Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Louise Gluck's "Tango" delves into the intimate and complex dynamics of sisterhood through the metaphor of dance. The poem is structured in four parts, each offering a different temporal and emotional viewpoint on the sisters' evolving relationship. The imagery, from dancing under tables to standing in cribs, renders the sibling relationship in a rich tapestry of love, envy, and rivalry.

The poem commences with a nostalgic snapshot, "On evenings like this / Twenty years ago," instantly transporting us to a time long past. Here, the sisters sit "under the table," at once a place of intimacy and exclusion. As children, they are protected but also confined to their separate world, away from adult conversations and the "contagious vernacular" of the street. Their dance is described as "inseparable," a "back and forth across the living room," but it's also likened to "an insect / moving on a mirror," an image that evokes a sense of aimlessness, triviality, or even vulnerability. Gluck notes that "envy is a dance, too," illustrating that even in their closeness, there exists a need "to hurt," revealing the complexities of love and competition in a sibling relationship.

The second part exposes the sisters at a more vulnerable age, one "thrashing in the crib" and the other watching "through the bars," both "actively starving." The sense of rivalry is intensified as the parents are portrayed as a "totemic creature," an almost mythological being that the sisters seem to be competing for. The phrase "the inescapable body" is loaded with the tension of inescapable family dynamics, a force that pulls yet stifles, nurtures yet limits.

The third part shifts its focus to a broad landscape, describing the arrival of fathers and the descending of darkness over streets and gardens. This cosmic view is a departure from the earlier intimate scenes, but it serves to universalize the sisters' experiences. The lines "But some the light chooses" and "How they tremble / as the moon mounts them, brutal and sisterly," evoke the arbitrariness and inevitability of who gets chosen or favored, either by family or by fate.

The final part confronts the distinctions between the two sisters head-on, revealing their identities as the watcher and the dancer. "I trusted no one. My name / was like a stranger's / read from an envelope," the speaker says, affirming a sense of individual alienation. The speaker admits that "nothing was taken from me / that I could have used," indicating some form of acceptance or resignation. This section culminates in a statement that sums up the essence of the poem: "Of two sisters / one is always the watcher, / one the dancer."

"Tango" captures the beauty and pain of sibling relationships. It explores the interplay of intimacy and rivalry, the constant push and pull between needing each other and striving to assert individuality. Through the metaphor of dance-a series of orchestrated steps that can be both harmonious and antagonistic-Gluck encapsulates the nuances of a relationship as complex, rewarding, and challenging as sisterhood.

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