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"In Defense of Our Overgrown Garden" Sarah Yockey What an Overgrown Garden Says About Old Age

  Age changes one's perspective on things. Children are clean slates, fearless and carefree. As children become adults they gain maturity, but also burdens such as responsibility and maintaining appearances for the world. At a certain point older people reach a level beyond simple adulthood. They possess wisdom and perspective yet these are accompanied by the troubles of a failing body and mind. Throughout "In Defense of Our Overgrown Garden," Matthea Harvey uses precise imagery to allude to themes of aging, such as the physical struggles and new perspectives on life, and she also employs a unique poetic structure to create the effect of an elderly speaker.  The structure of the poem is the first indicator of the themes of aging. It is written as one long string of words uninterrupted by punctuation and with some words and phrases repeated in two neighboring ideas, for example, “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” (lines 4-5). This continuous flow of words is similar to the speech of an elderly person whose mind is losing some of its sharpness. Inclined to ramble on and constantly jumping from one subject to the next with few cues to help the reader follow along, the speaker exhibits the tendencies of mental decline common among people who are getting older. ** Like the title of the poem indicates, the images are of an overgrown garden reflecting the struggles of maintenance as one ages physically. The speaker describes how “six hard red apples broke through the greenhouse glass and / Landed in the middle of those ever-so-slightly green leaves” (lines 1-2) and “The water in the rainbarrel has overflowed and made a small swamp” (line 17). These images indicate that the speaker has lost control over the garden, over his or her life. Some maintenance has gone undone and whether it is because of the speaker's physical inability is not explicitly said, however the tasks such as pruning the apple and pear trees back or emptying the rainbarrel are of a more physical nature. One possible reason for this negligence is the speaker getting older, making it more difficult to complete these physical chores. The speaker also indicates a tendency to relax and rest, saying, “what's the sense / In swooning over pruning” (lines 7-8) and sitting “all morning at the window” (line 15) rereading a letter. Rest and relaxation are often considered the rewards of life, something to collect in retirement which again indicates that the speaker may be a senior citizen. The image of a garden lends itself well to this comparison to life, maintenance is a constant need and if one can not physically do the work then one is forced to take a different role or perspective.

The speaker seems to take the necessary change of perspective easily, taking a lighthearted look at the disorderly garden. Rather than focus on the gradual deterioration of order in the garden, the speaker is content to see the beauty. Although the pear trees are getting overgrown, the speaker “did like that they looked like candelabras against the wall” (lines 7-8), looking at the lovely shape the trees are taking on their own. When the birds got tangled in the strawberry nets, the speaker frees them and watches them fly by her window as they eat what is left of the strawberries. The fact that the birds are eating one of the crops does not seem to affect the speaker as she gazes upon them, finding pleasure in watching what is happening around. The light, relaxed tone of the poem contradicts some of the images of chaos in the garden. However, this contradiction reveals the theme of taking a new perspective when life goes out of control. When the orderly appearance of the garden can no longer be maintained, the speaker adopts an attitude of seeing the beauty in the chaos. The speaker's attitude also contrasts with her neighbors who “frown when they look over the fence” (line 6). Mrs. Jones, whose name relates her to the American cultural standard family, the Jones, gets so upset at the speaker for saying “what's the sense in swooning over pruning” (line 8-9) that “She threw her cane at me and walked off down the street without / It” (lines 10-11). The neighbors disapproval serves to emphasis the difference between the “normal” view that order must be maintained and the speaker's ability to see beauty in the chaos.

One other aspect of old age that the poem touches on is death, specifically the death of others. Losing a loved one can be particularly difficult for someone who struggles with memory loss or mental clarity. Certain lines in Harvey's poem can be used to back up the interpretation that the speaker is writing a letter to a loved one who has passed away, yet the speaker is still acting as if they are alive. The reference to the oak trees and the garden as being “ours” (line 5, title) indicates that the speaker feels a close relationship to the person the letter is written for, perhaps as close as marriage as the last line “I love you” may suggest. When the speaker refers to the letter she “reread.../ About how the castles you flew over made crenellated shadows on / The water” (lines 15-17), it raises a question about where "you" was flying. One possible interpretation says that the “you” has been away traveling, however another understanding of the flying over is death. This passage supports the view that the speaker's spouse has passed away from this world, flying over castles on his way to heaven or as a spirit watching over the world. Following this interpretation that the “you” has died, the line “on the day you come home” seems to confirm the memory loss of the speaker who can't come to grips with the death of her spouse mentally.

As Matthea Harvey implies in the poem, “In Defense of Our Overgrown Garden,” aging is not an easy process. It comes with physical challenges, the decline of mental clarity and function, and the loss of loved ones. Yet the lighthearted tone and attitude of the speaker offers hope that there is also joy in taking a new look at the world around to see the beauty in what before appeared as chaos. 

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