Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Eleanor Wilner's poem "Of a Sun She Can Remember" delves into the transformative experience of Helen Keller as she discovers language and meaning. The poem evokes a powerful sense of awakening and reconnection through vivid imagery and symbolic language, capturing Helen's journey from darkness to enlightenment.

The poem begins by situating Helen and her teacher, Annie Sullivan, in the woods—a space often symbolic of the unknown or the unconscious. This setting underscores the theme of discovery and transition. The phrase "the living tongue woke Helen’s hand" signifies the moment when Helen's world begins to expand through the tactile communication taught by Annie. This moment is depicted as a reawakening, a rebirth of sorts, as Helen transitions from a state of rage and dismemberment to one of reassembly and understanding.

Helen's initial state is described metaphorically as "the silent dark, like a bat without radar in the back of a cave." This imagery not only conveys her isolation and lack of direction but also hints at her potential for transformation. Bats, despite their blindness, navigate through the darkness with remarkable precision, suggesting that Helen too possesses an intrinsic ability to find her way out of her metaphorical cave.

The pivotal moment in the poem occurs when Helen picks up the broken doll she had dismembered in her frustration. Her "agile fingers moving with their fine intelligence over each part" symbolize her growing understanding and ability to piece together not only the doll but also the fragments of her own world. This act of re-membering the doll becomes a metaphor for Helen's own reconstruction of her reality through language and learning.

As Helen engages with her surroundings, she experiences a profound sensory revelation. Although she is still inside and it remains dark, she "remembered the missing sun with a slow wash of warmth on her shoulders, on her back." This sensation symbolizes the dawning of awareness and knowledge, likened to stepping out of a "dank shade into the sun’s sudden balm." The warmth spreading across her body represents the gradual and encompassing nature of enlightenment.

Wilner uses the imagery of water and light to further illustrate Helen's newfound understanding. Helen's realization of how "light on water looks" signifies her ability to grasp abstract concepts and sensory experiences despite her physical limitations. The act of putting her "outspread hands into the idea of it" and lifting "the lines of light, crosshatched like a web, out of the water" symbolizes her ability to capture and internalize the essence of these experiences. The "golden net of meaning" that she stretches in the light becomes a powerful metaphor for the intricate and interconnected nature of knowledge and perception.

"Of a Sun She Can Remember" celebrates the human capacity for growth, learning, and the reclamation of one's senses and understanding. Through Helen's journey, Wilner highlights the profound impact of language and education in transforming an individual's world. The poem's rich imagery and symbolic language poignantly convey the essence of Helen Keller's extraordinary journey from isolation to illumination, emphasizing the beauty and significance of discovering and embracing the light of knowledge.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...