Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Audre Lorde's "Memorial II" is an emotive elegy that resonates with themes of loss, memory, and the elusive nature of identity. The poem's focus on "Genevieve" creates a specific point of reference, but this name symbolically carries the weight of universal experiences of loss and remembrance. It probes into the complexities of how we remember and what remains in the wake of a person's departure.

The poem begins with the speaker looking into a mirror, asking what Genevieve sees through her eyes. This act of seeing is complex; it's not just the speaker's reflection but also a confrontation with absence and memory. The mirror serves as a liminal space where the past and the present collide, as if Genevieve's gaze could penetrate through time. The image of Genevieve as a "hungry bird" adds to the ambivalence. Birds are often seen as symbols of freedom and transcendence, yet the word "hungry" evokes a sense of need, perhaps a yearning to communicate or to find something that was lost.

The speaker also questions how much she has changed over time and whether Genevieve would recognize her. This focuses the poem on the fluidity of identity, not just for the one who is gone but also for the one left behind. There's a subtle hint that the act of dying changes not just the deceased but also those close to them; death alters our self-perception and our understanding of the world around us.

The speaker's inability "to accept your face dying" speaks volumes about the difficulty of coming to terms with the finality of loss. It makes the reader question the boundaries between the living and the dead when it comes to memory and emotional presence. It suggests that some part of Genevieve still exists, at least in the eyes of the speaker, who wishes to know where "dead girls wander after their summer." This line is especially haunting, not only encapsulating the eternal youth of Genevieve but also posing a universal query about the afterlife, or perhaps the life of our memories after someone's death.

The final lines of the poem shift the perspective. The speaker wishes to see Genevieve again but also acknowledges the blinding intensity of her eyes. The sun, traditionally a symbol of enlightenment and clarity, here causes blindness. It's as if the radiance of memory is too intense to face directly, too overpowering to fully grasp. Yet, that intense light is also a part of what makes Genevieve unforgettable, imprinted in the retina of the speaker's mind, even if it blinds her to other truths or realities.

Contextually, it's essential to note that Audre Lorde often explored themes of identity, social injustice, and the intricacies of the human psyche. Written in 1954, the poem may be seen against the backdrop of a society still steeped in conservative values and norms, which would have framed Genevieve's life-and by extension, her death-in very specific ways.

"Memorial II" is thus a poignant meditation on the complexities of remembering and forgetting, evoking not just the individual loss the speaker feels but also the larger existential questions that death prompts us to ask. The poem's open-ended structure, lack of resolution, and deeply emotional rhetoric mirror the uncertainty and emotional turmoil that accompany the act of remembering those who are no longer physically present, yet forever etched in memory.

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