Cardigan Relationship ended (cold)

Cardigan Decline in mental state (Cold) (blue)

Cardigan Emptiness/Loss (Cold), (blue

A broad range of brain diseases can cause dementia. It is a progressive, often long-term decline in thinking and memory that can be severe enough to impact daily life. The person with dementia is not the only one affected. It also impacts their family members. Many people find it difficult to cope with the loss and grief of a loved one. We often look for something meaningful in grief, such as an acritic of clothing or repeating someone’s actions. It is difficult to see someone we love lose their ability to remember you and your past.

Anne Carson’s poem, “Father’s Old Blue Cardigan”, contains heartbreaking observations about her father’s mental decline. The cardigan is used symbolically by Carson throughout the poem. The cardigan symbolizes her lost relationship, her father’s mental decline, and the feeling emptiness, loss, which Carson is trying to understand. Because she is still trying to understand the death of her father, this poem is reflective and not contemplative. The poet looks at concrete objects in order to understand abstract problems, just as a child would. Instead of discussing her father’s personality, she focuses pragmatically upon the “stamping” of his “boots. Instead of her father’s memories, the “cardigan” covers her. To cope with her father’s declining faculties she focuses on his “haystacks”. The soft, echo-like thuds “stomping”, “sat”, and “stomping,” hint at the gradual recognition of an extreme shift that is still not fully appreciated.

The structure of the poem suggests that she is uncertain. The rhyme scheme is consistent in form, but not always followed. Sentence lengths are five words, “His laws were secret” to ten. However, these rambling lines indicate incomprehension on Anne’s behalf. Anne isn’t clear about anything except her living dad “He wouldn’t have done that.” This powerful technique illustrates her confusion. The poet compares the images of her deceased and living fathers. This may be to understand her loss. Her father seems rigid and stern at first. He “stamp(s),” her solid, functional “boots”, which may be possessed of a coldness similar to the snow he shakes off. This contrasts with “the child who has been dressed in some aunt’s clothes”, for whom the overwhelming nature of life “haystacks”, shocks him. The repeated “w”, sounds of “windy”,” “will”, or “while”, suggest a wobble on the lower lips and a quiver of realization. This analogy might give the poet a better understanding.

It seems that the poet is still trying to cope with the loss of her father’s cognitive and/or physical abilities.