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Human memories are generally triggered by specific things, places, and scents; these are what the person assigned to a particular experience, thus every encounter relives and resurrects the past, leading to the process of nostalgia. Levertov’s and Nemerov’s respective poems appropriate the domestic yet profound nature of a wedding ring and a vacuum cleaner, each one associated with concepts akin to life changes—the ring signals commitment and beginning, while the vacuum cleaner suggests maintenance and upkeep.
But a closer look at both texts reveals more intriguing points of view that expose each persona’s sentiments about things that may be gleaned beneath the superficial references of commitment and upkeep.
Domesticity, including its joys and ills, is the general environment in both poems, with the experience that defines it explicated through the use of images and symbols; that the wedding ring and vacuum cleaner are in themselves already symbols, the accompanying thought process that re-imagines both concepts veer from the common perception assigned to each.
The wedding ring and the vacuum cleaner, familial ideas usually given varying meanings that pertain to a certain lifestyle, are used in these two poems as symbols of nostalgia that are more specifically interpreted as sadness and regret.
The End of Commitment in Levertov’s “Wedding Ring” From the outset, the poem is clearly the persona’s recollection and assessment of her own life—one that had earlier been marked by the occasion of a wedding.
In most societies, this ritual is given sacred meaning as it symbolizes the union of two people bound by love and respect for each other.
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The wedding ring is the ultimate sign of this union, which is presented with the promise of permanent togetherness and loyalty. Technically, the poem is composed of several similes, albeit modified to narrate the persona’s feelings regarding the object.
“It lies/among keys to abandoned houses,/nails waiting to be needed and hammered/into some wall,/telephone numbers with no names attached,/idle paperclips” (Levertov lines 5-10) illustrates the persona’s relegation of the original value and importance of the ring to the mundane purposes of keys, nails, telephone numbers, and paperclips all thrown into a basket that is commonly the dumping ground of all things useless and inconsequential.
Toward the end, the persona expresses her desire for the ring to become “a simple gift I could give in friendship” (Levertov line 21), which contrasts greatly with how it was initially depicted. The experience is explained in “It can’t be sold/for the marriage was good on its own/time, though that time is gone” (Levertov lines 13-15), and implied in the wish to have it transformed in something “...
no one could take/for solemn betrothal or to make promises/living will not let them keep? ” (Levertov lines 18-20). Te tone of sadness and regret is quite palpable in the last lines, revealing how the persona had lived through her marriage and realized many of its shortcomings and expectations; she clearly expressed her concern for making promises that could not be kept—which in a wedding could refer to being together in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer.
The failure of the marriage resulted in the diminished value of the ring, which, in its continued presence in the life of the persona, reminds her of the past; thus for her the only way she can actually move forward is to re-configure the ring’s appearance, “beat it into bright stones, transform it/into a dazzling circlet” (Levertov lines 17-18) that would then create new life and meaning. The persona’s goal in the end is to pick up the broken pieces of her marriage and start over, whether with her former significant other or a new lover.
Friendship, which she refers to as her ultimate objective, is the anti-thesis of marriage—here the commitment is born out of a sincere wish for the other person, and not one dictated by society and religion. But while the wedding ring remains in its present state—which refers to the continued existence of the ties and obligations that come with marriage—the persona has no hope for a new beginning. Once the old issues have been sorted out and the stigma of commitment has been buried deep in the annals of forgotten memories, the persona can live her life informed by her previous decisions and make new memories.
Remorse in Howard Nemerov’s “The Vacuum” The male persona in the poem is young, or at least appears to be, and has lived the kind of carefree life unconcerned with his environment and the people around him. Suffice to say that he is the typical spoiled brat, who depends on the care of his mother for everything he needs, taking all yet not giving anything in return.
Sadly, his realizations come too late, for the absence of his long-suffering mother is the only event that triggers his evaluation of his own life and hers. The death of the persona’s mother is clearly stated as he mentions “... when my old woman died her soul/Went into that vacuum cleaner” (Nemerov lines 7-8); her particular function, in the persona’s mind, of cleaning and maintaining the home achieves greater importance than originally meant, specially when he realizes that “The house is so quiet now” (Nemerov line 1).
The vacuum cleaner, which symbolizes the mother’s constant cleaning of the home as well as her inclination toward making life better for her son—the way mothers often do—“sulks in the corner closet,/Its bag limp as a stopped lung, its mouth/Grinning into the floor” (Nemerov lines 2-4). It is also used as a metaphor for the mother herself, who was dedicated to solving her son’s problems, saving him from the reality and harshness of life; using images of it being ‘limp as a stopped lung’ visually equates to death.
This is confirmed by the persona’s admission of his “Slovenly life, my dog-dead youth” (Nemerov line 5), which aptly describes a lifestyle devoid of any concerns, knowing that his mother would be around to solve things and make everything right. The passing of his mother and the suggested silence in the house is the only way for the persona to discover reality on his own, specially when he finds that “there is old filth everywhere/She used to crawl, in the corner and under the stair. /I know now how life is cheap as dirt” (Nemerov lines 11-13).
Filth in this context represents the mother’s sadness and hunger for her son’s love, which she probably never felt on account of his self-absorbed nature. She made everything appear clean and immaculate—as mothers often do—and relegated her own feelings to a corner and devoted her life to pleasing her son. In the end, the persona is finally shown this hidden sadness, which “Hangs on and howls, biting at air” (Nemerov line 15), creating a sense of remorse that will forever act like a vacuum, collecting all the hurt and anger without being able to throw them away.
While the two poems differ in structure—with “Wedding Ring” being in free verse and “The Vacuum” in three stanzas of five lines each—the echoing sentiments of regret and remorse about decisions made in the past are identical in tone. Whether it is the ex-wife’s regret of her unsuccessful marriage or the son’s remorse regarding lost time and conceit, both poems express an apparent vision of how things can be corrected.
In the wife’s case, it is all about closure and moving forward, while the son has finally opened his eyes to reality. Emotion is a strong element of any poem, and the appropriation of the related concepts of regret and remorse in the two pieces discussed shows exactly how these universal feelings can be honestly conveyed. The use of similes and metaphors further affirms the relationship between simple objects and profound ideas, and calls upon the experience of the reader to fill the gaps in between.
Marriage in Poems Vacuum and Wedding Ring. (2017, Mar 15). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/marriage-in-poems-vacuum-and-wedding-ring-essay
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