", Wolff weaves together psychoanalysis, horror, and political critique to create a portrait of inheritance that is fragmented, uncanny, and resistant to resolution. The poem engages with the structures—familial, cinematic, linguistic, genetic—that shape identity and meaning, while simultaneously revealing the distortions and failures embedded within them. The result is a work that resists easy interpretation, mirroring the way history, desire, and knowledge are always partial, misaligned, and in flux.

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