The Halo That Would Not Light

The Halo That Would Not Light, by Lucie Brock-Broido leaves a very empty feeling for the reader. It talks about how childhood, no matter how innocent and precious, eventually will fade.

When, after many years, the raptor beak   

Let loose of you,

 

                           He dropped your tiny body   

In the scarab-colored hollow

                           Of a carriage, left you like a finch   

Wrapped in its nest of linens wound

With linden leaves in a child’s cardboard box.   

Tonight the wind is hover-

Hunting as the leather seats of swings go back   

And forth with no one in them

As certain and invisible as

                           Red scarves silking endlessly

From a magician’s hollow hat

                           And the spectacular catastrophe

Of your endless childhood

                                                    Is done.

 

 

Though a tragic piece, I absolutely adore the way Lucie Brock-Broido divided up this poem. The structure is simply divine, and the way she ends it is brilliant. Two simple words impact the reader in a way that makes him or her almost do a reflection on themselves. The beginning starts with a refrence to the childhood stork that is known to deliver babies to people on their front steps. This is a direct reference to a person being a child, and how they slowly mature into a young adult. After reading this poem, I found myself looking back on my short life and reflecting on how the innocence and carefree enviornment I once knew was over. I believe that this is was the author's antecedent for writing this poem--she felt overwhelmed by how quickly she had grown up and matured. It was a tragic realization, and it left me with a baffled expression at how quickly time has passed without my knowing of it.

 

As for the title, what I pictured immediately was an angel. Angels are the epitome of innocence and bliss, and for that reason I believe that is why the halo would not light--because the time of immaturity and carefree thoughts were over. This halo would no longer light again for it was time to take on the real world and to forget the time of innocence--I think that is what the character in the poem was experiencing. This poem can easily be more ambigious and not necessarily about childhood, but perhaps, change in general--how people have to learn to deal with change and adjust. I loved this.