Myth

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2007

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Themes

Grief

In “Myth,” Trethewey does not shy away from the relentlessness of her grief, using the cyclical format of the palindrome to emphasize it. The poem tries to capture the emotional aftermath of the violent death of her mother and particularly engages in the surrealism of the unexpected removal of a key person in one’s life. Expecting the dead loved one to be there when one wakes up, or to stand there when one turns around, is a common experience, as is the discovery of renewed loss as the truth sinks in. The visitation of the living mother in “dreams” (Lines 6, 13)—only to repeatedly not be able to take the loved one “back into morning” (Line 7)—is both comforting and cruel. On the one hand the mother “live[s]” (Lines 6, 13), but only in the ephemeral landscape of fantasy. There is “again and again, [a] constant forsaking” (Lines 9, 10), that stinging realization that the dead “do not follow” (Lines 8, 11). They cannot return. This realization, if the death is sudden or violent, may be exacerbated by self-blame. The mourner may question why someone was taken from them, and if they could have done anything to prevent it. This is emphasized by the line that frames the poem, “I was asleep while you were dying” (Lines 1, 18). Although logic might suggest there was nothing to be done, this does not negate the desire for prevention or regret. All of these things repeat in the grieving mind just as Trethewey has them repeat in the poem itself.

Retelling Orpheus and Eurydice

In her 2021 interview with Dziamka, Trethewey notes that she uses “Orpheus and Eurydice” to discuss her grief after dreaming about her deceased mother (See: Further Readings & Resources). While the poem is personal, it also fits in with the plot of the Greek myth. Orpheus, the son of Apollo, is a gifted musician of the lyre. “Myth” is deliberately songlike, employing enclosed tercets which rhyme throughout. In the myth, Orpheus falls deeply in love with the beautiful nymph Eurydice, and the two marry. In most versions, Eurydice is chased into the woods by a man named Aristaeus, who is intent on keeping her for himself. This may mirror the way Grimmette stalked Trethewey’s mother. Eurydice is saved by Orpheus, but, in their flight, she suddenly steps on a venomous snake, slips from Orpheus’s grip, and dies. In the poem, the speaker is shown feeling “as if [the loved one] slipped through some rift” (Lines 2, 17). Beside himself with grief, Orpheus travels into the Underworld to retrieve Eurydice. The locale of the Underworld is described by Trethewey’s speaker as “a hollow [. . .] the Erebus I keep you in” (Lines 2-4). “Erebus” (Lines 4, 15) is the region of the Underworld where the deceased go before their final journey. Convinced by Orpheus’s heartbreaking song, Hades and Persephone, who rule the region, allow him to take Eurydice back to Earth’s surface. There is only one prohibition: Orpheus cannot look at his wife until they are both bathed in sunlight. This is conveyed in the poem with the lines, “So I try taking // you back into morning” (Lines 6-7). Unfortunately, the speaker looks back too soon, and like Eurydice, the loved one is gone forever, “turning, / my eyes open, I find you do not follow” (Lines 7-8). In the second half of the poem, Orpheus replays this moment, noting that Eurydice “back[s] into morning, sleep-heavy, turning” (Line 12) to descend. He can only see her again in “dreams” (Lines 6, 13). This would eventually lead to Orpheus’s continual mourning, a fact enhanced by Trethewey using the palindrome form.

Writing as a Method of Control

Trethewey mentions to Dziamka that her way “to control the [chaotic] world I was living in was to organize things, which is the kind of poet I am. I am interested in a kind of order and symmetry” (See: Further Readings & Resources). One way to control things in a literary sense is to use the blueprint of a known story, something with a familiar beginning, middle, and end. Pushed into this order, the chaotic event is given form and substance. In “Myth,” the trauma of not being able to save her mother from murder is housed in the myth of “Orpheus and Eurydice.” The “myth” of her reaction to her mother’s murder is another story that can be understood and catalogued. In another way, it makes her mother into a mythic figure, an Eurydice who serves as her life story’s tragic victim. It also lends itself to what Trethewey says is part of her essential story. Another way to make order, particularly in poetic form, is to use a form. The tercets with their rhyming ABA scheme have an ordered progression, as does a palindrome as it necessitates the repetition of lines. However, trauma—particularly the sudden one that made up Trethewey’s mother’s murder—also is, as Trethewey puts it in Memorial Drive, a “refrain.” It comes back again and again. The poem’s various repetitions show that this loss is a wound that never heals, a story that comes to no conclusion, undercutting the very order it also emphasizes.