of Judaeo-Christian civilization since this is the tale of Creation with
all its emphasis on the male as creator. Stanza two maps out a male
domain of work which the woman ëwatchesí from afar since she is
uninvolved with his territory and implicitly outside his space.
Although she is also a part of ëpureí nature ëa place for fawnsí, she is
uninvolved in his manipulation of nature except to the extent that she
is connected with the natural and is also manipulated or told what to
do by him. By implication, both woman and nature are colonized or
taken over by the male who penetrates their dark places or ëlow
fieldsí. Here, McGuckian holds up for examination the traditional
relationship that is conventionally drawn between nature and woman,
whereby women are conceived of as somehow more natural than are
men.
In the first stanza, darkness, heart-shaped hands and Italian
rooms protected from the light by shutters are connected with one
another:
You say I should stay out of the low
Fields; though my hands love the dark,
I should creep till they are heart-shaped,
Like Italian rooms no longer hurt by sun.The woman is located within ëdarkí, enclosed and interior spaces.
Why her hands are heart-shaped is unclear except that the image gives
a further sense of what might be an allusion to an inner emotional
space. The lack of clear meaning in the lines further enacts the sense
of an unenlightened and secretive inner space being written into the
poem. The poem introduces readers to an elusive, allusive and illusive
inner voice that although addressing a ëyouí in the poem seems closed
off both from the addressee and the audience of the poem who are
allowed to eavesdrop into her inner thoughts.
The womanís space is introduced in the third stanza and it is
presented in terms of interiority and childbirth:
But I am lighter of a son, through my slashed
Sleeves the inner sleeves of purple keep remembering
The moment exactly, remembering the birth
Of an heiress means the gobbling of land.