"The Arm"

In the poem "The Arm", it tells an interesting off-beat story. I find this poem to be interesting simply because most poems do not start off with a line such as, "A doll’s pink, broken-off arm was floating in a pond. The man had come to with his dog.” It gives a whole different feel to opening lines. The meanings behind his words are very serious, tough, and most of the poem shows or represents sad thoughts. Which lead me to wonder why would the poet begin his poem with such a line? I find this line highly unusual. 

Another thing that was quite confusing and a bit odd was the poet referring to the subject "The man" as of to “A man". Normally a poems use first person, but this poet uses third person. If anything I would think that the poet would refer to the man for the first time as “A man". The use of “the” gives the reader a sense of already being familiar with the man, and gives the character a much different persona in the reader’s mind.

Another question that came to my mind while reading this poem is, “Who exactly is this man, who would see the arm of a doll in a pond on his walk and not regard it as garbage, but as a piece of plastic with a history, which someone once held dearly?" I wonder if the reason the man stopped is that the arm could have possibly brought back memories or a similar incident. I mean for example, the scenario he give us of an older sister being furious at her younger sister, taking it out on her one limb at a time. Maybe that the arm was in the water because the man came in the future and is remembering when he threw that doll’s arm that belonged to his sister in the water and forgot about it.

After my first analysis of the poem, I did not fully understand it, however, is kept on re-reading it over and over, thinking deeper into the meaning. The poem covers Covering sibling rivalry, sexuality, and marital differences, and probably more I probably did not even recognize, this poem is more complex in one page then most short poems or books I’ve read. The poet uses subtlety to tell the story of two rivaling sisters that fight and argue and at the peak of a dispute; the older sibling throws an arm from the younger girl’s doll in the pond. I feel that approach was probably to create a deep connection with the reader.

However, the poet goes on by pushing the level of complexity in this poem even further, by including a father’s dislike for his son’s sexuality. Explaining that taking the arm off of the doll was the father’s idea of a punishment. At this point, it would seem that those are the only messages that the poet is trying to tell us, but even in the final lines of the poem, he adds an even more subtle conflict/issue. Stating, “his wife was sure to question” which also leaves the impression in in my mind that he was also thinking of the differences in opinion or belief between a man and his wife.

One thing I did enjoy about this poem is the symbolic element of this man reacting to an odd situation in a good way, embracing it rather than ignoring it. I feel that the poem in general shows that this character reacts to odd situations like this in a good way all the time, taking advantage of things that most people wouldn’t. I really enjoyed  that this poem is both a story and a more general message about the character in it.