Line 1

The first line of Glück's "The Mystery" foretells the poem's outcome. After taking the reader through the trying recollections of depression and loss, the speaker survives the dark side of her life to become "a creature of light." This line would work just as well as a last line, for it serves as the resolution to the speaker's—Glück's, actually— problem.

Lines 2-5

Glück acknowledges that she wrote all the poems collected in Vita Nova at a rapid pace, completing a draft of the entire manuscript in only three weeks. She has said that they were written in hotel rooms and elevators, on airplanes, and while she was visiting friends in California. Apparently, "The Mystery" was written in her friend's "driveway in California" where yellow roses bloom nearby. The first stanza is full of references to the bright color, which represents...