Disposal
by W.d. Snodgrass
The unworn long gown, meant for dances
She would have scarcely dared attend,
Is fobbed off on a friend—
Who can’t help wondering if it’s spoiled
But thinks, well, she can take her chances.
We roll her spoons up like old plans
Or failed securities, seal their case,
Then lay them back. One lace
Nightthing lies in the chest, unsoiled
By wear, untouched by human hands.
We don’t dare burn those cancelled patterns
And markdowns that she actually wore,
Yet who do we know so poor
They’d take them? Spared all need, all passion,
Saved from loss, she lies boxed in satins
Like a pair of party shoes
That seemed to never find a taker;
We send back to its maker
A life somehow gone out of fashion
But still too good to use.
Little Pearl D. Deiwiler, on whose grave I left W.D. Snodgrass’ poem, died at age seven, much too young to have acquired the worldly goods listed in the poem—the dance gowns, spoons, dress patterns, lace underwear, clothes bought on sale. My bad, I didn’t do the math. I was too taken with the name “Pearl,” such an old-fashioned name and a good match for these lines:
a life somehow gone out of fashion
but still too good to wear.
Poor little Pearl, so young. Poor Pearl’s parents. Like the communal speaker in this poem, they were left with only the worldly goods of the deceased and the painful question of how to dispose of those things that hold memories but not purpose. The unsentimental would toss, but me, I still have doilies from my mother’s linen chest that probably came from her mother or mother-in-law, never used by her, maybe never used by them. I will pass them to my daughters who presumably will have just as much trouble getting rid of items that have outlived their usefulness.
The poem makes me wonder what story my possessions will tell about me when I’m dead. Hopefully not as sad a story as “Disposal.”
William DeWitt Snodgrass (1926-2009) was born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. His father was an accountant, his mother a homemaker with a domineering personality who Snodgrass later blamed, rightly or wrongly, for the death of his sister from an asthma attack.
He began his studies at Geneva College but left to enlist in the Navy at the end of World War II. When he got out he went to University of Iowa where he earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and master of fine arts degrees.
He earned the Pulitzer Prize in 1959 for his first collection of poetry, Heart’s Needle. The collection was about losing contact with his daughter because of his divorce, and includes these lines, moving in their simplicity:
Winter again and it is snowing;
Although you are still three,
You are already growing
Strange to me.
Snodgrass taught at several universities, including Wayne State, Syracuse and University of Delaware, seemed to struggle to make a living, and saw his reputation as a poet rise and fall. Married four times, he had two children with two different wives. He died of lung cancer when he was 83.
For a longer and more insightful biographical sketch, link here for his obituary in the Independent. Brits always write the best obits.