Memory of Elena a Poem to Explain

¶ … Memory of Elena

A Poem to Explain Grief

Often a poem's meaning is apparent from only the title. This is not the case with "The Memory of Elena," a poem written by Carolyn Forche in 1981. At first, the title suggests a poetic recollection of Elena, but as the poem develops, we see that it is at first a memory of a lunch with Elena and then Elena's own recollection of the tragic events that destroyed her life. The memories of the poet and Elena merge, becoming as one. The poet remembers her meal with Elena even as Elena recalls her last night with her husband years earlier in Buenos Aires. In the poem, Forche uses the simple symbolism of a meal shared together to bring to light how important remembrance is and how important it is to mourn and recognize the sacrifices others make on our behalf.

"The Memory of Elena" is a narrative poem that tells the story of a morning spent between two women. The poem begins with Forche's memory of shopping in a flower market, where she and Elena walk between the flower stalls and count "the dark tongues of bells," or their pistils or stamens, a reference to masculinity, otherwise absent and missing in the poem (3). These flowers quickly give way to another image, that of flowers that look like church bells, which "hang from ropes / waiting for the silence of an hour" (4-5), waiting for another hour before they ring. It is the top of the hour. These are disturbing images of flowers, for they are not described at all for their beauty. Rather, they are used to unsettle the reader and foreshadow later verses in the poem, having tongues and lips removed are used to represent the now silenced husband of Elena. Also, to say that the bells are waiting for "silence" seems to imply that there is chaos and noise in the city. The opening lines, in which "morning" can sound like "mourning," and bells "hang from ropes" and "trembling light" suggest how the upheaval of the past has affected the present. Nothing is ever calm for Elena, and everything is mourning, or a reminder of mourning.

After the women finish their flower shopping, Carolyn and Elena seek out a table for lunch and order "paella, / cold soup and wine" (7-8). Though they have moved beyond the flower stall, they have not found calm. The speaker in the poem remembers something poignant about her lunch companion's husband, that "In Buenos Aires only three / years ago, it was the last time his hand / slipped into her dress… (9-11). The necklace of pearls cools her throat, suggesting that she is warm with arousal and excited at her lover/husband's touch. The image of the bells reappear, "chipping at the night," picking away at the darkness. Elena recalls the night for Forche, apparently reminded by the current atmosphere -- the street, the cafe, the light -- of Buenos Aires three years ago. Forche points us toward the tragedy ahead by mentioning that it was "the last time" his hand touched her. Tragedy lies ahead.

In the third stanza, Elena continues to talk and we learn more about the meaning of her memories. The sights, sounds and even the food are transformed from innocent things into symbols of horror. The "clopping of a horse" is compared to "bones touched together." (15-16). The paella they have ordered (a delicious dish of savory rice, seafood and vegetables) is associated with dismembered fingers, removed "lips" and "a leg socket" (18-21). For Elena, even the passing of a carriage or the delivery of a meal evokes grotesque memories of her husband's last moments -- she is in a waking nightmare.

The final stanzas f the poem conveys some of the details which explain Elena's reaction to her setting. The sounds of the horse's footfalls are not only like the crunching of bones to her, they are "the ring / of a rifle report on the stones" that, just three years ago, took her husband from her. The Spanish meal recalls the image of "those who remained / In Buenos Aires (23-4), their "remains" stuck forever in the South American city. These memories give the reader to the answer of the disturbing and confusing opening stanza. The full image of the horror that her husband and others experiences has now been made clear. The sight "dark tongues of bells / that hang from ropes" pushed Elena into this brutal world of memory. We now know that she threw flowers like these on her husband's grave. The church bells then did not ring, for they were "waiting with their tongues cut out / for this particular silence" (29-30). Her husband had been silenced by violence and the church bells were silenced as well.

For the reader, understanding has come and we now know how Elena and Forche spent their morning. By counting and buying flowers, they were counting the victims of the violence that took her husband and others. Their morning had, literally, turned into mourning. The church bell clappers recall the silence of the bells for his funeral; the hose's hooves on the pavement are the rifle reports. The meal recalls imaged of mutilated and tortured bodies.