“Love Song: I and Thou.” Alan Dugan. How to Deconstruct Dugan’s Extended Metaphor.

I have included Love Song as a post because it is a terrific example of an extended metaphor.

***

The first line introduces the construction metaphor/theme. We do not know yet what the subject of the poem is, only that it is askew: Nothing is plumb, level, or square. The second line clarifies that the subject is a house, but the vertical beams of the walls (studs) are warped (bowed), and the horizontal floor and ceiling beams (joists) are not secure (shaky), so the house is not fit for occupation, especially of another person. Although the second half of the metaphor has not yet been identified, we can surmise from the title that it is a -life-relationship (I and Thou). Unfortunately the house metaphor indicates that it is a shaky relationship, both in foundation (joists) and in its basic construct (studs), and therefore is not yet ready for the lovers to inhabit together (no piece fits /any other piece). The construction/relationship is further undermined by the faulty (bent ) nails/compromises(?) that do not provide the stability they are intended for, a situation brought to life by the wonderful visual imagery of the dancing magots simile. Bent also means “corrupt” in British English, so the speaker may be implying some active fault on the part of the lovers.

The speaker strongly asserts that he is no carpenter (By Christ, with maybe too obvious an allusion), but he has worked hard to construct everything-the roof (protection), the walls (stability), and the floors (foundation), elements of a life, the repetition of myself emphasizing the effort he put into the house (his life), but he also made mistakes that complicated his life (got/ hung up in it myself). So some of the failures were self-inflicted-. I/danced with a purple thumb/at this house-warming. Prone to rage (my prime whiskey), he was ill-quipped for the finesse needed to successfully build a house/life, perhaps best evidenced in the many bent nails, products of heavy-handed hammering. He spat rage’s nails in an attempt to build through sheer force of will, and it seemed to work– house/life settled plumb, level, square and true, his goal from the beginning.

For one great moment…

Ending the line with Then, “enjambed”¹, creates an abrupt pause with anticipation of what follows, which, brilliantly is the screeching, onomatopoetic² screamed. The house itself, thwarting the speaker, now has a life of its own (personification), as the balance collapses (skewing as wrong the other way). Swearing again in his rage (God damned it), he concludes, This is hell.

But….

It is his hell, self-inflicted, not imposed by someone else.  I planned it. I sawed it, /I nailed it, and, as such, he will live in it, regardless, until it kills me.

At this point there is an abrupt and complete change in tone. plaintive and elegaic, a cry from the heart. The shift includes a new metaphor, referencing back to By Christ and God damned it. Finally able to admit that he realizes he cannot successfully build a home/life alone, he willingly martyrs his pride, and, ever the carpenter, nails his left palm/ to the left-hand crosspiece, which, though, leaves him with only one hand to hammer with, but/I can’t do everything myself. The poem ends no longer with rage a beautiful and moving acknowledgement of needing another in our house/life:    I need a hand to nail the right,/a help, a love, a you, a wife.

***

1. of a line, couplet, or stanza of verse) ending partway through a sentence or clause that continues in the next. ↩︎
2. a literary device where words imitate the natural sounds they describe ↩︎

***

Subscribing only means that you will receive a notice when I publish a new post.

***

***