Transcript The Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me

*It was the first gift he ever gave her,
buying it for five francs in the Galeries
in pre-war Paris. It was stifling.
A starless drought made the nights stormy.
*They stayed in the city for the summer.
They met in cafés. She was always early.
*He was late. That evening he was later.
They wrapped the fan. He looked at his watch.
She looked down the Boulevard des Capucines.
She ordered more coffee. She stood up.
The streets were emptying. The heat was killing.
She thought the distance smelled of rain and lightning.
These are wild roses, appliquéd on silk by hand,
darkly picked, stitched boldly, quickly.
The rest is tortoiseshell and has the reticent,
*clear patience of its element. It is
a worn-out, underwater bullion and it keeps,
even now, an inference of its violation.
The lace is overcast as if the weather
it opened for and offset had entered it.
*The past is an empty café terrace.
An airless dusk before thunder. A man running.
*And now way now to know what happened thennone at all- unless, of course, you improvise:
*The blackbird on this first sultry morning,
in summer, finding buds, worms, fruit,
feels the heat. Suddenly she puts out her wingthe whole, full, flirtatious span of it.
Francs (2): The basic monetary unit of
several European countries until the
introduction of the euro, equal to 100
centimes.
 Galeries (2): Refers to the Galeries
Lafayette, a10-story department store in
Paris.
 Appliquéd (13): Ornamental needlework in
which pieces of fabric are sewn or stuck
onto a large piece of fabric to form pictures
or patterns.
 Reticent (15): Not revealing one's thoughts
or feelings readily.


Bullion (17):
› Gold or silver in bulk before coining, or valued by
weight.
› Ornamental braid or trimming made with twists
of gold or silver thread.
› Way of crocheting a rose/flower.
Inference (18): A conclusion reached on
the basis of evidence and reasoning.
 Sultry (25):

› (Of the air or weather) Hot and humid.
› (Of a person, esp. a woman) Attractive in a way
that suggests a passionate nature.
Galeries (2): Refers to the Galeries
Lafayette, a10-story department store in
Paris.
 Pre-war Paris (3): Paris before WWII.

› Implies that speaker is post-war.

Boulevard des Capucines: one of the four
“grands boulevards” in Paris, a chain of
boulevards running east-west.
› Named after the convent of the Capuchin nuns.
Speaker is a daughter a woman who was
courted one summer in pre-WWII Paris.
 About the fan the daughter inherited from
her mother, and how the fan came to be in
the family.
 Context:

› Being in different places: In Which the Ancient
History I Learn Is Not My Own
› Love: IV Quarantine & V Embers of Marriage

Iambic pentameter used at places
throughout
Poem is set up to resemble a film
 Interconnection between humans and
nature

› Nature is violated to an extent
Draws attention to conflict between the
lovers
 Questions:

› Was the man the speaker’s father?
› How did the fan exchange go exactly?
› What was the role of the gift?

Enjambment
› Only in stanzas detailing fan

Staccato
› Supports film idea
 “I use no caesura in the first or last line. Then in the
following three lines I put the caesura or internal
line-break after the second stress. That way I get a
jerky, grainy feel to the stanza: a little like the
frames of an old film. And that’s what I wanted.”
-Eavan Boland
› Timing/Order word choice also support film idea

Iambic pentameter
› Combine iambic lines and get synopsis?
 It was the first gift he ever gave her
They stayed in the city for the summer.
He was late. That evening he was later.
…clear patience of its element. It is…
The past is an empty café terrace.
And no way now to know what happened thenThe blackbird on this first sultry morning,…
Boland, Eavan. Object Lessons: the Life of
the Woman and the Poet in Our Time.
New York: W.W. Norton, 1995. Print.