A Chorus of Trees Page: 8
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metaphorically. It is also assumed that metaphors are found in coherent systems via which we
conceptualize our experience, a basic part of which is our experience as physical beings, bodies,
in space" (461). We need metaphors to understand what it means to have a body, while at the
same time, our comprehension of the world is mediated through the body and its senses. The two
depend on each other in "Poem for My Mother's Hysterectomy" as well. As the poem continues,
metaphors about the body become increasingly important to developing the relationship between
the speaker and the removed uterus. The speaker says of the uterus:
I think of it as a hat or a bird,
resting on a head or flying away, over those mountains,
on the other side of which I have never been.
Maybe that's where the navel of the Earth is,
and these womb birds go there out of memory. (Hicok 4-8)
The metaphorical transformations of the mother's uterus here do three things: first, they highlight
the mother's loss, which is not just a loss of an object, but of a body, a living creature. Second,
they act as a way for the speaker to understand the female body as a foundational part of his
mother's selfhood. Third, they separate the speaker from the mother, in terms of both physical
separation and mental separation. Not only has the speaker become physically distinct from his
mother's body, he is also set apart in terms of identity. As a male, his comprehension of the
female reproductive system is limited to metaphorical speculation, and more importantly, to a
metaphor that places geographical distance in between himself and the uterus.
Renate Wood, in "Poetry and the Self: Reflections on the Discovery of the Self in Early
Greek Lyrics" claims identity is "reflected in our specific way of seeing the world and in the
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Lyons, Renée Kathleen. A Chorus of Trees, thesis, August 2010; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc30485/m1/13/?rotate=270: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .