Hope and Denial

Throughout the poem, the speaker acknowledges the futility of their situation. Beginning with the opening lines, they state: “I shall never get you put together entirely” (Line 1). In the second stanza, the speaker mocks the statue’s wisdom, saying “Thirty years now I have labored / To dredge the silt from your throat. / I am none the wiser” (Lines 8-10). However, these protestations are in direct conflict with the speaker’s actions. Although they know they won’t ever reassemble the statue as a whole, they continue to work towards their objective with “glue pots and pails of lysol” (Line 11). The statue hasn’t offered up anything of meaning, yet the speaker continues to work at clearing the tunnel of communication between them even after thirty years. What this suggests is that the speaker’s internality, either on a conscious or subconscious level, is at...