I Could Not See Pleasure

        I.            Literal level analysis

A.      The poem

I Could Not See Pleasure

By Maria Porges

I could not see pleasure

But only dark sorrow

In living alone

From today to tomorrow

To wind wool alone

Share laughter with walls,

Is hard to accomplish

From winter to fall

And to fry one chop

Bake one potato

Lock two doors

Slice one tomato

Turn out the light

Sleep cold-alone

And wake cheerless in silence

With only the moan

Of wind to keep you---

I would not live.

I fade in quiet,

In darkness, in dryness,

in unnourished earth

without kisses and kindness---

I could not see pleasure

But only dark sorrow

In living alone

From today to tomorrow

B.      Theme

The theme of the poem is “solitary”. The writer asks the reader to feel her sadness of being alone. She is all alone in the world without friends to talk. Only the emptiness is her friend

C.      Main idea

This poem talks about the sadness of being alone. The writer realizes how hard life without friends to share, moreover the loneliness happens for a long time. It seems the loneliness will remain until tomorrow. She can not see the joy outside as her life is empty.

D.      Poem interpretation

The poem is uncomplicated as the writer states clearly the feel she wants to share. Here, the poet is gloomy. It states in the first and second lines of the first stanza. Also, she feels hopeless as she said from today to tomorrow. The loneliness makes her desperate.

E.       Tone

The tone of the poem is solitary and it is soo clear as the writer states from the first to the final stanza. The last stanza, which is repetition of the first, makes the tone of the poem more clearly. The poet invites the reader to feel her sorrow of being alone in this world.

F.       Biography of Maria Porges

Biography & Links

G. 

	Maria Porges Biography

H. 

1954

Born in Oakland, California

I. 

J. 

1975

BA, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

K. 

L. 

1979

MFA, University of Chicago

M. 

N. 

Also attended Grinnell College and the San Francisco Art Institute

O. 

P. 

	Selected Exhibitions

Q. 

2003

Bombast Return to Dr. Strangelove, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco CA (solo)

R. 

S. 

2002

Bedtime Stories, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago IL (solo) Plotting: Artist's Studies, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago, IL Wunderkammer Redux, Palo Alto Art Centerm, Palo Alto, CA

T. 

U. 

2001

“Tall tales & short stories”, Sculpture & Monoprints, James Harris Gallery, Seattle, WA (solo) Objects Considered, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA Witcherina Pixerina, University Art Gallery, Illinois State U., Bloomington IL (catalogue) Amused, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago IL (catalogue)

V. 

W. 

2000

Acts of Deception, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco (solo) Miraculous Vessels, David Beitzel Gallery, New York (solo) The Great Novel Exhibition, Palo Alto Art Center, Palo Alto CA Bluer, Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago IL (catalogue) The Ray Graham Collection, Albuquerque Museum of Art, Albuquerque NM (catalogue) American Art Today: Fantasies and Curiosities, The Art Museum at Florida Int'l University, Miami FL (catalogue)

X. 

Y. 

1999

Hand Signals, Gallery A, Chicago (solo) (S)light of hand, Allene LaPides Gallery, Santa Fe, NM (solo) Art + Magic, James Harris Gallery, Seattle 1999 What is Art For?, Oakland Museum (Museum of California), Oakland Looking at Ourselves: Works by Women Artists from the Logan Collection, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Recent Acquisitions, Scottsdale Museum of Art, Scottsdale, AZ Still Life Infinitely Moving, Contemporary Art Center, Virginia Beach, VA (catalogue) Museum Pieces: Artists Look at the DeYoung, M.H.DeYoung Memorial Museum, San Francisco CA (catalogue)

Z. 

AA. 

1998

Lost Language, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans Four California Conceptualists, B & D Studio Contemporanea, Milan Art Around the Bay: Recent Acquisitions, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Wild Things: Artists’ Views of the Animal World, John Berggruen Gallery San Francisco House of Wax, The Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio Posters, DBL00 Gallery, Albuquerque NM

BB. 

CC. 

1997

History Lessons, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco Read Text and Visual, Gallery A, Chicago John Berggruen Gallery, Friesen Gallery Fine Art, Second Annual Collaboration, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho Office Art, University Art Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM Spring Fever, Crown Point Press Gallery, San Francisco CA

DD. 

EE. 

1996

Anodyne, Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans John Berggruen Gallery, Friesen Gallery Fine Art, A Collaboration, Friesen Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho Figuratively Speaking, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco The Robert Arneson Tribute Exhibition, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco Matters of the Heart, Haines Gallery, San Francisco Objects Transcended, Allegheny College, Meadville, Pennsylvania Glass Linking Art and Science, MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

FF. 

GG. 

1995

Twenty Questions: Museum of the Mind, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco XXV Years, John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco The Art of Light and Glass, Bedford Gallery, Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, California Sex Sells, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco

HH. 

II. 

      II.            Analyzing the poem (elements of poetry)

1.       Setting

The poet places her house or room as the setting in the poem. It is mentioned in the second line of the second stanza and in the third stanza.

2.       Diction

a.       Repetition

The writer uses the whole lines of the first stanza in the last stanza to emphasize her no ending tragedy. She does not tell exactly what makes him being alone but the effect of loneliness is expressed several times.

b.      Denotation

The poet makes her poem easy to understand for she gives the exact meaning of the words in her poem.

3.       Figures of speech

a.       Personification

In the second line of the second stanza

“Share laughter with walls”

The poet gave the wall the ability of human that is the ability to hear and feel the writer’s sorrow

In the third and fourth lines of the third stanza

“With only the moan

Of wind to keep you”

The poet personalize the wind for the wind does like human. It is moan and keep or guard human.

4.       Rhyme schemes and verse form

5.        

    III.