The family is a poem about a woman the poet refers to as aunt Lennie. Aunt Lennie resided in Kentucky in a spotless apartment and took the utmost care to tend to her prized garden. Every morning and evening, as the birds chattered, the poet assisted the aunt in taking care of the yard. The writer is now looking for her "dependable letters always with a flag stamp and digging for a verse in her written lines," but all he could find was the web of her plain spun experience. The aunt, however, passed away three years ago; the poet claims that "Aunt Lennie's heart fluttered those last three years." The poet says that his aunt had loving kindness and he enjoyed working with her in her garden. He still fantasizes about her loving care and tenderness of her touch, he says that “now gone gathered to her God in Kind” and “the winged spirit caught within her bones spins safely here in the storehouse of the mind and in the dark tendered row of words”. The poet uses this poem family to express the sorrow of losing a loved aunt and all that he has to do to bear with it.
The title of the poem is quite useful in the overall interpretation especially in the explanation of the themes. Choosing the title Family is meant by the poet to elicit feelings of losing a family member and therefore capture our emotion and inner self into the poem. The tone of the poem is that of a desperate young boy who has lost his aunt. He laments about how much he misses her and therefore has to looks at the letters she had written to comfort him. But all he can see is the manifestation of her tender care in her words that she had written to him through letters (Hopper 29).
The main theme expressed includes here is Family. This results from the close relationship that the persona of the poem exhibits with aunt Lennie. The poet says that “I feel the dry light of her delicate touch and recreate the shadow wings of her blush when shocked to laughter by her little boy, it was good to be young in her garden”. This shows us about the close intimacy the persona had with his aunt. The theme of death is also expansively portrayed in the poem. The poet tells us that “now gone, gathered to her God inking”, “the winged spirit trapped within her bones”. And that “aunt Lennie’s heart fluttered three years ago.
Another explored theme is that of hard work. The persona in the poem tells us that his aunt used to work with delicate care in her garden and that they helped her to weed and share stories in the evenings and mornings in her garden. This symbolizes that the ant was a hard worker.
Imagery has been used in the poem as one of the major styles that the poet used to convey his message to the audience. Such incidences where imagery has been used include the following; the poet in the first stanza alludes to the aunt’s heart fluttering. This means the flying away like a bird does. This symbolizes that her soul went away. The line, “birds sang hymns” is used to symbolize early morning or late evening”. Use of the words “web spun experience” is used to describe the aunt’s well-articulated messages in the letters and the wealth of her knowledge. Another use is “ribbed matrix of care” which is used to connote the completeness of the aunt’s love and care. “A tendered row of words “is also used to mean that the words were well written and lovingly written.
The poet has used the above techniques of imagery and allusion and the themes discussed to express his message across to the audience (Hopper 54).
Work cited
Hopper, David L. "Interpretation the Poetry of Meaning." (1967): 20–183
