Marks

"Marks" by Linda Pastan

My husband gives me an A

for last night's supper, 

an incomplete for my ironing, 

a B plus in bed.

My son says I am average, 

an average mother, but if

I put my mind to it

I could improve.

My daughter believes 

in Pass/Fail and tells me

I pass. Wait 'til they learn

I'm dropping out. 

Tone - Matter of fact, relying mostly on apparently simple statements of fact and occurrence which lack drama. There is a wryness in the last two lines which is not so evident before.

Word choice - Particularly notable is the way the author describes her family members - each is named by their relation to her, not by their name. There is also a high usage of personal pronouns, which contrasts noticeably with the dry tone and the three sections which focus on other's thoughts about the author.

Imagery/Figurative Language: The poem is minimalist, providing few details on specific images, although the word choice ("my son says," "my husband gives") indicates that the sections of the poem are probably inspired by particular moments. We are thus given a skeleton of images on which we can do a remarkable job of filling in. The poem centers on the conceit of a report card, with each family member using different language familiar to us from school grades ("A", "average," "could improve," "Pass/Fail," "dropping out")

Style/Syntax - The poem is constructed of 4 sentences. The first three each continue through several lines and are bookended by endstops. The last sentence begins with caesura and is considerably shorter. This is the only case of caesura in a poem otherwise characterized by frequent enjambment. Each sentence but the last starts the same, "My [relation] [verb]s..." The poem utilizes no rhyme scheme, instead moving with vocabulary and rhythm natural to conversation.

Theme - The poem explores the feeling of being judged on one's performance in a task others deem valuable, rather than judged and valued as an individual and human being, of whom the task at hand is just one part.

Though this poem is a single stanza and only 12 lines long, it can be easily broken into four sections along the lines of the sentences that form the poem. Sentence one describes the evaluation of the speaker's work by her husband - he judges her based on performance in singular, menial tasks which are given importance by their relevance to him. Sentence two describes the views of the speaker's son, who feels that overall his mother is "average" (presumably a C student) and that she "needs improvement." His lack of specificity is perhaps more enraging than his father's extreme specificity. Finally, the speaker's daughter seems to give the most positive remark, but the lack of substance of her feeling, the lack of nuance leaves the speaker feeling unseen and unappreciated once again. In the last sentence, the speaker implies that she is planning on removing herself from an environment wherein she is judged and valued so simplistically, i.e. dropping out.

Once again, I feel that this poem centers around the feeling of being valued only on others' terms, rather than on the terms of one's own existence. Certainly the poet intended to discuss this feeling particularly in a family setting (though it can exist elsewhere, hence the conceit of a school card). I can relate to this - often I feel as though my family, particularly my extended family, praises and values me on the basis of criterion I never asked for, often centering around academic achievement. This leaves me feeling not only isolated, but trapped by an ecosystem in which my being is constantly interpreted and limited by the needs and desires of those surrounding me. For this reason, I too wish to "drop out," though fortunately I have a more ready escape than the speaker does, in the form of my upcoming leave for college.