SOURCE: "The Dreamer and the Watcher," in Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry, The Ecco Press, 1994, pp. 99-106.

In this essay, originally published in 1985, Glück elucidates the process through which a poem takes shape out of her ordinary experience. She also discusses particular tasks she has set herself concerning matters of form, structure, rhythm, and syntax.

I have to say at once that I am uneasy with commentary. My insights on what I perceive to be the themes of this poem are already expressed: the poem embodies them. I can't add anything; what I can do is make the implicit explicit, which exactly reverses the poet's ambition. Perhaps the best alternative is to begin in circumstance.

In April of 1980, my house was destroyed by fire. A burned house: a reprimand to the collector. Gradually certain benefits became apparent. I felt grateful; the vivid sense of escape conferred on...