I have been spending a lot of time at the theatre lately (and intend to spend a whole lot more now that my Open University assignment is done), so I went looking for poems about acting and came across this gem from R.S. Thomas, who is fast becoming a favourite. See what you think.
Acting by R. S. Thomas
Being unwise enough to marry her
I never knew when she was not acting.
‘I love you’ she would say; I heard the audiences
Sigh. ‘I hate you’; I could never be sure
They were still there. She was lovely. I
Was only the looking-glass she made up in.
I husbanded the rippling meadow
Of her body. Their eyes grazed nightly upon it.
Alone now on the brittle platform
Of herself she is playing her last role.
It is perfect. Never in all her career
Was she so good. And yet the curtain
Has fallen. My chamber, come out from behind
It to take the applause. Look, I am clapping too.
Very curious to hear your thoughts on this poem. Having read and re-read it over the last few weeks, I seem to have come away with a more positive reading than the general consensus would have it … I took the tone to be one of genuine affection and admiration by the speaker for his wife, who was the social butterfly of the two. But everyone else whose analyses I’ve read seems to disagree, saying that the speaker is bitter and regretful because his wife was never genuine nor viewed him as an equal and a partner in his own right. The looking-glass line is supposedly the giveaway for this interpretation, but I had read that line differently too — I would think it’s very possible for a certain type of personality to be truly happy in a supporting/backstage role, especially, say, an introvert married to an extravert. The looking-glass metaphor actually seemed quite poignant to me in this light, rather than bitter. And I was even more surprised that someone could read a cynical tone in the wonderful closing lines. But I seem to be outnumbered. How much, if any, ambiguity do you read in this poem? Regardless, it has quick become one of my favorites for several reasons (even if one of them is dead wrong!).
I think I read a lot of admiration in it – Thomas knows his wife, for all her faults, and still loves and understands her. I certainly don’t read any bitterness, or regret. So I’m with you on this one! I suppose the reader always brings their own experience and character to a poem. Maybe some people couldn’t bear to be ‘outshone’ by their wives….
Oh, also, in my book, the penultimate line has the word “charmer” rather than “chamber.” Which is the intended version, do you think?
Ooh, I think ‘charmer’ actually works rather better….