A Dark Thing Inside My Head

In my recent English class, we analyzed a lot of poetry. One of my favorites was Linda Gregg's A Dark Thing Inside The Day. It's about embracing joy when we have it, despite the fear we may hold in our hearts. The poem speaks of a gloriously beautiful day, over which a brief shadow passes.

This is almost exactly my original essay, please forgive me if it goes a little school-ish with the lingo. I didn't edit much because I couldn't stand if someone stumbled onto this page looking to find out about the onomatopoeia in this poem and I'd talked about everything but. That would be terrible. Onward.


A Dark Thing Inside The Day, by Linda Gregg

So many want to be lifted by song and dancing,
and this morning it is easy to understand.
I write in the sound of chirping birds hidden
in the almond trees, the almonds still green
and thriving in the foliage. Up the street,
a man is hammering to make a new house as doves
continue their cooing forever. Bees humming
and high above that a brilliant clear sky.
The roses are blooming and I smell the sweetness.
Everything desirable is here already in abundance.
And the sea. The dark thing is hardly visible
in the leaves, under the sheen. We sleep easily.
So I bring no sad stories to warn the heart.
All the flowers are adult this year. The good
world gives and the white doves praise all of it.


The first sentence sets the tone of the poem,

“So many want to be lifted by song and dancing,
and this morning it is easy to understand.“

People need beauty and enjoyment, and the speaker knows why. This sentence changed for me upon rereading, and I find I can interpret it two ways, much like the entire poem. I initially read these lines as a version of “People seek happiness because the world around us is so beautiful, it's inspirational,” but the more I read the poem, the more this sentence becomes ominous. Now, I'm seeing it more as, “People seek happiness because fear is ever-present despite the everyday beauty around us.” The rest of the poem is an elaboration on this first line, in either interpretation.

“I write in the sound of chirping birds hidden
in the almond trees, the almonds still green
and thriving in the foliage.”

On the surface, this sentence is an observation of the nature surrounding the speaker. “Chirping”, “green”, and “thriving” give the impression of vibrant life, but that the almonds are “still green and thriving” makes me wonder if they will be for long. This is foreshadowing the darkness that comes later in the poem, and also perhaps the inevitability of winter. Those almonds will wither and fall, and before that, the birds might eat them all. Even while we enjoy our prosperity, we never forget our demise is inescapable.

“Up the street,
a man is hammering to make a new house as doves
continue their cooing forever.”

On the surface, sounds of distant hammering and the cooing of doves are comforting sounds of everyday life. The man is creating a home, being productive, but nothing is said of what happened to his old house. His need for a new home implies that there may have been a disaster, or maybe he's just trying to make something new for himself. Either way, the man is symbolic of rebuilding, moving forward. Doves are symbolic of peace historically, but also, doves and pigeons are all over the planet, much like people. As the doves coo forever, humanity will endure, whatever comes.

“Bees humming
and high above that a brilliant clear sky.
The roses are blooming and I smell the sweetness.
Everything desirable is here already in abundance.”

The humming of the bees and the smell of the roses add a layer of imagery to the poem; engaging all of our senses, we are there with the speaker on that gorgeous day. The line “Everything desirable is here already in abundance.” is a bit stilted, however, after the flowery descriptions of the birds, bees, flowers, and trees. Perhaps it's the word “already” that throws the eye and ear, but it's almost a clinical assessment of the blessings of the day, or an automatic reminder to the self to be grateful for what is in front of us. “Already” changes the meaning of the sentence just slightly, it assures us that nothing is missing from the scene, and that we need not look further for happiness, it's all here. It feels like the speaker is reassuring the reader, or herself.

“And the sea. The dark thing is hardly visible
in the leaves, under the sheen. We sleep easily.”

The tone of the poem shifts briefly with these two lines, it changes from largely appreciative and happy, at least on the surface, to suddenly overtly menacing. The sea represents something frightening to the speaker, perhaps it's literal -there was a tsunami, or someone drowned- but it's more likely the sea is symbolic of something bigger: death, illness, pain, or fear. It's interesting that it's “hardly visible in the leaves”, since the leaves held chirping birds and just ripening almonds a few sentences ago. The speaker is seeing darkness where there was life and potential; her perspective has changed, a shadow has fallen across her mind. Thus, “we sleep easily,” shouldn't necessarily be taken as a simple statement of how well the speaker is slumbering. When we look at it with that darker cast, it becomes death, how fragile our lives are.

“So I bring no sad stories to warn the heart.
All the flowers are adult this year. The good
world gives and the white doves praise all of it."

Instead of wallowing in the dark moment, the speaker has no complaints, no sad stories. The flowers have grown to fruition, nothing bad has happened as of late. So, we must be appreciative of the gifts we have in this world and be like the dove, just keep living and cooing.

I found the sounds of this poem to be subtle but their usage adds to the beauty of the scene. Alliteration is used as in the S's of “smell the sweetness” and “sad stories”, the A's and M's of “a man is hammering to make”, and the G's of “the good world gives”. Assonance is even more common, as in the I's of “chirping birds hidden”, A's of “already in abundance” and “all are adult”, and the repeated E sound of “in the leaves, under the sheen. We sleep easily”.

There are rare uses of onomatopoeia in this poem. In “bees humming” the Z and M sounds recreate buzzing and the repeated IR sound of “chirping birds” is reminiscent of bird calls.

The tone of the poem is hopeful, but with an underlying threat. Nothing is ever as perfect as it seems, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't embrace what we have while we have it.


Addendum: Going over this essay again, it strikes me how much the dark thing inside my days is almost always migraine. And just like she says, even on a perfect day, it's always there, just hidden in the leaves, under the sheen. I also believe firmly in bringing no sad stories to warn the heart, because while complaining about my disability and my pain definitely has its place in my coping process, it's a very, very small place. At least, I try to keep it light.

I like to imagine the woman in this poem. I see her struggling with pain, it could be illness, or fear, or depression. She's trying to immerse herself in moments of beauty but she can't ever fully escape whatever "dark thing" is haunting her.

Thanks Linda Gregg, I love this poem.