Please read the poem "Hands" by Jean Sprackland, posted here last week. I'd like for us to look at it in the same way we looked at "Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio."
For starters, let's make sure we're clear on the poem's basics: Who is speaking to us and where is she speaking to us from? I'll give you a hint: she is in a specific location at the beginning of a poem and it causes her to remember an event from earlier in her life. At the moment, I'm interested in the starting place. Where is she?
Here's a mostly unrelated question: The author's first name, Jean, could be a man's name or a woman's, but the speaker of the poem is surely a woman. How do we know?
Please respond in the comments section of THIS POST (not the comments section of the post containing the poem). Thanks. I look forward to what you've got to say.
"hauling out at last my slippery fish of a son.
ReplyDeleteHe was all silence and milky blue. She took him away and brought him back breathing" I think by just reading these few lines you can obviously tell that Jean is a woman. A midwife is a typically female being who assists in home child birth. By the part of the poem stated above you can see Jean was writing about the midwife helping her with the birth of her son.
the speaker may be located in a kitchen somewhere, preparing food. and we know that she is a woman because she tells of giving birth.
ReplyDeleteIn the beginning she could be anywhere, in her kitchen watching somebody cook or in a restaurant. Somewhere with cooking. we know that Jean is a woman because she said her midwife hauled out her new baby boy. (in other words) and men dont give birth so it is obviously a woman.
ReplyDeleteOkay, great. All of the comments so far pinpoint that she's definitely a woman due to the childbirth. No question about it.
ReplyDeleteLet's return to the beginning now. We've got cooking involved somehow. Can we spot any clues that tell us exactly where she is, and what's being cooked? (This will be mostly in the first stanza, but there is at least one clue elsewhere.)
It seems to me that shes watching someone make fish. maybe at a restuarant?
ReplyDeleteThe author of the poem is a woman we know because she talks about giving birth to a son, and it seems that she is in a kitchen, cooking fish.
ReplyDeleteWatching someone make fish--good. How do you know? What specific words or phrases make you think so?
ReplyDeleteI believe that the writer is in her own kitchen watching this woman cook the fish. I make this claim based on the last stanza; "I stand here speechless in the steam and banter, as she makes hospital corners of my hot paper parcel." The writer uses the word "my" to claim the hot paper parcel as her own as she is watching the woman fold it. The word "my" is what leads me to believe the woman is in the writers kitchen.
ReplyDelete"She peels cod fillets off the slab,
ReplyDeletedips them in batter"
Do people usually wrap fish in paper in their own kitchens?
ReplyDeleteWOW! I totally missed the understanding of this poem.. :( Got it now though! Thanks guys!
ReplyDeleteLet's say a bit more about "the understanding of this poem." So far we've (mostly) established that the speaker is watching fish being prepared. She pays attention to the cook's hands.
ReplyDeleteSo what? How does she get from there to this memory of her son's birth? What's the connection? Is there one?
I think the connection is her hands... In the first stanza she talks about "her scrubed hands elegant at work" which takes her back to when she was giving birth, and her midwive's hands stroking the wet hair from her face... She is also watching someone cook fish, which reminds her of giving birth to a "slippery fish of a son".
ReplyDeleteGood. Yes, the title gives us a clue to pay attention to the hands. Watching the cook's hands, reminds her of the midwife's hands. But why? Of all the hands in the world--billions of them--why do the midwife's hands come to her mind?
ReplyDeleteI think Kylie is right that it's got something to do with "slippery fish of a son," but why that metaphor? When most people think of babies, they think of cuddliness and teddy bears and smiles. Why raw fish? As you think about this question, start by thinking about what exactly happened during the delivery.
The memory of her midwife is brought on by the "scrubbed hands elegant at the work." Scrubbed to me means worn, so maybe the sight of the slippery fish (which made her think of her son) in the worn hands reminded her of her midwife's hands.
ReplyDeleteI think the metaphor of the slippery fish for the newborn is perfect. Babies don't come out all cuddly looking smiley like teddy bears. They're slimey and gooey and nasty. Her son was blue and silent just like a fish.
Sure, scrubbed hands might be worn, but I don't think there's much other evidence that the cook or midwife have especially worn hands. Don't look too hard for metaphors. I think the poem is imagining the hands as literally scrubbed. Don't cooks and baby-delivery people both need clean hands?
ReplyDeleteMiranda is right on in describing the similarities between a newborn and a fish. What other parallels exist? In other words, if raw fish is like a just born child, what other similarities exist between the two situations?
i picture her(author) starting location as being a fisherman's wharf or pier and the author is watching someone cut, batter, and fry fish from a concession stand. i may be way off on that one but my own experiences with such places might be influencing that...then as far as identifying her as a woman, the line: "and think of the hands of the midwife, stroking wet hair from my face as i sobbed and cursed", indicates that she is a female.
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't read Aaron's description of the concession stand, read it and compare it to the image in your own mind. I personally picture a woman behind the counter at a takeout place I went to once on Cape Cod. And I'm sure every other reader has a unique image as well. This is a good example of how language IMPERFECTLY communicates one person's experience to another. As I said before, though, the best language comes as close as possible to perfect communication.
ReplyDeleteBut in the overall scheme of the poem, it doesn't matter whether Sprackland (notice I referred to her by her last name) wants us to picture a rickety outdoor stand or a stylish restaurant full of yuppies. We supply those details. What the poem really wants us to understand is the similarities between her experience in the fish place and her experiences during childbirth.
We'll pick up this discussion in class tomorrow. If you've got something to say still that just can't wait, feel free to post it here still.
See you tomorrow :)
this is a woman who may be buying fish from a store, and watching the woman prepare the fish brings back memories from when her son was born, she thought he looked like a fish when he came out, that's why watching the woman with the fish made her think of her son.
ReplyDeleteThe writer of "Hands" is remembering a moment in time as she was cooking cod fish which is slippery fish in the kitchen. At the time she was a midwife who delivered a baby boy. The birthing mother was obviously in a great deal of pain. The hot fat makes reference to the birthing pain as she dropped the cod in the hot oil.
ReplyDeleteThe moment was intense for her to assist in the birth the child and take the child from the room to return him to his mother, allowing her to embrace the moment of how important her hands are for the task of helping bring a child into the world.
The folding of hot parcel paper is a reference of how the mid-wife carefully folded and wrapped the baby in a warm sheet to hand over to the mother who gave birth. Hence, her hands are very important.
ReplyDelete