Volume 10 155
Lines 52-57:
In one of the most confusing sections of the
poem, Graham conflates memory, voices from out-
side the window, sounds of helicopters, questions
she asks herself, and historical information. When
Graham says, “I was inside,” the reader is left to
wonder what, exactly, she is inside of: her room?;
her memories?; history?; the twentieth century?;
this poem?.
Lines 58-64:
Even though Graham assures that everyone
went back to work and that the government sur-
vived the demonstrations, the poem continues. She
has more questions for the mysterious man above
the fire. Throughout the poem, there is reason to
believe she is speaking of an actual man, but there
is evidence here that the man, like the memory of
the hiding place itself, might be fictitious. The red
wool shirt seems to be a reference to Giuseppe
Garibaldi’s soldiers, known as the “Red Shirts,”
and the “Notell them no—” of the poem’s final
lines, mirror’s a famous speech Garibaldi made to
his men. Like the rest of the poem, the final lines
are ambiguous. They could suggest a denial of vi-
olence. Or, Graham might be advocating a revolu-
tionary spirit that refuses to compromise. Or, she
could be talking to herself, telling herself the mem-
ories of such violence are simply not real.
Themes
History and the Present
While it is extraordinarily difficult to narrow
in on anything as consistent as a “theme” in Jorie
Graham’s work, “The Hiding Place” does contain
some ideas to unpack. Perhaps the most tenable
theme in the poem is one of history and the pre-
sent. The problems and burdens of history are al-
ways encroaching into the present day. The Chilean
poet Pablo Neruda once wrote, “Love is so short.
Forgetting is so long.” In this poem, forgetting is
long for Graham. In fact, she can’t forget the mem-
ory of the beatings, of the cell, of the energy of the
uprising, or the fervor for political justice. Towards
the end of the poem, Graham writes, “I was inside.
The century clicked by.” Then, later, in referring
to the man above the fire, she says, “He looked
straight back into the century.” History moves by
at a rapid pace, and it brings memories with it. At
one time, May of 1968 was the present. Now it is
history. At some point, the poem will be history,
as will the moment this essay is read.
Linked to the notion of history is the theme of
seeking. Throughout the poem, Graham asks what
she and the others who were revolting were sup-
posed to find. What is one supposed to find by
searching the historical past? What can one dis-
cover through memory? Through facts? Like most
of Graham’s poems, she provides no solid answers.
When one examines history, when one examines
one’s memory, when one examines the present, all
one gets is more questions. Facts tell only one side
of the story, memory another. Perhaps history is the
greatest hiding place of all. Graham might ulti-
mately be suggesting that the secret to history is
found in the present.Public vs. Private
“The Hiding Place” dramatizes the tension be-
tween public and private worlds. The public world
can be represented by streets, schools, history,
events, buildings, and facts—items or occurrences
that the public has knowledge of. The private world
is a sphere hidden away from public scrutiny: mem-
ory, desire, fear, dreams, anxieties are private con-
cerns that the public does not have access to. In this
poem, public and private worlds collide, not only in
terms of the hiding place or the cell but also in terms
of what actually happened. In stanza eight, Graham
is uncertain how reliable her memory of the cell ac-
tually is: “I remember the cell vividly / but is it from
a photograph? I think the shadows as I / see them.”
Is her memory “vivid” because she actually expe-
rienced these events, or because she has seen these
images in photographs in newspapers or magazines?
Of course she was there, but are the specific images
she remembers her own or constructed? In other
words, are her memories, like the poem itself, pub-
licly informed or privately informed?
The italicized words in the poem seem to carry
a more public connotation than the non-italicized
words. One can imagine seeing these words in the
headlines of a newspaper, or hearing them spoken
by countless people in Paris. Since the poem itself
is an amalgamation of public and private language,
Graham suggests that history, like poetry, is both
a public and private facet of human life.Places to Hide
After reading the poem, one might ask what the
title has to do with a cell, a man above a fire, the
uncertainty of memory, and political activism. Gra-
ham might argue that her poem explores events or
memories people try to hide and the places in which
they attempt to hide things from others and them-
selves. A good place to begin is to ask what, ex-The Hiding Place