Section 4 Exercise 8 Loss of a childMeehan
Clinical correlate 8: Spontaneous abortion/stillbirth
Clinical correlate 9: Causes of death in children
Recommended reading: TC Boyle’s Chixculub: in an eerie life imitates art scenario, a situation similar to the one depicted in this story made national news two years after Boyle published his story : Link
Read the poem. You can access a brief bio and a selection of other Meehan poems by linking to the following web page: Link
Discussion questions are below.
Paula Meehan Child Burial
Your coffin looked unreal,
fancy as a wedding cake.
I chose your grave clothes with care,
your favorite stripey shirt,
your blue cotton trousers.
They smelt of woodsmoke, of October,
your own smell was there too.
I chose a gansy of handspun wool
warm and fleecy for you. It is
so cold down in the dark.
No light can reach you and teach you
the paths of wild birds,
the names of the flowers
the fishes, the creatures.
Ignorant you must remain
of the sun and its work,
my lamb, my calf, my eaglet,
my cub, my kid, my nestling,
my suckling, my colt. I would spin
time back, take you again
within my womb, your amniotic lair,
and further spin you back
through nine waxing months
to the split seeding moment
you chose to be made flesh,
word within me.
I’d cancel the love feast
The hot night of your making.
I would travel alone
to a quiet mossy place,
You would spill from me into the earth
drop by bright red drop.
Study questions
1. Assume that you were the physician of the deceased child and had done everything medically possible to save its life. You happen to see the mother in the hospital a few weeks afterwards and you offer to sit with her and talk about how she is doing. Based on this poem, make a statement to show that you understand what the patient is going through. You say, “You must feel that…” (finish the statement)
2. What is the relationship between the first two lines of the poem “Your coffin looked unreal” and “fancy as a wedding cake”?
3. “No light can reach you and teach you the paths of wild birds, the names of the flowers, the fishes, the creatures.” Explain the meaning of these lines. Why does the poet link the Biblical allusion to Genesis, the natural world and the mother teaching her child?
4. What role does the poet’s story of conception and pregnancy play in this poem? Think of the enhanced meaning of the title in relation to the poet’s thought of traveling to a mossy place and spilling her blood. Note the relationship between the gansy of wool with which the child will be buried and the verb ‘spin’ used in the poem.
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