Abbey Ford
AP Language and Composition
13 October 2014

Poem Analysis

In his poem “First Storm and Thereafter,” Scott Cairns depicts a memory of a woman through cogent vocabulary and phrases. Cairns uses a slow shift in tone and contrasting words to describe the effect this haunting memory has on his mind and how it engulfs his future. In the first section of the poem, Cairns focuses on certain parts of a storm: lightning, thunder, and rain. Creatively, each component is compared to a sensory detail; lightning is to sight, as thunder is to sound, as rain is to touch. He is reminiscing on the ravishing and captivating memories with his love. The author claims that “fixed in memory is the rare quality of its lightning, as if those bolts were clipped from a comic book” (First Storm and Thereafter, 2-5). At first this generates the idea that everything is perfect, unblemished. As if it could be formed into a comic book and sell millions of copies. Whereas directly after, he describes the lightning as “fashioned with cardboard, daubed with gilt then hung overhead on wire and fine hooks” (First Storm and Thereafter, 7-10). This implies that the seemingly appealing memories offered are actually rotten on the inside. He uses the phrase “daubed with gilt” like an ornament. The gold makes the cardboard look pretty, but in reality it doesn’t withhold the charming effect it is fabricated to have. When describing the thunder Cairns says now he hears “…its grief–a moan, a long lament echoing, an ache” (First Storm and Thereafter, 13-14). These words form a desolate mood. As he looks back to that precise moment in time he realized the mockery, he no longer sees amazement but rather a reverberating pain, an ache. This keys into the idea that the once perfect memory turned disastrous and forever engraved in his mind. Cairns describes the rain as harsh and loud. These adjectives can be used to illustrate the non-fading remnants that still make noise in his head. However, in the same sentence he says “oddly musical, and, well, eager to entertain, solicitous” (First Storm and Thereafter, 16-18). This implies that in a way that the memories of the woman entrance him and still remains as the most fascinating things. Her presence is like a song to dance to yet having meaningful lyrics. In the second part of this poem, a tone shift occurs. In the beginning the storm was exhilarating yet harsh, eventually transitioning into a morose tone, thus performing the mood swing of the speaker, who explains the succeeding events to be incomparable and how he longs for the past. But realizing the fool he was to not detect the deception the woman convinced him of. “No storm since has been framed with such matter-of-fact artifice, nor to such comic effect” (First Storm and Thereafter, 19-22). Again relating back to a comic book–preferably superhero related–the speaker faces trickery and evil followed by ironic comic relief. Then Cairns expounds upon the impression that other women with whom he’s had hollow relationships with, the “thousand-plus storms” (First Storm and Thereafter, 22-23), are meaningless. They “have turned increasingly artless, arbitrary, bearing–every one of them–a numbing burst” (First Storm and Thereafter, 23-26). Cairns’ diction choice strongly increases the emptiness felt since the first storm and thereafter. They are artless, no longer possessing any allure; they’re numbing bursts, nothing that will faze the speaker anymore. “And today, from the west a gust” (First Storm and Thereafter, 27) represents the end of a journey. Directly related to “It also strikes me that it really is an endless journey and that you speak these things into being with your life in a way that…” (Looking backward, looking inward: Scott Cairns and Kathleen Norris in conversation, paragraph 44) as Cairns claimed in a Christian religious matter, West relates to death, or an end. “A filling pressure pulsing in the throat” (First Storm and Thereafter, 28-29) implies choking up, as if one would while crying. Lastly, the phrase “offering little or nothing to make light of” (First Storm and Thereafter, 29-30) describes his despair in never finding something that wonderful again. Since the scene was played out so perfectly, he feels as if nothing will surpass those moments. At the end, Cairns develops a depressing and hopeless kind of energy, ironically, by masking together a strong supportive form and word art.

Works Cited

"Looking backward, looking inward: Scott Cairns and Kathleen Norris in conversation." Christianity and Literature 58.4 (2009): 725+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA207226141&v=2.1&u=avlr&it=r&p=LitRG&sw=w&asid=01d7a926964e895663c5807797455af1 "Poetry Out Loud : First Storm and Thereafter." Poetry Out Loud : First Storm and Thereafter. N.p., 2014. Web. 13 Oct. 2014. http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/241546

First Storm and Thereafter By Scott Cairns
What I notice first within this rough scene fixed in memory is the rare quality of its lightning, as if those bolts were clipped from a comic book, pasted on low cloud, or fashioned with cardboard, daubed with gilt then hung overhead on wire and fine hooks.
What I hear most clearly within that thunder now is its grief—a moan, a long lament echoing, an ache.
And the rain? Raucous enough, pounding, but oddly musical, and, well, eager to entertain, solicitous.

No storm since has been framed with such matter-of-fact artifice, nor to such comic effect. No, the thousand-plus storms since then have turned increasingly artless, arbitrary, bearing—every one of them—a numbing burst.

And today, from the west a gust and a filling pressure pulsing in the throat—offering little or nothing to make light of.