Dusting

“Promises” by Rita Dove (1986)

This poem appears immediately before “Dusting” in Thomas and Beulah (1986). “Promises” follows Beulah on her wedding day, taking her perspective. For Beulah, marriage is a strange ritual. The day goes as planned, but the whole experience is marked by off-kilter descriptions, such as the “meadow of virgins” (Line 21) at the bouquet toss, or the guests throwing “rice drumming / the both of them blind” (Lines 25-26). The poem foreshadows the ambiguous depiction of Beulah‘s married life in “Dusting,” where it is implied that married life has not provided her with the happiness she hoped for. The link above provides an audio version of the poem.

“Free Verses” by Sarah Kirsch, trans. Rita Dove (1998)

Dove published several translated or co-translated poems in the October-November 1998 issue of Poetry Magazine. The title of the poem is a pun. Read one way, it describes the form: the poem itself, like much of Dove’s own writing, is unmetered and unrhymed. Read another way, it describes the premise: after a nighttime epiphany, the speaker decides to “say goodbye” (Line 2) to their precious verses, releasing them to fend for themselves. Translating from German, Dove captures Kirsch’s dry humor for an English-speaking audience in plain poetic language: