‘At My Grandmother’s’ by David Malouf explores the haunting presence of the past and the interplay between memory, time, and mortality.
The poem regards the past as a haunting and inescapable presence. Through vivid imagery and introspective reflections, the poem explores the weight of ancestral history and the impact of past experiences on the present. The ghosts of children summoned from gilded frames represent the enduring presence of the past, gazing across the wreckage of years. The poem suggests that the past holds a profound influence on one's perception of time, memory, and identity.
An afternoon, late summer, in a room
Shuttered against the bright, envenomed leaves;
An under-water world, where time, like water
Was held in the wide arms of a gilded clock,