The Breathing House by Marcielle Brandler

Jacqueline Bautista

Professor M. Brandler

English 101

March 18 2015

        Book Analysis

The Breathing House by Marcielle Brandler gives the audience poems about love, socializing, loss, and many more. What stands out the most are her love poems and how much passion is instilled into each and every one. It is writing that might be very explicit and it also may be more than what meets the eye. When truly analyzed we will see that a lot Brandler’s poems have a deeper meaning to them, which is what poetry is all about. Poetry is a way of expressing one’s emotions whether it is good or bad. It is a way of letting your thoughts out and creating something beautiful that can be shared with the world. What is so fascinating about Brandler’s poems is her use of metaphors; it is what keeps her audience contemplating. To leave the readers guessing is the magic of poetry because the author does not need to write full on details, it is up to the reader to depict his or her own viewpoint.

 In the poem Decision there is a piece that really catches the readers eye “For a time I forget the indecision of my man and how I wait on his love and how I have abandoned all others” (Brandler 16) this piece is very interesting because it’s conveying an image of how a woman is left stranded, waiting for a love that is not being returned back. She forgets about the man’s inability to decide what it is he wants from her and forgets that he does not love her the way she loves him. In the midst of it all, she decides to wait for her love to be returned back because she only wants him and will wait for him even if it means she’s cutting off everyone else that may be interested in her because she’s so set on this man that she loves. In this poem we are sent back into a vivid past when Brandler says “A smell ejects you from the present taking you back many years” (Brandler 15) then goes on writing in detail every scent that brings her back to that one memory of her lover. For her it is crab grass cut. For this writer it is pink sangria candles that ignite past memories. This poem compares to others lives because it sets images of a real romance and it has the affect of making the reader reminisce and make an emotional connection. Just by this short poem you get an idea on how powerful Marcielle Brandler’s words  can truly be. Readers can connect this to their lives because it is something many have experienced, to be waiting for a love to be returned back. Brandler starts of the poem by being in the present then goes into the past and at the end leaves the reader feeling it all.

The poem “I Met A Man” is dedicated to a so-called Professor David Bennet. In this poem the author is describing this magnificent, almost illusive man. “I met a man whose bones illuminated his body” (Branler 38) this is clearly impossible, for ones bones to illuminate. Perhaps Brandler was drawing the audience a picture of how this mans persona and intelligence was so extraordinary that it created this instant magnetic attraction that lured her to him.  In the last two stanzas the author uses simile by comparing the mans veins to blackberry port. “His skin spread out the light and the blue in his veins wound like blackberry port” (Brandler 38) by comparing veins to blackberry port, she gives a vivid image of how blue his veins protrude in his light skin. This mans skin was perhaps pale white that when he wounded with a bruise, his wound was extremely noticeable therefore making it as blue as blackberry port jam. The last line was the most confusing because Brandler says “veins wound”, how do veins wound? His skin can wound and cause bruises but veins don’t wound unless there is a medical condition that is causing his veins to do this. Besides that, this poem felt very nostalgic. The author may have been feeling wistful while writing about this man. All in all, Brandler clearly praised this professor of hers and made sure to dedicate him a poem. Dedicating a poem to someone is a romantic way of showing ones admiration and desires. This poem did an amazing job in showing what the author felt towards this man by not saying too much.

The poem “Penal Colony” was one of the more elaborate and interesting poems in the book. When read, you think that the author is in prison but she’s actually writing about feeling entrapped in a dead relationship. In this poem the author has been sent to this new place where she cannot do as she pleases. Her lover has been taken away from her and the person in charge of watching her is grasping on to the keys not willing to let them go. Perhaps this man is her husband and is clinging on as long as he can to the relationship because he wants it to work, but for Brandler the relationship has been far over. When she talks to her lover they cannot have a real conversation because they are always being watched so they only talk about the weather but not of their feelings.  Brandler feels hopeless even if she calls the one she loves to reunite somewhere it won’t be too long before that is taken away from her. Her husband will make her life even more miserable if he were to find out about her lover. On the fifth stanza the author says “Twelve days ago, I was visited. They said it was my friend. It was my lover. Perhaps they do not know who we are to one another. Perhaps they do.” (Brandler 31) The husband tells her a friend is visiting her but in reality it’s her lover. She believes that her husband may know who he is to her and lets him in to mock her. She is with her lover but cannot show any affection and her desires are refrained because her husband is watching them. Brander mumbles something in her sleep, perhaps her lover’s name. Her husband then seeks answers from her but she refuses to tell the truth. Then her husband goes on to shows her a picture of his children, or their children. He shows this picture so maybe she can feel shame and regret having a lover. At the end we are left feeling it all “He watched my averted eyes. I said nothing. Tomorrow, I will write on the wall, words I have not yet conceived before I escape this dead romance” (Brandler 32) Brandler feels entrapped and feels that she might as well be in jail. Perhaps before escaping the failed relationship she will write down a letter to her husband explaining her departure but for the moment she has nothing to say because she doesn't know what to say to the man she does not love. The idea of feeling is tragic because the author and her lover are impeded to be together. This poem is brilliant in way because the author uses the metaphor of prison and a sentry to portray her marriage and her husband. Using metaphor, Brandler creates a heartfelt mood and emphasizes the theme of the poem. Each of the lines is parallel in structure and in thought. Parker conveys a sense of melancholic feeling in this poem by not only mentioning prison, but also by putting herself in this poem. It seems that the prisoner is fighting for her freedom singly.