Interpretation+Three


 * Thomas's Interpretation**

"(bottle Tower)" by Mattea Harvey rather than trying to portray a specific image uses intense imagery to create a metaphysicall sense of longing to escape. One could argue that with all the clear imagery that harvey is trying to convey something more physical, yet the imagery is so unrelated that it appears if she is trying to convey the abstract with physical objects.

"(bottle Tower)" starts out with the line Dear nine thirty is there any word which gives it a personal feeling, and makes you feel attached to the writer. This gives you a feeling throughout the poem that it is not about something but more about someone and you bercome emotianally invested in their interests. Harvey does this to make you feel the sense of longing that she wants you to feel even more gutteral. It's not just someone who wants something it's you it's your best freind it has personality.

The next few lines "for the way peony blossoms bend over & rest their soft faces petals piled up on the grass?" describing a wilting flower sticks with the theme of death constant throughout the first half of the poem. This constant mention of death is important to the second half of the poem, mentionining what the reader would do to get rid of this unedescribed evil that causes all the scenes in the first half of the poem. The first half of the poem while not all about death is constantly bleak and negative.\

I feel as if Harvey uses the lines Tar cools & tires dull you. "The puddles are milky & grey." to add variety to the poem if she had mentioned death instead of bleak industrial imagery the line "There are daughters who die before their mothers" would not have nearly enough impact to justify the sense of longing to escape from the evil in the second half in the poem.

Harvey lets the line "There are daughters who die before their mothers" resonate, she dos this by seperating it from "Today I want to live without looking" with The line the "woodpile is full of the blank faces of owls." This keeps the two lines seperate as I belive the Line "today I want to live without looking" the turning point in the poem.

"Today I want to live without looking" is harvey trying to portray the feeling that she/you are desperatly wanting to forget about the evil in the first half. By saying "live without looking" harvey shows that the evil is omnipresent and the only way to escape it is through forgetting everything. The idea of giving up everything to esape is portrayed through the line "give me that and I will give up the rest" what the rest is is never mentioned in the poem making it feel as if harvey is wishing for death or a life without experiences. However Harvey shows that in the life without looking you would experience it would not be void of feeling, with the last lines suggesting feeling warmth from the ground you would feel after a rain. This seems to be more describing an abstract happiness more than actuall ybeing warm. As it suggests escaping the evil.

Writing about this sense of longing to escape from evil seems to be harvey experimenting with writing about abstract experiences not easily conveyd through words. This abstract style is welcome and makes those who read it think about human nature, and our baic instincts.