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Jane Kenyon:The SuitorBy Will Purtill

+Jane Kenyon

Born in Ann Arbor Michigan

Attended University of Michigan Masters degree 1972 Won Hopwood award Won PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry in 1994

Met Husband at University of Michigan Donald Hall

His Poems talked about her

After Marriage moved to Farm in New Hampshire

Battled Depression most of her life

+Jane Kenyon

Wrote about fighting depression

Poems have rural images

“Let Evening Come” was featured in the film “In her Shoes”

Died from leukemia

+The Suitor

We lie back to back. Curtains

lift and fall,

like the chest of someone sleeping.

Wind moves the leaves of the box elder;

they show their light undersides,

turning all at once

like a school of fish.

Suddenly I understand that I am happy.

For months this feeling

has been coming closer, stopping

for short visits, like a timid suitor.

+Theme

Happiness is fleeting

“Suddenly I understand that I am happy.

For months this feeling

has been coming closer, stopping

for short visits, like a timid suitor.”

Happiness often comes and goes

Jane Kenyon says she understands suddenly that she is happy when we often don’t recognize our own happiness

“For months…” implies that happiness does not stay for long, once it does come

+Figurative Language

“We lie back to back. Curtains

lift and fall,

like the chest of someone sleeping.”

suggests a rhythmic pattern Gives the reader a visual of the curtains

Gives feeling of the draft Ties in with the theme

“Like a school of fish” the leaves on the tree move in unison

“Like a timid suitor” compares happiness to a timid suitor suggesting that it comes and goes Comes for short visits then it leaves

+Tone

Switches from lonely to happy

“we lie back to back” suggests that there is a distance between the two suggests she is happy that someone is there

“Suddenly I understand that I am happy.” creates a hopeful tone Realizes that she has the happiness she has been chasing

months

+Imagery

Curtains rise and fall gives the reader a picture and the wind creates a drafty feeling

The leaves on the tree turning in the wind Creates a picture in the readers’ mind of the outside of the

window or her life

“Wind moves the leaves of the box elder;

they show their light undersides.” Showing their light undersides portrays the author’s

vulnerability; the light undersides are the parts of a human that we don’t often see

+The Poet and Her Poems

Jane Kenyon uses life experience in her works

Battled depression whole life Lived a secluded lifestyle

Connecting her past to her works makes her an authentic author, relatable, and vulnerable

+Otherwise

I got out of bedon two strong legs.It might have beenotherwise. I atecereal, sweetmilk, ripe, flawlesspeach. It mighthave been otherwise.I took the dog uphillto the birch wood.All morning I didthe work I love.At noon I lay downwith my mate. It mighthave been otherwise.We ate dinner togetherat a table with silvercandlesticks. It mighthave been otherwise.I slept in a bedin a room with paintingson the walls, andplanned another dayjust like this day.But one day, I know,it will be otherwise.

+Work Cited

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jane-kenyon

Images courtesy of Google

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Kenyon