Margaret Gibson's poem "A Grammar of the Soul"
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Margaret Gibson's poem "A Grammar of the Soul" is prefaced by a quotation from Jorge Luis Borges which reads "While we sleep here, we are awake elsewhere." The quote prepares the reader for some type of examination of the divided self. Since the title has already mentioned the soul and the term grammar refers to the rules/structures of language, the reader may also assume that the poem will examine the way the soul works, that is, how it operates as a part of the whole. Whether the division of the self to which the Borges quote refers is between dreaming and waking, soul and body, conscious and unconscious, or real life and aspirations is not entirely clear in the poem. But the soul--undefined in Gibson's poem--can be seen as some part of individual human existence that operates apart from the waking, conscious, rational, pragmatic part of the person and yet is fully integrated into the person's existence. The poet uses an "I" who refers throughout to a "she" to designate the two parts of the person's being. But there is never any way of determining which of these is the conscious mind and which is the soul. Both are described as waking and sleeping, as engaging in concrete actions, or as experiencing general states of being. And every action or state of being is contrasted with another state or action which is opposed to it in terms of time (two actions happen concurrently), space (actions take place in separate places simultaneously, or the 'two' face each other),
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dreaming it green" or, in other words, by thinking of some place, with different conditions, where she would rather be. This "place" is, of course, nature, but it is also the tropical peace of the palm trees and "the trade wind off Cayman" that is simultaneously being experienced by the I. By indicating that the she is now dreaming, while being awake and engaging in chores, a shift begins to set in. The word "dreaming" need not, of course, refer only to the mind's activity in sleep--it can also refer to aspirations or imaginings. But it hints at the possibility that the I and the she do not constitute a simple division between the dreaming and waking states.
In the third opposition the settings become more abstract and the shift in states between I and she is intensified. The "field of grass" of the I is warm and inviting enough to be conducive to both "sleeping" and "making love". But there is also a confusion in the combination of the two states. The I describes itself as "sleeping in a field of grass making love" and, while there is some play with the word "sleeping"--as in the common usage of "to sleep with" to mean "to make love with"--there is also an implied combination of states of waking and sleeping that brings
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2747
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)
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