Home After Three Months Away

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1959

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

The poem is in free verse, so it’s free to look how it wants. The liberty manifests in the poem’s unshaven shape. As the poem is free of meter, each line doesn’t require a specific number of iambs (unstressed and stressed syllables). Lowell clips some lines like Lines 4 and 14, while lines like Lines 5 and 30 jut out. The stanzas aren’t tidy either, as Stanza 1 contains nine lines, Stanza 2 expands to 18 lines, Stanza 3 then downsizes to 11 lines, and the final stanza becomes a couplet since it possesses just two lines.

Lowell complicates the form by introducing an elusive rhyme scheme. In Stanza 1, Lines 3 and 4 rhyme. In Stanza 2, many lines rhyme: Lines 13 and 14, Lines 19 and 20, Lines 22 and 23, Lines 24 and 25, and Lines 26 and 27. Stanza 3 features more perplexing rhymes, while Stanza 4, the couplet, doesn’t rhyme.

The intricate form reflects the state of Lowell. The free verse allows the speaker to follow his associations. He moves from a memory of the nurse to his present interaction with his child. Then he goes from a memory of the tulips to a final verdict on his current condition. The poem and form both flow in multiple directions. Conversely, the rhyme suggests synchronicity. Lowell’s mental health experiences didn’t come from anywhere. This isn’t the first time Lowell has left. The going and returning is part of a pre-established yet elusive pattern.

Symbolism

Symbolism is a literary device where poets pack an intricate theme or idea into an object or thing. Symbolism allows poets to address multilayered ideas without explicitly explaining them. Lowell never overtly mentions his mental anguish, yet that’s what the poem’s about. Even if a reader comes to the poem with little to no biographical information about Lowell, the disquiet is detectable due to the harsh symbolism. The nurse and the sparrows symbolize the severity of Lowell’s condition and the effort it takes to “weather a Boston winter” (Line 9), or, in Lowell’s case, another emotional burnout. The “seven horizontal tulips” (Line 31) symbolize Lowell’s felled psyche. About the flowers, Lowell says it’s hard to “distinguish them from weed” (Line 35). Lowell is like a weed since he, too, has “no rank nor station” (Line 39).

The mom in Line 3 could be a symbol of human emotion. Later on, in Line 11, she could symbolize reality. The daughter could represent levity. Lowell’s interactions with his daughter don’t dwell on his bleak mood but are fun and affectionate as their “noses rub” (Line 14), and she plays with his shaving items.

Irony

Irony is a literary device where a poet uses words in unexpected ways to sharpen a point or idea. Irony can be funny or tragic, as the jarring usage can lead to humor or drama. In Lowell’s poem, the irony is mostly sad. Lowell plays with his daughter in the bathtub and then refers to his time at the psychiatric hospital as “child’s play” (Line 19). This is ironic because Lowell is playing with his daughter, but he’s not talking about their interaction—he’s referring to his stint at McLean’s, which wasn’t child’s play, but a result of a mental health condition that continually disrupted his life and the lives of his loved ones and friends.

The vocabulary of recovery is also ironic since these terms don’t point to a person recovering but a man who feels “frizzled, stale and small” (Line 40). Once again, the irony is sad. Lowell isn’t “[r]ecuperating” (Line 28) or “[c]ured” (Line 40) but sluggish and weak. In the poem, recuperating, cured, and child’s play deviate from their anticipated meaning, so they’re ironic.