let be the moon
let be the moon
by Luke Hoffman
let be the moon said the yew
sad
wed with a nod
its toe stretching its gnarled grasp
for freedom
and loe the son reaches too
7 thoughts on “let be the moon”
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A puzzle. As I see it, the yew tree branches are letting go of the moon as it rises. And seemingly it wants to liberate itself from its roots, but “sad” that it can’t. The last line suggests the poem may be built on puns: “son” for sun, “yew” for you, “loe” for lo–as in look there!–or possibly low. Putting these together, it could mean all of us, every generation, every day yearn for freedom–to disentangle ourselves from our ancestry, habitat, or category; whatever confines us.
this is someone receiving one of my fav. poems, &reconstructing its signature content (that was pretty much so consistent thru-out plath’s career as a poet &journalist) into what meaning it gave them.
http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/yew.html
angelfire still exists!
i recant. it’s still a homage-&a good poem- but it’s about plath’s death and her son ‘following her footsteps’. the puzzle of it might purposefully speak in the same corrosive bewildering ariel voice, particularly ‘purdah’ (maybe bc i just read that like a few hours ago)- another mother effin’ sweet poem. okie dokie, i’m done playing solve the poem for now- it’s just that i’m pretty sure i was onto something.
cerebella, which poem is it?
the sylvia plath poem i at first said this is an homage to or like…? that one is the moon &the yew tree, and i put the hyperlink up in my first comment.
i also take back my use of words corrosive &bewildering in describing ariel. not that i disagree with myself on the former one; i just feel enigmatical &determined are more appropriate. what can i says? i’ve been a plath fangirl since high school just like all cool people.
Thanks. In the Plath poem, The Moon and the Yew Tree, the moon “is bald and wild” and “sees nothing” of what is going on in the church, which is cold and austere. While “the message of the yew tree is blackness–blackness and silence.” So in reference to the Hoffman poem, it would seem that the yew tree’s letting the “moon be” would be a surrender to its “blackness and silence;” whereas it and “the son” are both reaching “for freedom.” Seems inconsistent, but maybe in the Hoffman poem, the yew’s releasing the moon (letting it be) is a move to liberate them both–from the disparity (despair?) of the Plath poem.
too many confounding variables there