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Labor Day

Prompt

Read "Labor Day" by Louise Gluck and have an answer for the following questions tomorrow in class. (p.736-737 Perrine's)

What is the significance of the weather in the first two stanzas? Why is the weather the focus of these stanzas? In the third stanza, the speaker imagines that her sister's daughter by riding her bicycle wants "to make time pass". Is this true or merely a fantasy of the speaker's?

Response

What is the meaning of caesura? It's usually used to describe poetic technique, but why does it work here?

  1. Significance of the Weather in the First Two Stanzas:
    The weather in the first two stanzas serves as a symbolic representation of the emotional climate of the speaker and her family. Last year was hot, and the weather became a topic of conversation at the funeral, perhaps as a way to divert from the emotional weight of the occasion. This year, it's cold, and the change in temperature parallels the family's internal emotional landscape—now colder, emptier, more desolate following the father's death. The weather offers a way to talk about something that is difficult to articulate: the emptiness or void left behind.

  2. The Speaker's Fantasy About Her Niece:
    The line "What she wants is to make time pass" might be a projection of the speaker's feelings onto her sister's daughter. The niece is doing the same thing she did last year—riding her bike—but the speaker's perception of this action has changed. The niece may not consciously want to "make time pass," but this interpretation could represent the speaker’s own desire to move forward in time, to get away from the aching sense of loss and emptitude. It's a moment that underlines the different perceptions of time across generations.

  3. Meaning and Use of Caesura:
    In poetry, a caesura is a pause in the middle of a line of verse, often indicated by punctuation. In this context, the word "caesura" refers metaphorically to the pause, or stop, that comes with the father's death. Just as a caesura breaks the flow in a line of poetry, death breaks the continuity of life. It's a momentary pause in the grand scheme of things—a brief halt that is significant to those who experience it, yet inconsequential in the vast span of time ("a whole lifetime is nothing"). In the poem, the use of the term "caesura" magnifies the transient nature of human life and experiences, even those that feel deeply impactful.