What the Living Do

Marie Howe

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1998

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“What the Living Do” is written in free verse, with no definable rhyme scheme or meter. As with many of Howe’s poems, the lines are long and roughly consistent in length, until the last line. Howe makes consistent use of enjambment across her long sentences, but avoids abrupt or confusing line breaks. Sentences vary in length and reflect the natural cadence of human speech. The second lines of some stanzas are enjambed with the following stanzas, allowing for even pacing and flow, and for thematic connection between stanzas.

The poem is formally broken into eight two-line stanzas, but the stanzas do not coincide directly with shifts in subject matter or mood. Subtle instances of alliteration, rhyme, consonance, or assonance are incidental (“the bag breaking” (Line 6), “[s]lamming the car door shut in the cold” (Line 10) just as they are in everyday speech. These formal choices augment the poem’s stylistic and tonal messages. Like many of her contemporaries, Howe describes quotidian life in a clear, direct tone, which is facilitated by the instinctive, speech-like layout of her free verse.

Diction

Howe’s choice of informal and common diction throughout “What the Living Do” is a hallmark of modern poetry in the wake of Confessionalism. Like the formal choice of free verse, the choice of informal diction works in harmony with the poem’s everyday, speech-like qualities. Howe’s diction is clear and concise without austerity. She includes some simple adjectives and proper nouns (“Drano” (Line 2) and “Cambridge” (Line 8)) but avoids hyper-specificity. She avoids long vocabulary words, and most nouns are commonplace: plumber, groceries, sleeve, video store, hairbrush. The poem is an ode to everyday life, and therefore sticks to everyday language.

Only in the last two stanzas is there an upward shift in diction. The lines “when I catch a glimpse of myself” (Line 13) and “gripped by a cherishing so deep” (Line 14) are marked by slightly more lyrical word choices, demonstrating the speaker’s elevated awareness and emotion.

Epistolary Narrative

In fiction, epistolary correspondence is often used to simulate emotional immediacy between a story’s reader and its characters. A private letter presumes openness and candid confession and gives the speaker's thoughts direction and focus. As in the tradition of Confessional poetry, the reader is meant to believe the poem’s intimacy and vulnerability.

In combination with plain diction, authorial context, and Howe’s explicit explanation of the subject of “What the Living Do,” the poem’s narrative form gives it a particularly unmediated and honest tone. “What the Living Do” is not as explicitly epistolary as some poems and fiction, but it is informally addressed to the deceased Johnny. In interviews, Howe notes that this poem (and others) began formally as letters to John. This format allows the poem to explore life and death with immediacy and a feeling of concrete reality. The speaker isn’t just pondering her own life and mortality; she is sharing her revelations with her letter’s recipient. Though departed, Johnny is made real by the poem’s framing. He is a party to the poem itself, rather than an abstract figure.