Field of Skulls

Field of Skulls written by Poet Mary Karr gives off much despair and darkness. She likes to emphasize on grim thoughts of obvious reality that anyone could become sadistic or play on evil actions. The whole poem itself is based on death and the poet likes to give you detail in the graphic words that she chooses to use, even if not gory the words themselves in the context have great meaning to them. I would like to try and focus on the theme of the poem, as this is all new to me. Poems are a difficult thing for me to comprehend so I wish to try and get a good handle on my understanding in the simplicity of starting out with just the theme. There are three parts of the poem that I fancy to hit on. They are the most emotional and the most meaningful to the poem.
We shall start right off with our poet speaking of the depths of hell, the forms being the figures of the demons from the afterlife in this particular scene of the poem. The dark of the night is what your lonely imagination turns your eyes to believe what they see. In these three lines of her poem she speaks like you are sitting in a stare, picturing these things coming about to you.
“like your eyes have force, and behind
any night’s taut scrim will come from the forms
you expect pressing from the other side.”
(Karr Line 7, 8, 9).
The second stanza I would like to hit on would be the one where you get to use the dreadful thought of having some mentally disturbed being living or working with you, with having the possible thoughts of wanting to harm or kill you. The poet informing you that you know that these people had existed, that their death is the proof of their actual being.
“You know such fields exist, for criminals
roam your very block, and even history list
monsters like Adolf and Uncle Joe
who stalks the earth’s orb, plus minor baby-eaters
unidentified, probably in your very midst.”
(Karr, Lines 13, 14, 1,5 16, 17)

I think the piece of the poem that truly got to me the most is the part at the end of the poem. She is talking about the skulls that she imagines, how they almost had some bit of life to them. She almost gets annoyed that they could not appreciate the features of mortality. This is also the part of the poem in which shows the greatest bit of emotion and detail with only using simple yet at the same time complex meanings of the wording. In my reading of this I can finally grasp even a tone and image that I could not truly do with the rest of the poem. This was a strong closing to this poem that held great ghostly appreciation.
“- could they not stare
with slack jawed envy at the fine flesh
that covers your scalp, the numbered hairs,
at the force your hands hold?”
(Karr, Lines 30, 31, 32, 33)

The poet writing this gives no regard to fear nor does she allow awkwardness in the

speaking of death, she welcomes it. She lingers on the thought of fantasizing about imagining that someone could have it out for you, hiding in your bushes while you sit there patiently awaiting your destiny. The person who could be speaking in the poem, be it the poet or not, shows loneliness in life with nothing but morbid and criminally dead thoughts. With the way that the poem presents itself I find no better way to represent it than with using the theme as the lens I see this through. When it comes down to it the meaning of the poem. The title of the poem “Field of Skulls” I think is very fitting. A skull represents the obvious image of death but also has a great visual appearance, one more alluring than any other bone in the human body. The skull gives to the imagination a little more to work in terms of being able to use your imagination when reading to poem and trying to fully see what is going on. In this poem the skull is continuously referred to almost as though the poet is trying to get the reader to communicate to the skull in someway. The skull can be symbolized in so many contradictory ways and it is such a worldly known icon that it is easily understood. The author offers up in the poem that there is almost a comforting feeling in the bliss of ignorance. All throughout the poem the writer gives many specifics wanting to leave no room for you to question yet at the same time in a line or two down she leaves you with a feeling of curiosity. Mary Karr gives the impression that death is nothing to be feared but something that is comforting and should not be an apprehension.
In my analyzing of this particular poem I feel as thought this is the best way to represent it. I feel that all the points that I have made are clearly stated in the poem itself with very little room for any other interpretation. The more I re-read the poem the more I could understand what was going on and what the context was trying to express to me. This poem came off difficult to me at first but in the end became something that could become of interest to me. Being able to take in attention to detail was most rewarding to me I would have to say.





Works Cited
Karr, Mary. "Field of Skulls." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 9 Sep 2011. .