Field of Skulls

Field of Skulls by Mary Karr

Image Source: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/mary-karr

In the poem "Field of Skulls" by Mary Karr I felt that this poem was very intriguing. As i read the poem the first time I had almost no understanding about what was going on, but reading it a second time made me understand. In this poem I believe that the author is suicidal. Throughout the poem the author points out different key points of either being depressed and having skulls stare. I believe the author addresses the audience only because he uses the word you often. In stanza one is where I believe the author states some things about the reader being depressed.

            When the author states, "The window you've picked is a black postage stamp you spend hours at"(Karr 3, 4). I believe that this is a state of depression and if not, that it means someone is stressed, and have been for a while. Another key thing that Karr mentions is that the person is drinking on some alcohol after the I Love Lucy show, this shows that maybe that person was trying to get some laughs because they were upset. I made this inference because I Love Lucy is a comedy show. When Karr states, "Stare hard enough at the fabric of night"(Karr 1). When the author brings up the fabric of night I think of a starless night sky, like a blanket of night. Moving on to stanza two the author says, "Like your eyes have force"(Karr 7). I believe this is when the person is focused on depression. I think behind this depression the person finds what he is depressed about. Another thing that’s in the stanza is that the author discusses how there are a field of skulls and I think this is symbolic for a loved one, a family, or people that have died in his life. "They're plain once you think to look." When the author says they're he is referring to the skulls, and I believe once he gets past the depression the person realizes that there’s nothing really special about the skulls.

In stanza three I believe that the author just basically discuss that a criminal could be anyone. "Roam your very block and even history lists"(Karr 14). It could be your next door neighbor or even a mail man. In stanza four I believed that he thought people were after him or maybe even watching him. When the author says, "The bad news piped steady from your head"(Karr 23). When Karr says this i believe maybe someone was shot and all you see is nothing but darkness. In stanza five I believe that person should be dead, because the skulls envy when looking at him. In most of stanza five i believe death or the afterlife is trying to reach out to the reader. In most cases I believe the guy is suicidal and maybe hoping someone to kill him. In some parts of the poem I believe that the skulls are also jealous of what that someone has, like life. Overall I believe this essay was more of a suicide type of message. I don’t think there was a rhyming scheme in the poem. I believe that the relationship between the person and others was more of a scarce relation. The person is more of fear of everyone else. I really like this poem because it is very interesting and I can make a lot of inferences about it.

Here is a video clip of some poerty done that i love. Enjoy !