This night nurse is different.
She walks into my room and does not turn the light on.
She thinks I am sleeping.
I have just barely opened my left eye,
am looking through the slightest slit,
as moonlight exposes the room
for what it really is — a collection
of surfaces; lines and planes, mostly.
The night nurse puts a foot up on the radiator
and braces her clipboard on her knee
as she appears to take down a few notes.
I imagine she is working on a sonnet,
and that her ankle looks like polished walnut.
You imagine she is working on a crossword,
and that her feet are killing her.
The slightest slit is like an old gate
at a Japanese tea garden at night,
in the rain, that is supposed to be closed,
that is supposed to be locked.
“Someone has locked up poorly,” you’d say.
“Incorrectly.” But no one has asked you.
This poem originally appeared in the Date Poetry Magazine.
Analysis:
In Night Nurse, Craig portrays the speaker as an observant patient who particularly admires a nurse that checks up on him during the night. Although she simply comes in, puts her foot on a radiator, and jots down conventional nurse notes, he imagines her working on an elaborate sonnet or a difficult crossword puzzle. Through this, the patients respect and admiration for this particular nurse is elaborately conveyed. He is exposed to numerous different nurses in this hospital setting, yet for some reason is intrigued by this one woman and Craig portrays his interest through a description of his imagination. The simple statement "this night nurse is different" is significant, because it opens the poem with an introduction to the uniqueness of this particular nurse. Craig also indirectly portrays the loneliness that comes from a stay in the hospital, along with the overall boring setting of his room. He does this by taking such a normal visit by a nurse and creating this fantasy using his imagination. This shows that there is obviously not much else on his mind and small details have been amplified in an almost observant form of his own personal entertainment. Craig effectively takes the central focus of the poem (the nurse) and uses detailed imagery in order to portray the speakers perception of her.
In the poem Night Drive the poet Michael Earl Craig uses line breaks and imagery to convey the speakers fascination with the visit from the night nurse. Line breaks like "barely opened my left eye, am looking through the slightest slit" are used to show that the visit continues to capture the speakers attention. The poet uses imagery such as "I imagine she is working on a sonnet, and that her ankle looks like a polished walnut" to show that the speaker is focused purely on the visit from the night nurse.
ReplyDeletein the poem "Night Nurse" by Michael Earl Craig the author uses poetic techniques such as sound, imagery, and structure to explain his night with the night nurse. The author does not use much sound in the poem which gives it more of a quiet sound which makes the poem more interesting. This allows the poem to have a sense of night because the night is quiet. Imagery is used frequently throughout the poem because the narrator makes up most of his night with the nurse.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem the author uses metaphor to show the relationship between the speaker and his environment. The narrator describes his room as "a collection of surfaces; lines and planes" to show that he does not really care about the fact that he is in the hospital. The narrator does not seem to be worried about the reason he was put in the hospital weither it was for mental or physical reasons. The narrator seems solely concerned with the nurse to a point one could argue that he is infatuated with the nurse so much that he doesn't care that he is in the hospital
ReplyDeleteThe poet tells a lot of the poem in the very first line. When he says, "the night nurse is different". This automatically tells the audience that the poem is about a nurse and someone's opinion about her. You can also tell the speaker is someone who is at a hospital or a clinic at night. The first line tells the speaker so much, but then it takes the rest of the poem to see how the patient admires the night nurse. The poet also uses a metaphor involving a Japanese tea garden to convey the privacy of the moment.
ReplyDeleteThe poem "Night Nurse" is about a patient's admiration for the subtlety of a nurse. Unlike all the other nurses, who walk into hospital rooms and rudely turn on lights, the night nurse works in the shadows. Though the speaker is not supposed to be awake, akin to breaching a Japanese tea party, he does not care. By not being noisy the night nurse allows his imagination to wonder.
ReplyDeleteChris H