Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"The Sideboard's Mahogany Surface" by Stephen Dobyns offers a richly textured exploration of the nocturnal life of unfulfilled possibilities, the undercurrent of human experiences that lie dormant during the day but awaken in the silence of the night. The poem encapsulates the concept of 'unfinished business' in a literal and metaphorical sense, creating a vivid narrative tableau that allows the reader to ponder the ephemeral nature of daily decisions and the lingering of what could have been.

The opening lines introduce us to the protagonist of the poem, a man winding down his day, performing the routine shutdown of the house while his family settles into the night. This mundane act of flicking off the lights and preparing for bed sets the stage for a deeper nocturnal activity, one that involves the life of thoughts and actions not taken during the day.

Dobyns crafts an evocative image of the house as almost sentient, sighing as it transitions from the bustling energy of daylight to the contemplative silence of night. It’s in this silence that the "day’s unfinished sentences, forgotten intentions, set aside actions" come alive, filling the space with their need to complete their arcs, to reach their imagined conclusions.

The poem elegantly weaves through various examples of these incomplete actions and unspoken words: a rushed intention to find an alabaster elephant that gets forgotten, the biting back of harsh words in an argument, the contemplation of actions like calling someone or quitting a job, which are never actualized. These snippets of daily life, characterized by their incompletion, hover in the atmosphere of the house, seeking resolution.

Dobyns doesn’t just focus on the protagonist’s unfulfilled actions; he extends this narrative to include the man’s wife, their children, and even the family dog, each with their own uncompleted or restrained actions and thoughts. This collective familial hesitation creates a dense, almost palpable atmosphere of 'what ifs' that saturate the night air.

As the night progresses, these unfinishments "swirl and lurch toward hypothetical closure," in a desperate, almost physical attempt to find peace. The imagery is powerful and stirring, presenting a nightly drama of the mind and spirit that plays out beneath the quiet surface of a sleeping household. The notion that the air is cluttered with the remnants of the day’s restraint until a pre-dawn compromise is reached poetically suggests how we reset, making room for the new day’s "false starts and quick reversals."

The arrival of a new day is marked by the settling of these golden particles of yesterday’s might-have-beens, a beautiful metaphor for how we come to terms with our actions and inactions. The mundane activity of a friend checking for dust on the sideboard becomes a symbolic gesture, revealing the traces of these unfulfilled acts, now just dust in the light of a new day.

The poem closes with another moment of restraint as the friend starts to speak but then bites her tongue, adding another layer to the ongoing narrative of human hesitation and restraint.

Through "The Sideboard's Mahogany Surface," Dobyns offers a meditation on the complexities of human desires and the endless possibilities of choice and consequence, wrapped in the quietude of a single night. It's a profound reflection on how the unseen, unsaid, and undone can shape our lives, influencing not just moments but the very essence of our existence.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...