To Elsie

“To Elsie” begins with what seems to be a marketing slogan—“The pure products of America” (Line 1), which sets up a false expectation for the reader; it’s quickly discarded as the rest of the short first stanza makes it clear that the idea is attributed to a group of people rather than showroom appliances. This gives the poem a feeling of pointed irony about the relationship between humanity and fashionable consumer trends. The poem makes heavy use of enjambment, with each line being only a few words long and creating a sense of disjointed, erratic observation on behalf of the speaker. In spite of this, however, the shape maintains a consistent and controlled pattern of a short snapshot line sandwiched between two smaller ones.

The speaker immediately presents a fractured vision of an early 20th-century rural America populated by hard-luck, working class men and desperate young women. There is a clear transactional quality to the way these people view the world; not only is there an overtone of consumer trends, but they view each other—and even themselves—as commodities. The women adorn themselves, thinking their clothes and accessories will bring them a sense of validation and perhaps the financial security of a marriage. However, the poem presents this ideal as fabricated and inaccessible as the “pure products” (Line 1) championed by the advertising agencies. The reality is something much darker: the “numbed terror” (Line 24) of a loveless union that only brings more desperation and despair into the world.

When the speaker alludes to “choke-cherry / or viburnum— / which they cannot express” (Lines 25-27), the “which” contains a double meaning: it refers to the fear that is silenced either by society or by personal denial, but it also refers to the natural world that cannot be “expressed” due to a lack of knowledge and connection. The women are caught in a state of paralysis between their lost roots and their unattainable dreams.

It’s not until midway through the poem that the title character makes her appearance, and here she is a voiceless representative of a larger culture. Although the speaker—and by proxy, the poet—is referring to a real person, their identity is less important than what they stand for: a broken system that moves in circles of poverty and loss. When the speaker does address Elsie, she’s referred to simply as “some Elsie” (Line 40), as though the name could belong to anyone. Despite Elsie’s attempts to dress up with “cheap jewelry” (Lines 46-47), she is ungainly and unattractive. Within her, however, is a truth about the state of the world. The speaker recognizes her as a lens through which to see the depravity, darkness, and corruption that surrounds them—has surrounded them for a very long time, but which has been difficult to see because the speaker has been immersed in it for so long.

Armed with this new knowledge, the speaker recognizes that their society can be saved by reconnecting with the lost natural world—the open vision of America many immigrants would have had before arriving there. However, the modern world has become too oppressive and this connection becomes harder and harder to grasp. In the final lines, the speaker sees that the purity and reconnection they seek appears in short, fleeting moments; but with no one to share them with or record them, it’s as if they never existed at all. The poem ends without any closing punctuation, suggesting that the train of thought continues beyond the page. This makes the speaker feel desperate to continue, to find a solution before they lose sight of the natural world forever.