Essay #2

Lindsey Blakley
Cline
English 102
17 September 2011

Windigo

Louise Erdrich’s poem Windigo is a very unique poem.  She relies heavily on imagery to tell the story of the mythical creature.  Imagery is a tool used in poetry to describe very specifically what is happening in a poem.  This particular poem provides many examples of how imagery is utilized as a valuable tool to grasp the readers senses and feelings and intensify them through the poem and paint a vivid picture of the events taking place.  
From the very beginning of this poem Erdrich does a great job of setting the place and mood through much detail. “and the dog crept off, groaning,/to the deepest part of the woods.” (Erdrich lines 4-5)  These two lines in the beginning of the poem let the reader get an idea of the whereabouts and adds a bit of a spooky sense in the air with the actions the dog is doing.  The use of these very specific words of the dog creeping off and groaning while doing so got me thinking why is the dog leaving?  What is so intimidating that a dog would cower to?  The speaker is obviously the Windigo itself who is observing his next pray perhaps.
Since the Windigo has been identified as the speaker, Erdrich continues using dark imagery to provide a good picture of what is going on.  “In the hackles of the dry brush a thin laughter started up.” (line 6)  Hackles, is a word that is used to describe a which or  an evil creature laughing in an eerie way.  For her to use this word to describe the way the bushes sound adds a chilling sense. Then to follow it with a thin laughter started up, tells me that a child is present and that is what the Windigo is watching and wanting. “Mother scolded the food warm and smooth in the pot/ and called you to eat.” (lines 7-8) The use of the word scolded in this sentence and what the mother was doing is a bit weird to me.  She angrily made the food hot? “But I spoke in the cold trees:/ New one, I have come for you, child hide and lie still.” (lines 9-10)  This mystery is slowly coming together and giving very intense feeling of fright.  Knowing that this huge creature has been waiting and watching from the forest for the perfect time to grab this child sends feeling of nervousness and anticipation of what is to follow.
“You saw me drag toward you./ Oh touch me, I murmured, and licked the soles of your feet./ You dug your hands into my pale, melting fur. (lines 13-15)  This group of sentences is full of important imagery!   As the reader, I am actually feeling afraid and anxious.  Picturing this huge creature coming towards a small child, grabbing the child by the legs and licking their shoes while the child is franticly trying to fight and get away.  Also, now through more specific imagery of what this beast looks like, Erdrich has succeeded thus far in grasping my attention and bringing this story to life through the feelings being stimulated and imagination.
As I continue to read and analyze this poem it is very clear to me this poem’s purpose is to produce fear. “I stole you off, a huge thing in my bristling armor.” (line 16)  This line is a bit confusing to me.  The Windigo is suppose to be this huge creature and a child would be quite small compared to this beastly creature.  So I’m puzzled on that part.  But the fact that Erdrich choose to use the word “bristling” was quite interesting to me.  Earlier in the poem she used “scolded” to describe how the mother was making food.  Both scolded and bristling are words that have angry context to them enhancing the poems main point again or maintaining this dark and scary feeling.  “Steam rolled from my wintry arms, each leaf shivered/ from the bushes we passed/ until they stood, naked, spread like the cleaned spines of fish.” (line17-19)  Picturing this large creature running through the woods and leaving a path of bare bushes along the way really allowed me to create an adequate image of just how quick and powerful this creature is.  Another good use of imagery are the two words steam and wintry.  These two words indicate that this poem is still in a wintry time frame when it’s cold and miserable.
As the poem is coming to an end, many questions and feelings are running through my head.  Is the child ok?  Is the Windigo going to kill this child?  “Then your arm hands hummed over and shoveled themselves full/ of ice and the snow.”  (line20-21)  To me this indicated the child is alive since his hands are warm.  Also that the Windigo was releasing the child since the child was grabbing handfuls of snow and ice.  I feel the child is afraid and trying hard to get away. “all night running, until at last morning broke the cold earth/ and I carried you home, a river shaking in the sun.”  (line 22-24)  The end to this poem offers a sense of relief. The Windigo returns the child after having them all night.  It’s interesting to me the words “a river shaking in the sun.”  What I’m comparing this to is a river sparkling from the sun’s ray’s bounce off the water.  The child is relived and safe at home again as a new day begins.
After reading this poem two dozen or so times, I feel Erdrich utilizes imagery as a major tool that accomplishes the goal of creating a monstrosity poem.  Every aspect of this poem is crawling with very descriptive words and groups of words.  For a reader not knowing what a Windigo is, this poem informs the reader without giving a dictionary explanation. After carefully reading this I can honestly say there were many moments of feelings of fear an anticipation of what was coming next.  Imagery, I feel, made this poem a success and a very good piece of work.

Works Cited

Erdrich, Louise. “Windigo.”  http://poetry365.tumblr.com/post/692283573/windigo-louise-erdrich

I feel that I got the basic idea of how to analyze a poem but comments would be awesome!  Give me some feedback if you would.