Sign inventory Week 9

Mock Orange
By Louise Glück
It is not the moon, I tell you.
It is these flowers
lighting the yard.

I hate them.
I hate them as I hate sex,
the man’s mouth
sealing my mouth, the man’s
paralyzing body—

and the cry that always escapes,
the low, humiliating
premise of union—

In my mind tonight
I hear the question and pursuing answer
fused in one sound
that mounts and mounts and then
is split into the old selves,
the tired antagonisms. Do you see?
We were made fools of.
And the scent of mock orange
drifts through the window.

How can I rest?
How can I be content
when there is still
that odor in the world?


1. The poem details several conceived feminine objects in a negative perhaps critical manner, “the moon” is not, “The flowers” are too bright and hated, “the scent of mock orange” is repugnant
2. The poem details overt images of traditional sex as a negative act “I hate sex”, “Man’s mouth sealing my mouth”, “Man’s paralyzing body”
3. The poem details less overt images of traditional sex as negative perhaps to err on the side of interpretation as degrading , “cry always escapes”, Low humiliating”, “Mounts and mounts”, “Split old selves”, “Scent of Mock Orange”
4. The poem as one particular questions and answers is “Do you see?” “we were made fools of”
5. The poem’s speaker cannot rest “when there is that odor in the world” indicating two meanings that she cannot rest tonight, and perhaps that she cannot ever rest.
6. the poem is carefully constructed with spare language. Trying to take it apart I found very few articles that could be disposed of to look at signs. In fact one might argue that each lines is so carefully constructed as to contain a sign.
7. There are references in the flowers to particular colors and odors not directly stated. Do these flowers and the mock orange both refer to the same object or sign? What are these mock orange flowers? Or are they even orange or is that too much of an assumption? Are they wedding flowers? Are they flowers from this moment or a past moment? The mock orange also seems to reference a perceived smell of sex and the artificial nature of the whole thing. Is this a true biblical union or is there some fraud here? But how is this reference connected to the rest of the poem? How can this poem be read in terms of the senses in general?
8. Pomegranate is an orange fruit with red flowers perhaps the poem is referring to this fruit. Persephone was forced to eat pomegranate seeds; perhaps the poem is referencing the rape or abduction myth of the Greek Goddess to further this harsh idea about this particular sexual incident. This may be pushing too soon for interpretation, but how could this poem be read as a reference to Classic Greek mythology?

9. The idea of a "premise of union" is interesting indicating that there is no union only an established idea of a union, a premise is generally something that can be argued. So why does the speaker use this particular phrase? Can this union be argued? Does the speaker mean that all traditional unions may be argued or is she being specific to this particular union? Does she only mean that this union is arguable?
10. There are a number of ways to move into interpretation by using questions. Is this a conversation with the lover or husband of the speaker? Is this a statement to women as a whole at this particular time? When was the poem written and how might that effect the meaning? Two signs that stand out to me as particularly strong and of course raise more questions concerning potential meaning are what is the question that she hears and what is the answer? What are the old selves exactly? The old selves can be read on a number of different levels? Could we look at the entire poem from the perspective of the old selves? Could we examine the nature of selves before this sexual or wedded union perhaps? Who are the selves that were made fools of? Is it women the speaker refers to or she and her lover? Why do these selves become tired antagonisms? Were they always that way? Is all of this meant to be happening in the one moment or is this statement on many more split old selves, perhaps a generation of split old selves? And what about just the sign split? Is the split the speaker refers to and indication of her own physical split or a sort of divorcing between her and her lover, or is it both? Is this an indication of a union broken before it began or is there more here? This poem offer up many signs and lots of questions to be so precisely worded