"The Day Lady Died" is a recounting of a day's events. The first thing I noticed was the very sparse punctuation and that the entire poem is one run-on sentence. I scrolled back up to the top and I read the title again. "The Day Lady Died." It then hit me that this poem does not mention whom "Lady" is (although I was later informed she is Billie Holiday). "It is 12:20 in New York a Friday/three days after Bastille day, yes/it is 1959 and I go get a shoeshine/because I will get off the 4:19 in Easthampton/at 7:15 and then go straight to dinner/and I don't know the people who will feed me (lines 1-6)." Where is the mourning of this lost "Lady" that the title implies? He cared enough to write a poem about her but where is she in it? When he finally learns of her death, he is overcome with a flashback of hearing "Lady" singing in a bathroom. That's all he mentions of her. He doesn't mention being stricken with sadness, only remembrance. That's just it: life goes on without her. Everyone mourns in their own way and he's deciding to honor her with a beautiful memory of her voice.
There is also never a period in the poem. Periods are used to mark the end of something and which in a sense, makes this poem never ending. He'll have to go on forever without "Lady" but she still exists in his memories and will forever exist in this poem.
I don;t know if I totally agree with you, I felt in all ways the poem was significant to Billie Holiday although he never mentions much of her the poem takes the reader on sort of a day of mundane events. But I feel that in the end there is a great connection to the moment of her passing. If you read Jeffery Panko's blog I feel he did an excellent job of the analogy. Especially the part of her taking his breathe away. It's like the day of 9-11, of the day Michael Jackson died everyone's day sort of connected when hearing the news. Everyone knows exactly what they did that day. In many ways I felt this poem was completely relevant to Billie Holiday
ReplyDeleteIn trying to crack this poem, reconsider what appears off-hand, simply a recounting of events and observations, as actually creating patterns of reference that substantiate, and build toward, the power of voice noted in the ending image..what accounts for the power of the singer's voice, its depth and richenss, such that the speaker and everyone else "stopped breathing" (playing, as well, of course, and just as powerfully, that that voice has now lsot breath...)? I.e., note, as some of the critics do, how the imagery indexes a global history of oppression that comes to bear on/has relevance to this particular African-American singer
ReplyDeleteErica, something that may alter part of your perspective of this poem for you a little is one of Billie Holidays nicknames. Which was "Lady Day", that's why she is referred to as Lady in the poem. To me this reference seems more personal than referring to her as Billie
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jeff Most know Billie Holiday as Billie Holiday it was her stage name and such but only fans and others referred to her as "Lady Day" the fact that he named the titled this signifies just how much of an influence she had on him and how much he admired her. I think that his way of discussing her in the poem is more than you think, he does mourn her I feel by showing his day. He goes about his day doing ordinary useless things while a great lady is dying and when he realizes this he stops and can no longer breathe it hits him so hard. His day was just to go about running errands and preparing for a dinner with "people he didn't even know" it seems as if he doesn't take it very seriously. It's just a silly thing to do necessary to filling his day. Whereas a jazz legend who influenced and affected millions died. I feel he explains his day as a comparison in perhaps a self deprecating way.
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