Sofia Nazeer

Professor Leonard

Contemporary Poetry

December 6, 2024

Loss through Art

For this critical essay, I will be analyzing the two poems, “Still Life with Two Dead

Peacocks and a Girl” and “I Have Lived My Whole Life in a Painting Called Paradise,” by Diane

Seuss. I will discuss how through these pieces, Seuss examines the idea of preserving memories

when facing loss to show how one's memory can both preserve beauty, and hold onto the pain of

loss and how their interconnectedness can shape the way we perceive the world around us. This

essay will argue that Seuss’s use of art, imagery, and metaphors in these two poems reflects how

memory, while it may be able to preserve beauty, is always accompanied by the weight of loss,

ultimately highlighting the tension between remembering and moving on.

Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl

First examining “Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl", there are strong themes of loss

and the tension between preserving beauty and confronting the reality of death. In the first line,

“"She comes out of the dark seeking pie, but instead finds two dead peacocks," the phrase,

“coming out of the dark” suggests she could be coming from a place of uncertainty or

unconsciousness then on a quest to find something that could be comforting like pie. The shift

from this simple desire to a stark and shocking discovery of “two dead peacocks” sets the tone

for the poem of an unexpected confrontation with death. When first reading this, my initial

reaction was that peacocks are normally seen as a representation of beauty, mating, and life
which contrasted quite sharply with seeing them dead aside an innocent, simple wish. In the next

line, "one is strung up by its feet. The other lies on its side in a pool of its own blood," there is

vivid imagery being used to describe the violent finality of death as one bird is surrounded in

blood where one is in this distorted pose, symbolizing the dissonance between memory and

reality where in this case the beauty of the peacock is preserved in art or memory, but its reality

is a bit violent and not done justice to its legacy of beauty. In the fourth line, "She wanted pie,

not these beautiful birds. Not a small, dusky apple from a basket of dusky apples," the desire for

pie as mentioned earlier reflected a basic need for comfort yet she is faced with the beauty of

these birds. Seuss juxtaposes a simple desire for an apple pie with an unexpected appearance of

death and beauty which reflects how life often doesn’t meet our expectations and when presented

with painful memories, there is often resistance as reflected in her tensions between what she

wanted versus what she was given. Furthermore, in the next line, "Instead this dead beauty,

gratuitous. Scalloped green feathers. Gold breast. Iridescent-eyed plumage, supine on the table.

Two gaudy crowns," the peacock’s beauty is vividly described in detail; becomes “gratuitous”

portrays being unwanted or even disturbing. The description of the peacock's feathers as

“scalloped” and “iridescent-eyed” emphasizes the idea of this intricate and unique beauty that is

now dead and unappreciated. This portrays tensions between preservation of beauty in memory

as described, and the physical reality of death described earlier with their lifeless bodies. The

“two gaudy crowns” add a layer of symbolism, perhaps referring to the crown as a symbol of

royalty or majesticness, but now useless in death. In the next line, "She rests her elbows on the

stone windowsill. Why not pluck a feather? Why lean against the gold house of the rich and stare

at the bird’s dead eye?" the girl’s posture of resting her elbows on the windowsill suggests

contemplation of accepting the reality of the dead birds but in a bit of a dry way. The rhetorical
questions of “Why not pluck a feather?” and “Why lean against...” indicate a sense of confusion

and indecision but also bitterness as if to almost take the feathers or comfort of the house in

exchange of not getting her apple pie. The idea of "leaning against the gold house of the rich"

could be a critique of wealth or superficial beauty, suggesting that such beauty is almost useless

or significant in the face of death. The “dead eye” symbolizes how even memories or images of

beauty lose their power once the subject is gone. A more desperate, almost primal need to strip

the bird of its beauty and make use of it is portrayed in the line, “The girl must pull the heavy

bird into the night and run off with it. Build a fire on the riverbank. Tear away the beautiful

feathers. Suck scorched tough dark meat off of hollow bones," where the act of tearing away the

feathers and eating the "scorched tough dark meat" could mean a forced confrontation with the

reality of death and decay. She must engage with death directly, confronting the loss that the

peacock’s beauty once had and not let it go to waste. The "hollow bones" emphasize the

emptiness left after beauty fades away, reinforcing the theme of inevitable loss. In the last line,

"Look at her, ready to reach. She’d hoped for pie. Meringue beaded gold. Art, useless as tits on a

boar," the girl is “ready to reach,” both physically and emotionally for something to satisfy her

hunger and need for comfort. However, instead of the pie she hoped for, she is met with death,

beauty, and violence. The powerful phrase “Art, useless as tits on a boar” is a striking critique of

art’s perceived uselessness in the face of real, uncomfortable truths. Art, here, could symbolize

memory or beauty, which is ultimately irrelevant when confronted with the harsh reality of loss.

I Have Lived My Whole Life in a Painting Called Paradise

Through analyzing the following lines, I will examine how Seuss uses art and memory as

metaphors about acknowledging pain and the complexity of loss while preserving beauty. This
poem questions the nature of memory, freedom, and loss, and how these themes can often

intertwine. Starting with the first line, “With the milkweeds splitting at the seams emancipating

their seeds…that were once packed in their pods like the wings and hollow bones…of a damp

bird held too tightly in a green hand." The description of the milkweeds creates a powerful image

of life and death intertwined. The milkweeds’ seeds, like "wings and hollow bones," are released

from their pods which symbolize the beauty of nature’s cycles and the fragility of life. The

metaphor of the bird held “too tightly in a green hand” suggests that beauty and memory are

often constrained, and its loss, or in this case release, is inevitable. The seed’s journey reflects

the tension in memory, where what is remembered often carries the weight of what’s lost. In the

next line, “I have lived in a painting called Paradise, and even the bad parts were beautiful,”

reflects on this idealized memory of paradise where even the bad part can still be beautiful. This

line introduces the theme about how we can create these beautified versions of past memories

and glaze past its imperfections. This suggests that while remembering painful experiences,

memories can be a comforting form of denial and avoidance of harsh reality. In the next line,

“There are fields of needles arranged into flowers, their sharp ends meeting at the center, and

from a distance the fields full of needle flowers look blue from their silver reflecting the sky…or

white lilies if the day is overcast,” the image of the “needle flowers” represent something sharp

yet beautiful which symbolize something that maybe from afar appear serene yet when closeup,

there could be underlying danger or pain to the beauty. This line adds to the theme of memory as

a source of potential inherent violence or uncomfort that may come with the beauty of it. Moving

to the next line, “...and the ravens…who feed on the rabbits until their black feathers are edged…

in gold,” the ravens, which feed on the rabbits, symbolize the darker aspects of memory, where

the rabbits which symbolize loss both become an inevitable part of life. The "gold-edged
feathers" suggest that even in the darkness of loss, there can be beauty lined within. Following

this, “Some say it is hell, and some say just another, bolder paradise, and some say a dark

wilderness, and some say just an unswept museum or library floor, and some say a long-lost love

waits there wearing bloody riding clothes, returned from war, and some say freedom, which is a

word that tastes strange, like a green plum,” all together reflect various interpretations of what

lies beyond this “painting called Paradise.” Each perspective suggests a different kind of memory

or imagined reality. Some see it as “hell,” others as “freedom” or “a long-lost love.” The “green

plum” tasting strange, emphasizes that even positive memories or ideals (like freedom) can feel

alien or unsettling when confronted in the present. These conflicting views speak to how

memory and loss shape our perceptions of the past, leaving us with complicated and sometimes

uncomfortable feelings caught up with us.

Conclusion

When examining both poems together, they both depict how memory holds onto beauty

whether it’s the girl and the dead peacocks or the image of paradise. Yet in both cases, memory

is complicated by the loss tied to it. The preservation of beauty is this bittersweet feeling because

it comes with the acknowledgment of its impermanence and death. But when examining them

separately, “Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl” uses the imagery of death to discuss

the permanence of loss, while “I Have Lived My Whole Life in a Painting Called Paradise” uses

the concept of an idealized, unreachable memory to express a longing for something that can

never truly be held. One poem uses art as a reflection of death, while the other uses it as a way to

perpetuate a fantasy of perfection. Seuss’s use of art in both poems shows how memory and loss
are captured and preserved in ways that can shift the way each individual perceives and interacts

with the world around them.

Seuss’s themes of memory and loss offers readers an opportunity to reflect on their own

relationships with the past and the way in which one holds onto it and how it can shape the way

we experience our current realities, oftentimes harsh. Through her use of vivid imagery,

metaphors, and the symbolism of art, Seuss portrays how memories can transform painful parts

of the past into something beautiful, yet simultaneously, prevent us from fully confronting the

harsher truths of loss. This tension between remembering and moving on is palpable in these

poems, reminding one that while our memory is tainted by our love, it can also keep us tethered

to what we can never fully reclaim. Seuss’s work in these two poems challenges me to reflect on

the bittersweet nature of memory, the beauty it holds and the weight it carries, and the ways in

which we navigate the delicate balance between holding onto the past and embracing the present.