Eliza Jane Schaeffer Assignment 1

Edward Hopper's Nighthawks is a very gloomy painting. It has a somber color palate and fills viewers with a feeling of emptiness. Yet, Susan Ludvigson's "Inventing my Parents," which was written about Nighthawks, is a very happy, loving poem. Why? And how did the depressing "Inventing my Parents" inspire her to write such a positive poem?

If we look at Donne's "Canonization," which is quoted in one of the final lines of the poem, we might find an answer. "Canonization" is from the point of view of a man in a love affair. He says that love doesn't need to be affected by politics- "Soldiers find wars, and lawyers find out still Litigious men, which quarrels move, Though she and I do love." All of the bad stuff is still there, but it exists in a separate realm. He wants to focus on their love and canonize itthrough poetry so it will always serve as an example for others.

Ludvigson's poem has a similar goal. Although the World War II was tough and although Hopper's painting was depressing, this couple can be happy and in love. She is canonizing her parents, writing about them as if they were a saint-like couple, with this poem. The war and all that came with it does not affect their love. Her mother can laugh "light as summer rain" and they can "[savor] the fragrant night" even though the war's "shadow [sweeps] every town." That is her main point and the main point of Donne's "Canonization".