Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.quux.org!news.nk.ca!rocksolid2!i2pn2.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: will.dockery@gmail.com (W.Dockery)
Newsgroups: alt.arts.poetry.comments,rec.arts.poems
Subject: Re: My Father's House / George J. Dance
Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2025 17:46:11 +0000
Organization: novaBBS
Message-ID: <e5bd7a44c6de7efe4a3aa6c101d964d5@www.novabbs.com>
References: <tltu41$1f00k$2@dont-email.me> <9538ffb0-9f90-4778-9085-d9a1b613e6d9n@googlegroups.com> <d5a195408ca588d5bcc747526abf7814@www.novabbs.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Info: i2pn2.org;
	logging-data="2680883"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@i2pn2.org";
	posting-account="Vf9CM7g99yqfGvzEHTw0bhrjcIfvzYBBhUuRma0rLuQ";
User-Agent: Rocksolid Light
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 4.0.0
X-Rslight-Site: $2y$10$hg/fLp6LJLel1BZRzglC0uZNGf/xBM9Orv7QFMALXe3o5nHYPFP/i
X-Rslight-Posting-User: acd0b3e3614eaa6f47211734e4cbca3bfd42bebc

George J. Dance wrote:

> Spam-I-Am wrote:
>
>> On Saturday, November 26, 2022 at 3:49:07 PM UTC-5, george...@yahoo.ca
>> wrote:
>
>>> My Father's House
>>>
>>> This is my father's house, although
>>> The man died thirteen years ago.
>>> They said it would be quite all right
>>> To take a drive to see it now.
>>>
>>> Dad laid those grey foundation blocks
>>> And built the whole thing (from a box),
>>> Toiling after each full day's work.
>>> I helped, though I was only six.
>>>
>>> Look, here's the back door I would use
>>> And here's where I'd remove my shoes
>>> To enter; there I'd leave my things
>>> And, when allowed, climb up these stairs.
>>>
>>> In this room I'd wash many a dish,
>>> Gaze out this window, and I'd wish
>>> To be so many other places.
>>> (Wishy-washy? Oh, I guess!)
>>>
>>> Outside, the garden that he grew
>>> Where I would work the summers through,
>>> While watching my friends run and play
>>> Mysterious games I never knew.
>>>
>>> That room's all changed; oh, where is it,
>>> The one chair I was let to sit?
>>> (For boys can be such filthy things.)
>>> Which, the corner where boys were put?
>>>
>>> Oh ... down that hall there is a room
>>> Where I'd be shut (as in a tomb)
>>> After the meal, to make no noise,
>>> To read or play alone, and then
>>>
>>> Lights out: in bed by nine each night,
>>> Some nights wanting to pee with fright,
>>> Face and pyjama bottoms down
>>> As for my father's belt I'd wait.
>>>
>>> Oh, if I were a millionaire
>>> I'd buy my father's house, and there
>>> I'd build a bonfire, oh so high
>>> Its flames would light up all the air.
>>>
>>> ~~
>>> George J. Dance
>>> from Logos and other logoi, 2021
>>
>> Okay, so the poem tells a story of remembered abuse.
>> The extent to which the story in the poem reflects the
>> true story of your life and memory is fundamentally
>> irrelevant to the reader except to the extent that your
>> life experience informs your ability to write emotionally
>> convincing stories that are of interest to other people.
>
> I've said it before, several times, but it doesn't hurt to repeat it:
> The story in the poem -- a man revisits his family home, years after his
> father has died, walks around it remembering so-called "abuse", and
> finally wishes he could burn it down -- is completely fictional. It
> never happened. It was a work of the creative imagination. (Some of the
> events the speaker remembers are from my own background, but that's a
> different story.)
>
>> When you say “My” father’s house, “By” George J. Dance,
>> people are going to think you’re talking about yourself.
>
> Corey was trying to be nice and constructive, so I didn't mention it to
> him, but: arguably the most famous dramatic monologue (the type of poem
> this is) is one by Robert Browning called "My Last Duchess." I've read
> discussion of it both on and off aapc, but I have never encountered
> anyone who thought that Browning was ever married to a Duchess.

Well put, George.