Contemporary American poets: research and analysis

¶ … changes us. This is a simple thought and one with which many would agree but the underlying assertion of this statement is that as we go through life and experience everything, we must realize we will never be the same. Our lives are forever changed by everything, whether we will it or not. We may never stop to consider this through the sometime mundane experiences of our everyday lives but regardless of the experience, we are different. This notion brings us to Louis Gluck's poem, "Gretel in Darkness," which examines the power of experience coupled with the power of the mind. Gretel survives the death the witch planned for her. She not only does so but she kills the witch. She is a heroine but she is lost. Her memory cannot shake the wholeness of what happened to her and Hansel. She is filled with fear, not just for the past but for the future as well. Through Gretel's isolation and endless sense of doom, we discover everything changes us and we can never know how until after the fact.

Gluck was born in New York and attended Columbia University. In 1967, she received the Academy of American Poets Prize. She has been honored with many other writing awards as well. In 2008, Gluck received the Wallace Stevens Award, which happens to be the largest poetry prize in the United States. Gluck's treatment of "gender roles" (Hunter) and female identities receive attention from feminist circles. While some may argue Gluck's poetry tends to focus on the negative, others might say Gluck's work "considers artistic expression and female sexuality to be opposing forces" (Hunter). In addition, others find Gluck's work necessary in a "male-dominated culture" (Hunter). Either way, Gluck applies her experiences to larger contexts, says Hunter. She teaches as a means to earn a living in between writing and publishing poetry.

Gluck's heroines look different from many typical heroines in poetry. Gretel in "Gretel in Darkness" is especially different because she emerges from the fairy tale. Gluck provides a look at the girl after the event. Gretel, alienated from her family, gives readers an opportunity to pause. Readers must ask if they can rely on Gretel for honest observations because like many other females in Gluck's poetry, she expresses fear of men. In this poem, the fear stems from her brother, who cannot seem to acknowledge her or their horrifying experience, according to Robert Miklitsch. Gretel has returned to safety but we are left to ask at what expense. Miklitsch maintains the last stanza in the poem "forces" (Miklitsch) us to believe Gretel's account but there are other issues to address as well. We believe in her struggle in the darkness because of the compelling nature of the poem. Gretel is safe from harm but yet, the last stanza swells with doom. It "problematizes everything that has preceded" (Miklitsch), according to Miklitsch. Nothing can be as straightforward as it appears to be for this girl and, furthermore, everything is "questionable now" (Miklitsch). Her father, her brother and her home should provide Gretel with a sense of safety but instead, she feels anything but safe. When she turns to her brother for some sort of comfort, he is not there. "Am I alone?" (Gluck 21), she asks, pondering hidden forces in the still woods. This scene represents the eternal change in Gretel. She has lost her innocence. The world, mean and cruel, waits outside.

Gluck also plays on the fear that the fairy tale provokes. Gluck "draws out a childhood myth and suffuses it with the indignant fear children feel from that grisly German tale" (Wooten). Patricia agrees with this assertion adding the reader is supposed to feel that a "personal story lies behind the retelling" (Clark). Gluck even goes as far as to borrow imagery from the fairy tale itself, says Clark. Furthermore, details are specific as if it happened yesterday, states Wooten. However, the girl and her brother rest safely and the witch is dead. Sadly, the fear still lingers in the bedroom, hanging between them like an invisible curtain. "This is the world we wanted," (Gluck 1), the speaker of the poem admits and the good news is "All who would have seen us dead / are dead." (Gluck 2). She is comforted by the presence of her brother, yet something is askew. She cannot shake the memory and that fact will become the purpose of this poem. The nagging question, "Why do I not forget?" (Gluck 10), brings us to the crux of the problem. The experience was bad but she survived. While she knows she should be grateful, she must realize she will never forget and the experience robbed her of her innocence.

Daniel Morris points out how "Gretel in Darkness" is a poem of survival. The poem reflects upon a "profound psychological wound that at times mirrors survivor testimony" (100). Gretel returns from the "edge of personal destruction" (Morris 101) with a new identity "marred by traumatic memory" (101). She is different and she will never be the same again. Gluck explores the relationship between narrative and trauma in "order to allow the recovery of her speaker's personal identity" (101). Gretel is still haunted in the telling of her tale. She is estranged from her brother and while the memory still haunts her, she wonders why no one else seems to remember. Gretel has returned from the black forest to tell her tale but the "memory of gassing a mother-figure, albeit as an act of self-defense, has damaged her rapport with a man who occupies the position once held by brother" (110). The final lines, in Morris' estimation, reveal the impact the past has upon the present. Miklitsch states the poem forces us to realize "we can never go home again" (Miklitsch). Along with lost innocence, Gretel must also deal with the "costly wages of knowledge" (Miklitsch). The past is gone; the children are safe but Gretel still feels the experience is "real" (Gluck 23). Gluck hones in on the persistence of Gretel's memories to illustrate change and loss even through the most happy of events. Wooten maintains the poem "illustrates the living and hallucinatory quality of a child's fear, and the tendency of children to color a past horror with all the vividness of a present one" (Wooten).