New Rule (Style)

Style

Personification

In order to get through her emotional ordeal, the poet attaches special significance to a squirrel, with which she has an imaginary conversation. The ability to talk is a human quality, so when Carson gives this quality to the squirrel, even in an imaginary sense, she is personifying it. This idea is important to understanding the poem. The poet's boyfriend or husband is gone, so she seeks out the guidance of another male figure to take his place and give her closure. However, she is alone, and there are no human men, so the squirrel fills the role of the male. The fact that Carson is doing this becomes abundantly clear when one notes the different ways that she refers to the squirrel throughout the poem. When the squirrel first begins his imaginary conversation with the poet, the poet refers to it as a male: "he seemed to say." This continues throughout most of the poem, as the squirrel is referred to by "he" or "his." Normally, when people refer to a squirrel or other small animal, they do so in a gender-neutral way, saying "it." By the end of the poem, Carson herself is also referring to the animal as "The squirrel," in a gender-neutral way. The change is important. Now that the squirrel has served its personified purpose and helped her realize the pain she needs to address, the poet returns the squirrel to the world of animals, and it becomes an "it" once again.

Imagery

The imagery in this poem is striking and helps to communicate a lot of information in a small amount of space. The economical use of words to create powerful imagery is one of poetry's hallmarks, and this economy is evident from the first stanza. Carson uses three lines to establish many facts: it is New Year's morning after an ice storm; the action takes place in a northern climate; the new ice is "hard," setting up a hint about the poet's mood that will pay off later; a squirrel is having trouble negotiating the higher portion of an icecovered tree; and the poet is starting up an imaginary conversation with this squirrel. Of course, when described this way, the composite image becomes bland and lifeless, because it is too straightforward and lacks Carson's artful phrasing. This long-winded description also does not make the reader work to understand the significance of the image. Besides economy of phrasing, the power of Carson's imagery is derived from the poet's ability to depict an image fully enough to capture the reader's attention, while leaving something to the reader's imagination and power of deductive reasoning. She sets up little clues, like the many references to cold and slippery things, to underscore the idea of dead relationships and unstable emotions, but does not come right out and say that her relationship is dead or that she is working through her chaotic, suppressed emotions.

One image — "The man blade left open on the stair" — is particularly brilliant in the way it makes its readers work. When one first reads the phrase, "man blade," it is tempting to think about a knife. However, this interpretation does not make sense when viewed against the next line: "Not enough spin on it, said my true love," since knife blades are not usually associated with spinning. However, if one thinks about a type of blade that a man tends to use, the idea of a razor emerges. Since the poet has talked about "spin," the blade must be circular. What type of razor uses a circular blade? An electric razor. There is a reason why Carson makes her readers work hard to decipher this image; the payoff is worth it. Any reader who has gone through a breakup, regardless of whether it was from a minor relationship or a marriage, can relate to the pain of personal items that are left behind. These personal items, like the razor in the poem, can be a constant reminder of the failed relationship. Now, Carson could have written these lines differently, telling her readers outright that she is talking about a discarded electric razor. However, this would take away the power of the lines, which evoke a complex image by using a few words to tap into the shared experience of most readers.