Dusting

“Dusting” is a character study. The quiet moment of the poem gives the speaker a chance to explore Beulah’s hidden depths. The poem follows Beulah on a typical day in her life: this is something she does “every day” (Line 1). Beulah’s thoughts and actions throughout the poem represent the regular rhythm of her life. On the outside, Beulah is an ordinary cleaning lady. She is “patient” (Line 3) in her routine. She works diligently, dusting wood until “scrolls / and crests gleam” (Lines 8-9). Underneath her quiet exterior, Beulah is a world unto herself. She is determined in her search for the carnival boy’s name, not stopping until she finds it at the very end of the poem.

She has complex, layered emotions. Beulah’s carnival memory is both nostalgic about the “silly boy” (Line 12) and alarming with the “rippling / wound” (Lines 15-16) of the fish. In her memories, Beulah is both independent and confined. She is the girl who kisses boys at the fair and goes to a dance, and she is the girl whom her father “gave […] up / with her name” (Lines 30-31). All this complication is obscured by Beulah’s surroundings. In the present moment, Beulah is in a sunshine-filled room, “no / shade in sight” (Lines 1-2), while on the inside, she lives in “the shadow” (Line 35).

Beulah feels trapped in the domestic setting of her current life. The room she is dusting is full of light, leaving her entirely exposed. She has no privacy except in her own mind. As Beulah dusts, she “chafes under the routine and monotony of poverty and marriage” (Dove, Rita. Thomas and Beulah, by Rita Dove. Video Press, 1988. 37:06). There is a clear delineation of before and after in her mind, and the dividing line is her wedding day. Before she was married, being with boys was fun. They could kiss and have fun at the fair, and she could still have her own life of going out to dances and coming home late. She lost this self-determination when she got married and became an object to be given away by her father: That is when her name “grew to mean / Promise” (Lines 32-33), and she was defined by her vow to someone else. Eventually, her name came to mean “Desert-in-Peace” (Line 34) and she was resigned to her fate.

The speaker in “Dusting” takes on Beulah’s point of view, and Beulah’s thoughts create the form of the poem. Her actions and her thoughts intermingle on the line. For example, the poem shifts from the solarium into Beulah’s memory mid-line: “darker still. What / was his name” (Lines 10-11). The two worlds flow into each other and occupy the poem at the same time. Small detours out of the world of memory back into the solarium show that Beulah can clean automatically while her mind goes elsewhere: “something finer. Each dust / stroke a deep breath” (Lines 18-19). At the end of the poem, she finally remembers the name of the boy at the fair. It stands out on its own as a single word on a line in its own stanza. The name is isolated on the page, surrounded by blank space that highlights its importance. Visually, it is a landing pad for Beulah’s mental search, far away from the dull outside world and more troubling memories that plague her.

The act of dusting is an extended metaphor for Beulah’s mental journey throughout the poem. At first, Maurice is a nameless figure. It is a dingy memory, and it does not seem to have any context. Beulah passes over the memory of him over and over throughout the poem, trying to remember more details (“And his kiss and / the clear bowl with one bright / fish” [Lines 12-14]). It is an old memory, so it takes multiple passes to become clear. Beulah must clear the metaphorical dust from surrounding memories too, such as the night the fish froze. Near the end of the poem, when she has almost reached the name, she can place the polished memory on her mental shelf, in its correct place among other memories. In the context of her life, Maurice fits solidly in the “before” (Lines 29, 31, 35) category. The context for the memory is clear: this was a moment when she felt happy and free, unlike now.

The tone of “Dusting” is at times nostalgic and pessimistic. The first line is bleak: “Every day a wilderness” (Line 1). This bleakness is somewhat diluted by the benign details in the rest of the first stanza: Beulah is situated “among knicknacks” (Line 3) in “a rage / of light” (Lines 4-5). The act of dusting revitalizes the wood in glorious detail. Beulah gives it new life and makes its features “gleam” (Line 9). The tone shifts into nostalgia in the second stanza. The “clear bowl” (Line 14) contains “one bright / fish, rippling” (Lines 14-15). “Wound!” (Line 16) with its exclamation point cries pain, but in the context of a kiss at the fair, it seems more melodramatic than serious. The nostalgic tone climaxes in stanza three with the miraculously revived fish, “free” (Line 28). Stanza four snaps out of the sweet memories into a survey of the sobering future. Beulah’s name’s meaning changes Iwo times into the quiet but barren “Desert-in-Peace” (Line 34). The tree that casts shadow is the “sun’s accomplice” (Line 36). Beulah’s life has conspired to bring her down to harsh reality. In this firmest moment of pessimism, Beulah holds onto her nostalgia with the boy’s true name.