The following post depicts a love edged on the transgression of social boundaries; it is written from the perspective of Irene Redfield and is dedicated to Clare Kendry. There are seven stanzas in the poem, and each line, for the most part is adapted from the second part of the novel and rephrased according to the content, purpose, and the grammatical structure of the poem. The poem written below is an attempt to discover Irene’s emotions towards Clare using first person narration, which makes it easier to point out the illicit feelings Irene has towards Clare, since they are no longer bound by a non-objective third person narration. Also, by grouping various phrases from the novel in a single poem, Irene’s feelings towards Clare become more pronounced than they are in the novel. In short, the poem, precisely the last line, is meant to sum up and highlight two aspects that are salient in the novel; namely Irene’s jealousy and her feelings towards Clare.
A “little choked exclamation of admiration”
Dedicated to Clare Kendry
Few women, wept as attractively
One woman, I touched caressingly
As her scarlet mouth, trembled irrepressibly
About her, there was some quality;
Exquisite and golden
Fragrant and flaunting
An attractive lonely child
That makes the outrush of affectionate feelings difficult to hide
In the looks she gave, something hopeless and groping
As I sat there in my room,
Something within me was growing
She is someone to wonder about and admire
With a second letter, she expressed a desire
We were strangers,
But still there was laughter
Like little musical thrills, following one another
Clare Kendry, like a sunlit day, fair and golden
And I, Irene Redfield, dowdy and commonplace, bearing an exquisite torturing emotion
Below is the same poem with page numbers additionally attached after each line to indicate where it was adapted from:
Few women, wept as attractively (68)
One woman, I touched caressingly (67)
As her scarlet mouth, trembled irrepressibly (69)
About her, there was some quality; (74)
Exquisite and golden
Fragrant and flaunting(75)
An attractive lonely child (74)
That makes the outrush of affectionate feelings difficult to hide (66)
In the looks she gave, something hopeless and groping (73)
As I sat there in my room, (51)
Something within me was growing (73)
She is someone to wonder about and admire (82)
With a second letter, she expressed a desire (51)
We were strangers, (64)
But still there was laughter
Like little musical thrills, following one another (71)
Clare Kendry, like a sunlit day, fair and golden (77)
And I, Irene Redfield, dowdy and commonplace, bearing an exquisite torturing emotion (74-75)
I’m in love with what you did here. It seems like you copied word for word the various ways that Irene described Clare, in the novel. Some of your stanzas are three lines, while some others are 2 lines, I was just wondering if there is a reason you structured it this way?
The only thing is, the kind of love that I see here is a friendly or even sisterly love. This feeling is exemplified due to the third person voice, Irene here is distancing her self from Clare. I don’t see a sexual desire here, rather an appreciation of Clare. Many people mistakenly ascribe such things to sex and sexuality, not realizing that they are limiting the way they can interact with others. Why does everything have to be sexual? Why can’t friends just appreciate and hype each other up without having things assumed about them and their relationship?
There is no particular reason to the structure of my poem, but I tried to maintain the number of lines in each stanza so there is a pattern. At first, I thought it was a friendly kind of love too, and while that is possible, it also seems plausible to assume there is some kind of sexual – or romantic – tension between Irene and Clare. You ask why “cant friends just appreciate and hype each other up,” and I think the reason I find Irene’s feelings very illicit is because they are not friends to begin with (at least in the first and second part of the novel). The phrases that stood out (ones that indicated Irene’s illicit feelings towards Clare) were evident in the novel even before Irene’s relationship with Clare developed into a friendship. For such reason, I believe there is some kind of tension between them. Also, the poem can always be up for interpretation and debate because it depicts a “love edged on the transgression of social boundaries,” meaning that it doesn’t completely cross these boundaries.
Nice poem Shamma! It does reveal Irene’s emotions towards Clare and sheds light into their complicated relationship. The mention of the exact page numbers from where the lines of the poem were inspired is equally interesting, as it shows the amount of hints dropped here and there by the narrator and Irene herself regarding her feelings for Clare.
I like that you have combined the references and we are able to interpret Irene’s feelings as a whole. Since I have been looking into contrasts in Passing, I could not help noticing some in your poem. I think your version brings out the contrasts between the descriptions of Clare’s character and contrasts in Irene herself. It makes me think of Irene’s constant indecisiveness about whether Clare is her friend or not, and her own conflicting feelings of fascination, admiration, passion and jealousy which are never acknowledged in relation to one another.
I love what you did here!!! regardless of whether Irene had any romantic feelings or sexual desires for Clare or not, the way you structured your poem by combining these specific lines in a way that leads us to believe there might’ve actually been some degree of attraction for Clare is very impressive. It’s almost like the lines you chose are the scattered pieces of the puzzle that is irene’s feelings towards Clare. When placed together these individual pieces make up a bigger picture that can explain certain behaviors and feelings that Irene exhibits toward Clare.
Thanks for your post, Shamma. Like the others, I find your composing method to be very suggestive (pun intended). 🙂 By deconstructing and reconstructing the text this way, you perform a sort of creative analysis — thinking about how seemingly disparate descriptions of Clare add up to something more when read together. Well done! (And thank you for the page numbers as well).
I also agree that the poem is as much about Irene’s view of herself –and her doubts and insecurities – as it is about her view of Clare or the relationship between the two.