Memory as Spider Web: Rich Metaphor

"If history is a spider-thread...," then, what? This metaphor suggested so much about time and memory that I paused reading Adrienne Rich's poem "Towards the Solstice" to draw out some of its implications:

• memories stick to a place, and the place shapes the way I see the memories
• memories, like webs, connect things that are apart
• I see memories of different times at one time
• I can see my present self implied in my past, as I can see the day clearly through a web
• I'm not conscious of web or memory until something makes me focus
• as patterns make a web, repetition marks time
• when I follow a thread of memory, I feel I'm reaching back to my center
• I can get caught up in memory

Rich adds that a web is "spun over and over though brushed away," as memories persist. She seeks "rites" or "the right rune" to exorcise the memories:

to ease the hold of the past
upon the rest of my life
and ease my hold on the past.

The poem is a kind of ghost story, as, referring to others from her past still present, she waits "for them to make some clear demand."

Earlier, the poet writes, "I am trying to hold in one steady glance / all the parts of my life." So, in present tense, she describes her property both barren under snow and green under rain. The merging of the seasons throughout this long poem is a funny, eerie conceit that sharpens our focus.

The spider web comes back at the end, when the poet, house-cleaning, brushes away a literal web. That's a playful touch that goes with her playfulness with words. For example, I enjoyed seeing thick snow as "a quilt of crystals" and the juxtaposition of "burdock" with "burden."

"Toward the Solstice" appears in Home, 100 poems on that theme selected by editor Christian Wiman (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022). I've not read much of Adrienne Rich; I need to add her to my list.

I draft a poem a week for another blog First Verse, hoping to grow as a poet while I absorb lessons from poetry pros every day.