Aboriginal Landscape

Louise Glück’s poem, “Aboriginal Landscape” has a strong contrast between life and death, with no connections between them. In the beginning of the poem, the girl is in the real world. She says, “You’re stepping on your father, my mother said / indeed I was standing exactly in the center” (lines 1-2). The word “stepping” gives an automatic assumption that she is visiting her father at the cemetery with her mother looking at his grave. However, it does get a little confusing when she says, “although there is no stone saying so” (4). It may have meant that the father did not have a grave stone set up yet. It begins to become confusing again as she said her mother repeated, “You’re stepping on your father” (5). It so happens that her mother is

Her use of “the light was fading” (21) is like when people believe that life flashes before their eyes before they die. She is beginning to lose all the color she sees in life as the light is slowly taking her away. Her reference to “take us home” (22) may be perceived as Heaven – a place where most dream to be when they die. “Home” may have also meant to be reunited with her family again – her mother, father, sister, and cousin – wherever they may be. The girl is sick and tired of being alone in the real world. Later on, she says, “Finally, in the distance, I made out a small train” (27). The train is a reference to the stages of death she goes through until she finally gets to go home. Unfortunately, her journey is cut short when the conductor says, “Madam / this is the end, the tracks do not go further” (34-35). I interpret it as a reference to hell – a place no one dreams to be since there is no way in getting out. As she asks the conductor, “have you no wish to go home, to see the city again?” (45-46). The “city” is Heaven. The conductor replies by saying “This is my home / the city is where I disappear” (47-48). Wherever the girl and conductor is, it is also possibly the place where her family is too. The girl noticed her family just slowly slipping away from her fingers, being taken out from her life in the real