18 pages • 36 minutes read
Naomi Shihab NyeBurning the Old Year
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Temporary and the Permanent
Throughout “Burning the Old Year,” Nye discusses both the temporary and permanent qualities of daily life that carry across the calendar year. She describes the materials being burned as “flammable” (Line 6), or easily destroyed by fire. She also likens these articles to “moth wings” (Line 4), which are delicate and easily torn and damaged. Physically, she describes these items as letters, notes, lists of vegetables, and partial poems. However, all of these objects have abstract meaning tied to personal memory. Letters and notes from friends correspond to the conversations people have within their relationships. It’s interesting that the speaker burns these objects, because is belies an intentional destruction of memories associated with these relationships. Often, people hold onto letters and notes from loved ones as tokens of love and friendship. Yet here the speaker is intentionally turning these to ash. This can be interpreted that these correspondences were inconsequential, that they symbolize transient relationships, or that the speaker is undergoing a personal transformation during which she needs to be rid of such reminders.
Nye also notes that she burns lists of vegetables and partial poems, representing the destruction of communication with herself. Lists are written to keep people on track, or to remind them of various things. Partial poems are written during a burst of creative inspiration—regardless of the emotion behind the action. The destruction of these can be construed as a conscious effort to erase what is no longer meaningful or necessary for the future. Nye may also mention destroying lists and partial poems because they are simply items taking up space on her desk or counter—she is physically ridding herself of clutter as much as she is emotionally doing so. This is indicative of the New Year’s resolutions people often set at the turn of the calendar year.
The destruction of all the above articles conveys the concept that so much of people’s day to day lives is inconsequential and not worth remembering in the future. “Burning the Old Year” centers on the concept that human life is filled with the easily forgotten and the temporary. At the end of the second stanza, Nye writes, “so little is a stone” (Line 9); this conveys how few items or ideas in life have any lasting permanence.
In the end, both the stones and “the things [she] didn’t do” (Line 14), the regrets, are carried forward. Thus, the reader can view the poem as a lesson about taking chances in life so they do not carry regret into the future. Instead, they can (hopefully) carry more stones.
The Space of Absence
In “Burning the Old Year,” the space of absence is discussed in the third stanza. Nye writes “Where there was something and suddenly isn’t, / an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space” (Line 10-11), describing how even empty spaces contain a presence for the speaker. The personified space appears to shout and celebrate, conveying that the bareness is positive and the absence is glad to be rid of what was once there. These lines seem positive for the speaker: She is destroying what is not needed or necessary, so she has room in these now empty spaces to add memories in the future.
The final lines of the poem read “only the things I didn’t do / crackle after the blazing dies” (Lines 14-15). The spaces the speaker left unoccupied from missed opportunities throughout the year hold a weight and a feeling of regret. These empty spaces have nothing in them to be burned, so the speaker can only feel the absence of what may have filled such spaces. Thus, Nye connects both positive and negative correlations to the weight of absence, and its role in life. “Burning the Old Year” invites the reader to reinterpret the space absence holds, and understand how the weight of it can be pressing. However, Nye and her audience are able to make choices to determine the outcome of what their absent spaces evoke emotionally.
The Passage of Time
The theme of the time passing recurs throughout “Burning the Old Year.” The very title of the poem relates to the passage of time, explaining how the speaker is “burning” her “old year,” to make way for the new.
In the second stanza Nye writes, “So much of any year is flammable” (Line 6), which abstractly describes how much of people’s time in their day to day lives is spent in meaningless activity. She continues the metaphor further into the stanza: “Orange swirling flame of days” (Line 8). By likening days to flames, Nye illustrates how days burn bright before going out, as flames cannot last forever. This line supports the interpretation that the speaker believes time passing correlates with the loss of memories of the past.
The passage of time in the poem is ambiguous; in different stanzas, the absence makes the speaker feel varying emotions. The third stanza of the poem begins with, “Where there was something and suddenly isn’t / an absence, shouts, celebrates” (Lines 10-11). The personified space is festive about its emptiness, indicating that parting with memories is bittersweet, but offers space to fill with new, better memories to come. The third stanza ends with, “I begin again with the smallest numbers” (Line 12); this conveys how the passing of time means the speaker begins each new year with only a few memories from the past. The reader can interpret the passage of time as connected with both what is lost and what the speaker stands to gain as she moves forward through her life.
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By Naomi Shihab Nye
