In+Defense+of+Our+Overgrown+Garden

=​ "In Defense of Our Overgrown Garden"=

Poem by Matthea Harvey, explications by Carl Haken, Sarah Yockey, and Ashley Tapping

Last night the apple trees shook and gave each lettuce a heart Six hard red apples broke through the greenhouse glass and Landed in the middle of those ever-so-slightly green leaves That seem no mix of seeds and soil but of pastels and light and Chalk x's mark our oaks that are supposed to be cut down (5) I've seen the neighbors frown when they look over the fence And see our espalier¹ pear trees bowing out of shape I did like that They looked like candelabras² against the wall but what's the sense in swooning over pruning I said as much to Mrs. Jones⁵ and I swear She threw her cane at me and walked off down the street without (10) It has always puzzled me that people coo over bonsai⁴ trees when You can squint your eyes and shrink anything without much of A struggle ensued with some starlings and the strawberry nets So after untangling the two I took the nets off and watched birds With red beaks fly by all morning at the window I reread your letter (15) About how the castles you flew over made crenelated³ shadows on The water in the rain barrel has overflowed and made a small swamp I think the potatoes might turn out slightly damp don't worry If there is no fog on the day you come home I will build a bonfire So the smoke will make the cedars look the way you like them (20) To close I'm sorry there wont be any salad I love you

**Vocabulary:**
¹espalier- a two dimentional framework to grow plants or trees on, or a plant grown in this way. ²candelabra- a candle holder, almost like a chandelier that isn't hanging. ³crenellated- notched, having notches in it. ⁴bonsai (trees)- a tree which is often specially grown and trimmed to be a certain, artistic shape. ⁵"keeping up with the Jones' "- doing what the neighbors do, as to be normal. someone who doesn't "keep up with the Jones' " is unfashionable or weird.

**Title:**
The title of the poem, "In Defense of Our Overgrown Garden" is fairly standard. It suggests that the poem will be about an overgrown garden and an associated meaning and that the poet will be supporting some claim about the overgrown garden.

Paraphrase:
This beautiful garden is slowly falling apart -- last night the lettuce got ruined. We've got neighbors complaining about our oak trees and the espalier pears, but really they look pretty funny staring like they do. Theres no sense in them spending our time trying to manage this growth when it looks so nice, but when I told this to Mrs. Jones, she threw her cane at me and walked off without it! I don't understand people like that, who can be so amazed by bonsai trees, when you can make anything small just by squinting at it. Some birds got stuck in the strawberry nets, so I untangled them, and watched them from the window while I reread your letter. The rain barrel overflowed, and now the potatoes are going to be a little wet. I really can't wait until you get back, if theres no fog I'll make a bonfire so the trees look how you like them too. I'm sorry things aren't exactly the way they ought to be and I love you.

**Video interpretation:**
[|To see video, click here]

**Structure and Devices:**
This poem contains no rhyme, no punctuation, no regular rhythm and no sentences. Almost all of it is connected by using the same 1 to 3 words as the end of one idea and the beginning of another, such as "...how the castles you flew over made crenelated shadows on / **The water** in the rain barrel has overflowed and made a small swamp..." where 'the water' relates to multiple ideas at once.

The imagery in the poem is very clear, such as the "And see our espalier pear trees bowing out of shape.../ They looked like candelabras against the wall." It creates a clear mental picture in the readers mind. They are also simple, direct descriptions, very down to earth. There are very few instances of using metaphors and similes, especially in the hyperbolic way poets of sonnets might.

The tone and style are like a person telling everything they did during the day in one breath. Whether this person is angry, happy, exasperated, or something else is very much open to individual interpretation.

The identity of the speaker is another ambiguity in the poem. A standard view in literary analysis is to assume the speaker's gender is the same as the poet unless something indicates otherwise. So in this case one might assume that the speaker is female. However, there is very little evidence either way. The age of the speaker is also unclear, and the meaning of certain phrases and words can be different based upon the age chosen. These areas of about the speaker allow for multiple interpretations of the poem's themes and meaning.

Matthea Harvey was born in Germany in 1973, but at the age of eight her family moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From an early age she showed a natural talent for writing. She received her first poetry award in third grade for an imaginative poem called, //Kimmasaccalotottomely//, about a mystical world populated by “bees with bendy knees.” She spent her adolescence in England, and later attended Havard as well as the Unviversity of Iowa. It was not until college that Harvey began to write serious poetry and realized that this is what she wanted to do for a living. Since then, she has written a variety of poems that many people say are witty and playful. At the same time, many of her poems also convey a darker, hidden meaning, most notably in her famous collection of poems, //Modern Life//, which won the Kingsley Tufts prize for its ability to capture the fear and dread that was felt after September 11th. Other poems she has written include //Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form// and //In Defense of Our Overgrown Garden//, both written in 2000, as well as //Sad Little Breathing Machine// written in 2004. Today, Matthea Harvey lives in Brooklyn and continues to write poetry, as well as novels. __Sources__

Poetry Foundation. "Matthea Harvey (1973- )". Retrieved November 24 from: [] Sharma, Geeta. "Childhood Fueled Poet's Imagination." Retreived November 24 from: []

Individual Explications:
Sarah Carl Ashley